CDC is an employee-owned, private company with an operational base in Nairobi, Kenya. Being based close to the problems at the heart of our mission helps us to provide accessible services and appropriate, cost-effective solutions. CDC’s staff have a unique blend of professional training and hands-on skills which enables us to translate global best practice into made-to-measure local solutions.
 

Rob is CDC’s founder and has responsibility for overseeing the general direction and management of the company. After more than thirty years of working in Africa, he has built up extensive hands-on practical experience in providing technical support and advice to African government agencies, NGOs and private enterprise in institutional capacity building, natural resources management, strategic planning and change management. He provides quality control and technical supervision for the majority of CDC’s work, as well as having a special interest in project design and evaluation, planning, and integrated conservation and development approaches. Before establishing CDC, he ran the IUCN Regional Office for Eastern Africa for more than a decade, building IUCN’s activities in the region from small beginnings to a diverse and ground-breaking regional conservation programme. Rob has a PhD from Cambridge University (African Elephant Ecology) and an MSc from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where he was a Sloan Fellow.

Lawrence joined the CDC team in April 2003, having previously worked for the Tropical Biology Association. He is a Certified Public Accountant (Kenya) and also has an MSc in Natural Resources - Ecosystem Management from the University of Greenwich, UK - an unusual and valuable combination of skills. As well as increasing the efficiency of CDC's management systems, Lawrence technical focus is on reviewing, strengthening and developing conservation institutions, particularly finance and management systems. He has assisted a number of conservation organisations in eastern Africa to establish robust and transparent project and financial management systems.

Lydia’s key focus is on community based conservation projects in East Africa as well as, more recently, climate change related projects. Since joining CDC, she has worked on the GEF evaluation team that assessed the impacts of GEF support for selected East African protected area and biodiversity support projects. Her other projects have included a feasibility study on the viability of organic cotton in south-west Uganda and presently she is working on a research study investigating the interactions between conservation, conflict,and climate change in northern Kenya. Prior to CDC, she worked with community-owned ranches in Makueni Kenya and carried out biodiversity baseline research studies. She holds two undergraduate degrees; a BSc with Zoology Major, and a BSc in Applied Accounting.

Dave’s main current area of interest is the development of stakeholder-driven management plans for protected areas as well as for broader landscapes and community areas. Through his work with CDC over the past five years, he has built up a strong track record in facilitating and coordinating participatory planning processes for major protected areas such as the Serengeti and Mahale National Parks in Tanzania, and the Maasai Mara National Reserve and Tsavo and Meru Conservation Areas in Kenya. His previous work experience included coordinating and implementing ecological surveys to support optimal protected area design in Madagascar, and to help mitigate the environmental impacts of hydroelectric schemes in Tanzania. He holds a BSc in Environmental Management and an MSc in Natural Resource Management.