ABOUT

THE TEAM

Blood Lions Youth For Lions Lion bone trade Tiger bones Predators in captivity Canned hunting Animal welfare Panthera leo Lions in captivity Cub petting Walking with lions Petting lion cubs Predator park Lion farm Lion park Commercial captive lion industry Tiger cub petting Captive predators Ban canned hunting Tigers in captivity Cheetahs in captivity Cute lion cubs Hand-feeding lion cubs Volunteer with lions Hand raise lion cubs Illegal wildlife trade Illegal lion bone trade Born To Live Wild Lion bone quota South Africa #CancelCaptivity

Team Members

founder

Pippa Hankinson

Pippa’s career in high-end eco-tourism across Southern Africa spanned more than 20 years. After working with a number of well-known large hotel chains, she soon discovered her interest lay in smaller, privately owned game lodges and hotels. Her company, Classic Portfolio, was responsible for the international positioning and branding of a select collection of high-end, privately owned properties across Southern Africa. For the next ten years following the sale of the business in 2001, she served as a Trustee on the boards of a number of conservation organisations in South Africa, including KZN Conservation Trust and Wildlands Trust, whilst simultaneously supporting various environmental initiatives close to her heart. Eighteen months after her first visit to a captive breeding farm in 2011, Pippa founded Regulus Vision (Pty) Ltd to produce the feature documentary, Blood Lions®, which premiered in July 2015. She was actively involved in the Blood Lions Campaign, which was launched immediately after the film’s release, but resigned as a Director in 2024.

director

Ian Michler

Ian Michler is a safari operator, specialist wilderness guide, consultant and environmental photojournalist. He has lived and worked across Africa for the last 29 years. His feature articles, diaries and blogs documenting the major conservation challenges facing Africa, and especially those on predator breeding and trophy hunting are well known to readers of a number of award winning publications and magazines. He is an ecotourism consultant for both private and government sectors, and currently channels his conservation work through The Conservation Action Trust. Ian is also a member of the International League of Conservation Writers, and is author of seven natural History and travel books on various African countries. Prior to his life in the wilderness, Ian was a partner in one of South Africa’s leading stockbroking firms. He is a co-founder and owner of Invent Africa Safaris (www.inventafrica.com), a specialist safari company that runs trips to 15 countries across the continent, and is a Director of Eden to Addo (www.edentoaddo.co.za), a successful regional corridor conservation initiative.   He is currently enrolled at Stellenbosch University where he is a part-time student for a Masters in Sustainable Development

director & marketing manager

Nicola Gerrard

Nicola has worked in the travel and tourism industry for over 18 years and, with formal marketing honours qualifications, has found a niche in communicating the attractions of Southern Africa to a global audience. With a deep passion for Africa and its wildlife, she expanded her focus into the conservation sector where she works to raise awareness about this spectacular continent while also highlighting some of the major threats facing it’s great wilderness. Nicola joined the Blood Lions team in the post production stages of the documentary in 2014 to manage the digital media marketing of the film and drive it’s global campaign.

DIRECTOR & CAMPAIGN MANAGER

Dr Louise de Waal

With an academic and research background in environmental management and a passion for Africa and wildlife conservation, Louise’s career focus has evolved over time. Starting her career in 1990 in academia, she later founded Baobab Travel in 2002, a tour operator fully dedicated to providing sustainable tourism services in Africa. Following the sale of the business 12 years later, she continued as a freelance sustainable tourism consultant with Green Girls in Africa assisting tourism businesses to travel the road to sustainability. During this time Louise spearheaded the #HandsOffOurWildlife campaign in response to the many unethical and often cruel captive wildlife encounters on offer in our South African tourism space. The campaign aimed to create greater awareness around these issues by educating the public and the tourism industry at large. During this time, she already started to work with the Blood Lions team. More recently, Louise became instrumental in the establishment of the Coalition “To Stop the Captive Breeding and Keeping of Lions and other Big Cats for Commercial Purposes”. She is the Coordinator and sits on its Steering Committee, lobbying with Governmental and other stakeholders involved in this space. In 2020, she joined the Blood Lions team as the Campaign Manager and a year later as one of the Directors. In 2023, Louise was part of the Ministerial Task Team to identify and recommend voluntary exit options and pathways for the captive lion industry.

YOUTH FOR LIONS COORDINATOR

Dr Stephanie-Emmy Klarmann

Steph is a researcher specialising in conservation psychology. Although she initially trained in counselling work, her research turned to issues of conservation and community engagement to understand effective ways to promote biodiversity and issues of environmental and ecological injustice. She loves to spend time in Southern Africa’s national parks and reserves as a wildlife photographer and is passionate about working with young people to promote more ethical and conscious ways of interacting with our environment. Steph started with the team as a Youth Ambassador in 2019 and has been a research consultant for Blood Lions since 2020. Recently she joined the team on a more permanent basis as the Youth For Lions campaign coordinator.

ADMINISTRATOR

Catherine Möller

Catherine is the latest member of the team as the administrator for Blood Lions. Catherine has had a passion for Africa and its wildlife since she was a little girl. She grew up traveling through the bush with her family and loved seeing wild animals where they belong. She has always had a passion to help those who don’t have a voice. Catherine also runs her own dog rescue and loves helping those in need where she can. 

DIGITAL MARKETING MANAGER - BLOOD LIONS

Janelle Barnard

Janelle was hands-on and fully involved in the initial launch of the Blood Lions Documentary back in 2015 whilst she was still completing her studies. She then went on to work for some renowned corporate companies in the marketing space and committed herself to climbing the corporate ladder. Although happy with her line of work, she missed the fulfillment of working in the conservation space. She recently rejoined the team where she runs the digital marketing primarily for the Blood Lions campaign, but also lends her expertise to the Youth For Lions platforms.

DIGITAL MARKETING ASSISTANT - YOUTH FOR LIONS

Jordyn Johnson

Jordyn entered the conservation industry by writing articles for a digital magazine that has been following the phase-out process of the captive lion industry in South Africa. Wanting to learn and become more involved in the conservation sector, she has joined the team, assisting with digital marketing campaigns and strategy for Youth For Lions. 

PREVIOUS CAMPAIGN COORDINATOR

Cath Jakins

Cath is a Criminologist whose Masters Degree research was focused on the modus operandi of rhino poachers in KwaZulu-Natal province. Born and raised in Durban, she has an inherent love for wildlife, having spent many family holidays at game reserves across South Africa. She is passionate about wildlife conservation, research and educating the youth about ethical tourism and wildlife crimes such as lion and rhino poaching. Cath fulfilled the role of Blood Lions and Youth For Lions campaign coordinator from 2018 to 2023, and although she has officially left her position to take on other work full-time, her heart still lies with the campaign.