Meet our team

James has led Predator Free Wellington since it begain in 2017. He previously worked at the Department of Conservation for 16 years, in operational and project roles, and also led the National Volunteering Team.

He is driven by the power of engaging communities to create outcomes that benefit everyone and our native taonga.

John has worked for the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GW) for over a decade, working in biosecurity and pest animal management. Before that he worked in construction and brought those practical skills to GW. In 2018, he, James Willcocks and Glen Falconer set up the operations of Predator Free Wellington. John leads the operation, the people that work on it, and acts as a link between PFW and our operational partners GW.

Motivated to find solutions to the challenging issue of making Wellington predator-free, John enjoys building the team necessary to achieve that goal.

Isaac holds a BSc in Ecology from Victoria University. He previously worked as an Eradication Technical Officer at PFW and says most of his technical experience has come from this project – a great example of building capability in-house.

Isaac loves to see the pace of the project increasing as we learn and refine our methods. He finds it exciting to be part of an internationally significant biodiversity project.

David has a BSc in Biological Science from Canterbury University and has worked in hospitality, event management and communications. Previous roles included comms for Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision and a sustainability consultancy. He runs our website, social media and works with our network of community trapping groups.

David is thrilled to be part of a project making such positive impacts for communities and wildlife across the city.

Emma holds a BSc in Ecology and Biodiversity from Victoria University, where she researched predator control in urban environments. She worked for DOC for three years and joined PFW in 2019, working in community engagement before moving to our technical eradication team.

With such positive changes for native wildlife in just a few years, Emma expects more remarkable results in the future, making Wellington an even more special place to live.

Linlin completed her PhD in Ecology and Biodiversity at Victoria University, exploring population dynamics in tuatara. We adapted the model she used to understand rat populations. Linlin also holds a MSc and taught high school biology for 12 years in northeastern China.

Our project is very challenging but Linlin is excited to be part of such ambitious and meaningful work. She also says the huge amount of data we now have also helps us refine how we operate.

Phil studied archaeology but found preserving living animals was more satisfying than working with extinct ones. He was a zookeeper for 20 years, caring for native birds. Working for Rentokil taught Phil how to remove rats, skills he brought to PFW in 2019.

Phil says the project is making great progress. He was recently impressed by how many bird species he saw on Miramar Peninsula compared to the Marlborough Sounds.