A few years after qualifying as a vet, Andrew formed the UK based International Zoo Veterinary Group (IZVG) to provide freelance veterinary services across the world.

He is an internationally recognised expert in conservation medicine, bird diseases and marine mammal care and sits on many committees as an expert. As well as providing expertise to policy formers and to captive endangered species across the world, Andrew has been a long term veterinary advisor to conservation projects worldwide, including the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation.

Andrew has a particular interest in island birds and reptiles where disease can be catastrophic to whole species. In addition to being the go-to expert for WVI's work in Mauritius and the Seychelles, Andrew is currently Company Secretary to WVI and plays an active part in the day to day running of the charity.

Ashley graduated from the University of Liverpool in 2018, and after a brief stint in mixed animal practice and small animal emergency practice, now works exclusively with zoo and wildlife species. She is the lead vet for Folly Wildlife Rescue, a British wildlife hospital, and an assistant vet at Howletts and Port Lympne wild animal parks. In addition she holds a certificate in advanced veterinary practice.

Ashley has extensive experience with clinical zoo, wildlife and conservation work, student and staff teaching, biosecurity planning and disease risk analysis. Her conservation work has included working on Operation Avian in Jaipur, India, which involves lecturing and teaching hands-on skills in avian medicine and surgery to veterinarians and veterinary students, as well as field work in Zimbabwe with African painted dog and domestic dog populations.

Ashley is passionate about conservation through education, and firmly believes that education should be at the heart of all conservation projects to ensure transfer and longevity of knowledge and skills.

Jess qualified as a vet from Glasgow University Veterinary School in 2008. Following several years in general practice, she undertook an MSc in Wild Animal Health at the Royal Veterinary College in London. Since completing her masters, Jess has been involved in a wide variety of research, much of which has centred around the issue of canine distemper virus and its potential impact on wild tiger populations.Most recently, she has been working alongside Dr Martin Gilbert of Cornell University and Dr Amir Sadaula of the National Trust of Nature Conservation, in efforts to strengthen wildlife medicine capacity in Nepal. Jess is currently developing a project which will assess the health of‘conflict’ leopards around Chitwan National Park, with the intention of better understanding whether disease or injury may be among the factors bringing the animals into close contact with humans, and what can be done to improve the situation for all concerned.  Jess is also a contributor to the Wild Tiger Health Centre, having authored the sections on Conflict Tigers and Covid, and co-authored the section on canine distemper virus.

A graduate of Cambridge University Veterinary School, Nic also holds an MSc in Wild Animal Health from the Zoological Society of London’s Institute of Zoology. He worked for the International Zoo Veterinary Group in a wide variety of European zoos and aquariums, before joining the Zoological Society of London where he worked initially on Species Recovery programmes involving the translocation of threatened UK wildlife, before becoming the Veterinary Officer for Whipsnade Zoo. A period of freelancing in the UK and abroad followed, a particular highlight of which was working as a locum at Auckland Zoo’s Centre for Conservation Medicine in New Zealand. He returned to the Zoological Society of London as Head of Veterinary Services in 2012, becoming Interim Director of Living Collections six years later. In 2019 he was appointed Assistant Director of Wildlife Health Services, and worked on developing wildlife health as a theme underpinning much of the organisation’s work. Nic has now returned to work with the International Zoo Veterinary Group. He is currently an Honorary Lecturer at the Royal Veterinary College and Veterinary Advisor to the Asiatic lion Endangered Species Breeding Programme, having also been on the Council of BIAZA and the British Veterinary Zoological Society, chair of the UK’s Elephant Welfare Group, and a government zoo inspector.

Dr. Harsch is a veterinarian specializing in wildlife emergency and trauma medicine. He graduated in 1998 from the Free University of Berlin, Germany. After passing the US licensing program for foreign trained veterinarians in 2005, he joined the South Florida Wildlife Center in Fort Lauderdale as a staff veterinarian.

He served for seven years as the Director of Veterinary Services at SFWC, one of the nation’s largest wildlife hospitals, which is run by the Humane Society of the US, and its sister facility on Cape Cod, the Cape Wildlife Center in Barnstable MA. He is currently working in private practice in Lafayette, Indiana, focusing on avian and exotic veterinary medicine. In addition, he is working with injured wildlife at a local rehab facility.

Stefan has been volunteering his time for many years in India, performing reconstructive surgery on hundreds of wild birds injured by kite string during the annual kite-flying festival.

As veterinary surgeons we take an oath to champion the welfare of animals under our care, and I firmly believe this extends to wildlife. We are, by default, their ambassadors in many respects, and it is a privilege to be able to work with other professions – like biologists and zoologists - to help reinforce the science that informs conservation efforts.”Elliott graduated from Bristol University Veterinary School in 2014, having completed a stint at the Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital studying falcon medicine and surgery during his degree. He will shortly complete his Certificate of Advanced Veterinary Practice in Zoological Medicine.Having started out in a mixed practice for companion and farm animals, Elliott joined the International Zoo Veterinary Group team in 2021 and now works exclusively with zoological collections and wildlife. He is heading WVI’s new partnership in Belize, looking at the health of jaguars and pumas.Elliott is also the current Junior Vice President of the British Veterinary Zoological Society (BVZS) and a Veterinary Advisor to the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria Raptor Taxon Advisory Group (TAG). He is also an Official Veterinarian on several UK animal export panels.

Hayley is a Registered Veterinary Nurse from the UK, with a wealth of experience in a variety of species. She graduated from the Royal Veterinary College in 2014, and also holds additional advanced qualifications in emergency critical care and exotics.

She has worked in Australia and Asia with both native and non-native species, in addition to her work with zoological collections, universities and private practices in the UK.

She currently works for a large RSPCA wildlife centre in the UK, alongside undertaking locum work in a variety of referral and first opinion veterinary hospitals. She thoroughly enjoys teaching and inspiring the next generation of vets and veterinary nurses.

Jane graduated from Cambridge University Veterinary School in 2002, and has been head of the Veterinary Department of the Aspinall Foundation in the UK since 2006. In this role, Jane leads and manages all veterinary activities for the Aspinall Foundation’s conservation projects worldwide. Her work includes responsibility for veterinary care at two of Europe’s largest zoological collections – Howletts and Port Lympne parks in the UK – as well as overseeing the veterinary aspects of the organisation’s overseas conservation projects in West Africa, Indonesia and Madagascar.

Jane has extensive experience in all aspects of husbandry, medicine and surgery for a wide range of wild animal species, as well as in disease risk assessment analysis for mammalian release projects and field veterinary techniques relevant to a range of overseas programmes. In addition, she is a veterinary advisor to the European Felid Taxon Advisory Group (TAG) and a veterinary co-advisor to the European Amur leopard and tiger Endangered Species Breeding Programmes (EEPs).  Jane’s expertise is invaluable in her role as a veterinary advisor to WVI.

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A graduate of the Veterinary School of Giessen University, Germany, Johanna was formerly Technical Director of the Madrid Zoo and resident vet at Loro Parque, Tenerife before joining the International Zoo Veterinary Group in the UK. Johanna now runs the International Zoo Veterinary Group’s first opinion and referral avian and exotic pet clinic in Hipperholme, near Halifax, Yorkshire. Johanna also sees animals from zoological and birds of prey collections. Johanna is an expert avian surgeon and is reguarly sponsored by WVI to provide training and support to vets involved with patching up birds of prey and waterbird species, some of them highly endangered. She has been instrumental in providing assistance to birds injured during the International Kite Festical Project which is held in Ahmedabad in India every January. The injuries incurred often include partially severed wings as a result of birds getting caught up in glass-coated 'cutting' kite strings used during the annual festival.

A qualified Veterinary Nurse for more than 25 years, Matt has a particular interest in the care and welfare of exotic species, both in captivity and in the wild. Having started his career in 1989 at the Park Veterinary Centre in Watford, where he worked while completing his initial qualification, he moved to the Zoological Society of London (London Zoo) in 2003 in order to pursue his interest in zoo and wildlife nursing.  He was promoted to senior clinical nurse at ZSL in 2012, a position he held until 2017. He is now head nurse for exotics referrals at Holly House Veterinary Hospital in Leeds.In addition to his day job, Matt is the vice chair of the RCVS Veterinary Nurses Council and founding member of the Association of Zoo and Exotic Veterinary Nurses (AZEVN), which aims to provide affordable continuing professional development to nurses working with zoo, exotic and wildlife species. Having authored and co-authored paper son subjects as diverse as the radiography of elephants’ feet and the little known world of caecilians, he also lectures regularly to nurses and vets on various aspects of veterinary care of exotic species, including breeding and care of reptiles and amphibians, diagnostic imaging and aspects of exotic anaesthesia.Matt is one of the first of two nurses to be appointed as a ‘Bandaging Angel’ for exotics with the Veterinary Wound Library, a resource which allows veterinary professionals to access expert help to promote wound healing in a wide range of species. His expertise in this area has been of great use in his annual trips to the Uttarayan kite-flying festival in western India, where WVI’s support has enabled him to assist local conservation workers and volunteers in providing emergency and critical care to the thousands of birds injured each year by kite strings during the celebrations. Matt firmly believes that education and training are key to conservation success, and finds it very rewarding to know that the new techniques he teaches, as well as the updated protocols he is able to instigate to improve the care given to the birds, continue to be implemented long after he leaves the country.

Having graduated in veterinary medicine from the Universidad Autonoma of Barcelona in 1998, Tania is a specialist inthe care, rehabilitation and conservation of marine and aquatic animals. After leaving university she spent four years travelling around the world, working in zoos and with conservation projects in Greece, Finland, Argentina, Mexico and the United States, as well as with a whale watching and photo-ID project in Norway. In 2000, Tania started working as a vet for the Spanish water park and aquarium organisation, Aspro Ocio, becoming Technical Director by 2006. This was followed by a number of years dividing her time between the post of Curator of Aquatic Animals at Barcelona Zoo and work for the International Zoo Veterinary Group (IZVG).  Since 2015 Tania has worked full time for IZVG from her base in Spain. She is Chair of the European Association for Aquatic Mammals Veterinary and Accreditation Committee, as well as an inspector for the organisation. In addition, she is a member of the International Association of Aquatic Animal Medicine, the European Association of Zoo and Wildlife Veterinarians and the British Veterinary Association. She is veterinary advisor to EAZA’s Elasmobranch* Taxon Advisory Group (TAG) as well as a member of the Marine Mammal TAG. Tania also trains vets in sea turtle medicine and handling. Recent projects include running a sea turtle rehabilitation course for the Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece. WVI supports Tania’s ongoing work with CRAM – the Foundation for the Conservation and Rehabilitation of Marine Animals – which is based in Barcelona and specialises in turtle, dolphin and seabird rescue and conservation.   * A subclass of cartilaginous fishes that includes sharks, rays and skates.