Home - Test

  • JOIN ME ON A RHINO RESCUE

    My team and I at the @URhinoProject are offering tourists a unique and rare opportunity to join our rhino conservation team to get hands-on with rhinos out in the wild. You will have the opportunity to experience what it is like to be part of a rhino rescue team, helping with medical check-ups, DNA sampling, horn trimmings, ear notchings etc. We offer 6-day conservation safari experiences as a way to help our rhino rescue charity raise funding for our upcoming rhino rescues.

    Register HERE for more details about how to join me on our Rhino Rescue + Safari fundraising experience... or if you want to help us fund a rhino rescue you can donate here. Donations over $250 will receive a limited edition URhinoRescueTeam T-Shirt produced by the talented designer Alec Laughlin.

    Donate here

  • LET'S CONNECT ON LINKEDIN

    Connect with me on Linkedin.

    See more

  • PLANNING A TRIP TO AFRICA?

    If you are thinking about planning a trip to Africa our charity works with every 5-star lodge in Africa and we can get you prefered rates on your accommodations (i.e. cheaper than if you booked directly) PLUS we have a dedicated travel planning team that offers complimentary service to help plan your dream African vacation within your budget and as per your travel specifications. Email me for more info.

    Email me

About Me

I am admittedly a bit of an idealist/visionary striving to impact positive change for our endangered wildlife and our environment through radical conscious consumerism and mentoring businesses on how small changes in their daily operations can not only save them money but more importantly help them free up some cashflow which can be allocated towards helping to impact positive change for our animals, our planet and ultimately us, as well as our future generations to come.

My career path has been unexpected to say the least. I studied Supply Chain Engineering in South Africa and was offered a job with Terex (Construction Machinery engineering) in the UK in 2003. I unexpectedly switched careers in 2005 landing myself in the advertising technology space in London, UK for 5 years before being transferred to Toronto where I eventually started an advertising tech agency in 2010. During these years I was leading wildlife conservation projects in my spare time and leading tourism/travel initiatives to raise funds for the nonprofit projects (specifically rhino rescue projects) I was helping which ultimately lead me to a shift from the for-profit space to the non-profit space…….

My journey from for-profit to non-profit

This transition was not without many bumps and bruises along the way. It has been a journey of growth, enlightenment, blood (literally), sweat and tears. This transition started to accelerate after my first Burning Man back in 2015 where I made a radical life decision to take active steps to transform my for-profit businesses into platforms to help fundraise for the wildlife/environmental conservation projects I was actively involved with. This came at a pivotal time when rhino poaching attacks were on the rise in South Africa and having been witness to the brutal suffering and trauma rhinos undergo at the hands of poachers I knew I needed to fully invest myself and my time into nonprofit projects specifically geared to protect rhinos from poachers.

I blended my many years of experience leading wildlife conservation projects, leading tourism/travel initiatives and running an advertising tech company together to make my goal of helping to protect vulnerable animals/wildlife a reality. This lead me to co-founding the Upmost Foundation with a fellow wildlife advocate in Texas which is now supported by a remarkable board of directors. Upmost is an IRS registered 501(c)(3) Nonprofit with charity status and was founded just before Covid hit so the timing could not have been worse for us and our rhino rescue work. The move to set up a nonprofit in the USA was initiated because 95% of our funders are American, and charitable tax receipts could not be issued to them as we were a foreign non-profit in South Africa. Now that we are a recognized IRS nonprofit all of our donors and volunteers are eligible for charitable tax receipts which they can use for their year end tax reporting.