Helen Turnbull

Helen is the Chief Executive Officer at the Cape Leopard Trust and joined the organisation at the start of 2013 as Project Assistant to the co-founder and then CEO, Dr Quinton Martins. Helen took over as CEO in 2016 after Quinton's departure to the US, and her focus is to ensure the CLT is an efficient, sustainable and impactful conservation organisation. Her day to day work is maintaining optimal operations, monitoring new partnership opportunities, relationship management, fundraising, and financial oversight.

No stranger to the bush and wide open spaces, Helen completed her Matric in the northern Cape, and then left for Europe where she trained in multiple aviation disciplines with Lufthansa and travelled the world. After sixteen years away from Africa she returned to Cape Town in 2001 and established a consultancy company specialising in developing sustainable and ethical business practice in tourism. Much of the focus was using tourism as a catalyst to aid conservation and social development, facilitating some of South Africa's flagship responsible tourism projects.

Helen has always been involved in one way or another with conservation and amongst others has worked with Dyer Island Cruises and the Dyer Island Conservation Trust, as well as Dr Will Fowlds and the Chipembere Rhino Foundation, prior to joining the CLT.