Three new trustees join The Gorilla Organization family

Danielle Porteous, Bishu Chakraborty and Professor Stuart Semple

The Gorilla Organization has welcomed Danielle Porteous, Bishu Chakraborty and Professor Stuart Semple to its family of trustees.

They join chairman Ian Redmond OBE and our other trustees in guiding the charity’s mission to save the last remaining gorillas living in the wild.

Danielle Porteous is head of philanthropy at UnLtd, and has more than 15 years of experience in working with individuals, businesses and charitable foundations.

Danielle said: “I am really committed to nature conservation and I want to apply professional skills and knowledge to something that I really personally care about. Gorillas are such an incredibly important species, it would say a lot about us as a species if we allowed gorillas to become extinct because they are so closely related to us and it is such a preventable extinction.”

A senior commercial executive, Bishu Chakraborty is the former MD of Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Theatres Group and has a wealth of experience in the finance and operations of multinational entertainment, hospitality, real estate and pensions businesses.

Bishu said: “Gorillas are such an endangered species and they are our closest links, but I was not aware of how endangered they are until a colleague of mine, Spencer Phillips, pointed it out, and I am not sure the public is aware of how scarce they are as well.”

Professor Stuart Semple is a leading primatologist based at the University of Roehampton, London, with a particular interest in primate communication. Many of Stuart’s students and graduates have worked with The Gorilla Organization.

Stuart said: “I have been an admirer of The Gorilla Organization and the way it has been run for a number of years. I am very excited to be able to contribute to the organisation’s work and I think that I will be able to bring something very positive by involving my students and their research even more closely.”

The Gorilla Organization would like to take this opportunity to thank our existing trustees for their continued commitment: Martin Payne Treasurer, Paul Baldwin, Steve Crossman, Richard Deverell. Dr Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka. Spencer J Phillips and Belinda Wakeling.