About
WMIL

Biz has always been interested in islands and their ecosystems, and has an MSc in conservation ecology and over thirty years’ field experience delivering ground-breaking ornithological and ecological research, conservation management projects, island and mainland restoration programmes, predator exclusion fencing, eradication feasibility assessments, eradication of invasive mammals, biosecurity, predator control projects, and scientific reporting.

Biz is dedicated to community-based conservation and is committed to helping provide local communities with the skills and resources needed to achieve positive outcomes for species and habitats.

As WMIL Managing Director, Biz proudly directs and supports our passionate and highly skilled team of ecologists and field technicians on a wide range of ecological and restoration projects towards protecting some of New Zealand’s and the world’s most vulnerable species and habitats.

Sam has always had an interest in wildlife and graduated with a BSc in Zoology and a Postgraduate Diploma in Wildlife Management in 2012 from Otago University.

As part of her diploma, she completed research on Southern New Zealand dotterel and then spent four years monitoring South Island robins in Dunedin. Since joining WMIL in 2017, Sam has been involved in numerus projects involving seabird monitoring and tracking, shorebird work and predator control. Sam is passionate about conserving New Zealand’s native species and being involved in projects which allow her to do that.

Keri is responsible for the smooth running of the business by ensuring important administrative tasks are taken care of.

Highly approachable, Keri is the friendly face that greets clients and colleagues when they visit our Blenheim office and helping them liaise and work with the WMIL team. Keri is committed to ensuring WMIL also leaves a positive mark, both on the environment and with all our projects. Keri is always keen to learn and develop new skills within the conservation and business management field. She enjoys getting involved in team bird banding sessions and doing the odd eBird checklist.

Dan first joined WMIL in 2016 after assisting with the Taiko Trust’s Chatham Island Albatross Translocation, before gaining experience with various species on numerous WMIL projects across the country.

Having graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Geography, and an MSc in Environmental Monitoring for Management, Dan has been lucky enough to undertake biodiversity monitoring in Costa Rica, the UK, Canada and New Zealand. Dan has been involved with, and led, myriad seabird research projects, and enjoys working with a variety of stakeholders. A keen birder and advocate for eBird, Dan was also part of the New Zealand Bird Atlas Coordination Team. Dan is keen to use his privileged position as an Ecologist to further species protection both in Aotearoa New Zealand and beyond, and currently works remotely from Canada.

Toni ensures important administrative tasks are taken care of, and that the WMIL team are fully supported. Toni has been involved with WMIL for many years and assists in a professional and personal capacity with various conservation projects across the country.

Simon, a WMIL ecologist with a BSc and MSc in Zoology, specialises in seabird conservation and combines his field expertise with GIS and statistical analysis to support long-term monitoring projects.

Cam joined WMIL in April of 2022. This comes after studying at the University of Waikato, where he gained a BSc majoring in Ecology and Biodiversity.

Cam has always had a keen interest in the environment and is often out hunting, fishing and exploring the outdoors in his spare time. Since joining WMIL Cam has begun to broaden his knowledge in predator control and seabird monitoring working on WMIL projects on Aotea/Great Barrier Island and at sea in the Hauraki Gulf monitoring tākoketai/black petrel as well as the Chatham Islands helping maintain trapping networks and monitor tāiko/magenta petrel. Cam is eager to continue expanding his knowledge in predator and seabird ecology through his work with WMIL.

Deleece graduated from her MSc Anthrozoology degree in 2018 and has since completed courses in Sustainable Management and in Environmental Monitoring and Reporting in recent years.

She enjoys engaging in learning opportunities and gaining new skills. Deleece initially joined the WMIL team as a contractor in 2022, to help with the kororā/little blue penguin project for the Picton Port Development. Since joining full-time with WMIL, in addition to this work she also assists in other WMIL projects and activities.

Lydia is a Restoration Ecologist with a passion for community based, landscape- scale conservation projects.

Originally from a creative arts background, Lydia found her niche in 2014 where she worked with the community Isles of Scilly, UK to protect their seabird heritage and empower islanders to uphold their rat-free status. Since then she has specialised in non-native mammal eradication and biosecurity on projects around the world, most recently as a Team Leader for WMIL on the Predator Free Wellington Project, Wellington NZ. As a keen outdoors person Lydia enjoys finding creative solutions to challenging outdoors environments.

Dave has been interested in wildlife, especially birds, for as long as he can remember. Although he originally trained as a cabinet maker he has been working in conservation and bird research for over 25 years.

A chance encounter with Brian Bell over 20 years ago led to Dave working for WMIL on Ascension Island as part of the feral cat eradication team, and he has been working for us on and off ever since. His main interests are seabirds, feral cat control and island restoration, and this has led to Dave working in a range of islands across the globe. As such, his current role based in the Chatham Islands focusing on the conservation of the Chatham Island tāiko is his perfect job.

Martina has had a lifelong interest in wildlife conservation and graduated with a BSR in Outdoor Education in 2017 and a Graduate Diploma in Science and Technology from Massey University in 2020.

She has worked in a variety of roles, carrying out and coordinating work in island pest control, biodiversity monitoring, and weed management. During this time, she was involved in bird projects all around New Zealand, including working on the captive management of tara iti/fairy tern at Auckland Zoo, tracking tokoeka/Southern brown kiwi in the depths of Fiordland, assisting in the supplementary feeding of hihi/stitchbird on Kapiti Island and surveying for pīwauwau/rock wren in the Murchison mountains.

She joined the WMIL team in 2024 and is working on further developing her skills to meaningfully protect avian species and their environment.

Arthur arrived in New Zealand from France in 2019 driven by his interest and passion for conservation. He started his conservation journey by monitoring and protecting tūturiwhatu/New Zealand dotterel on Waiheke Island.

Since then, he has developed his skills in threatened species management across a wide range of ecosystems. He built his experience working for the Department of Conservation, working on projects from Northland’s sandy beaches protecting tara iti/fairy tern, to the Southern Alps beech forests to monitor kākāriki karaka/orange-fronted parakeet. With a pit stop in Canterbury studying the nest success of tarapirohe/black-fronted tern and ngutu pare/wrybill along the Rangitata and other braided rivers. He also participated in conservation effort of hihi/stitchbird on Kapiti Island, pukuma/white-bellied skink on Taylor range’s scree slopes and pekapeka/long-tailed bats in native forest remnants of Canterbury.

Arthur is as comfortable in the backcountry, bush bashing and crossing rivers, as he is in the office, analysing data, building apps, or writing reports. As a new ecologist in WMIL, Arthur is looking forward to expanding and sharing his skillset to contribute furthermore to the protection of our ecosystems.

A Master Mariner, Paul has always been interested in conservation and ornithology, and this expanded to island restoration when he met Biz while she was directing a rat eradication project on Lundy Island in the UK.

Paul is responsible for the day to day financial requirements of WMIL, drawing on his experience as Treasurer for two New Zealand charities. In his spare time, Paul assists with field work on a range of WMIL seabird and island restoration projects across New Zealand and worldwide. Paul is also the net carbonzero officer ensuring that operational decisions are made to reduce carbon emissions and that WMIL complies with the requirements of the Toitū net carbonzero programme.

Ed is a Restoration Ecologist with WMIL, working predominantly on projects that focus on eradicating or controlling invasive non-native species.

He has been involved in island restoration projects since 2014 where he helped to monitor the recovery of native species on St Agnes and Gugh after the successful removal of invasive brown rats. Since then, he has been involved in projects around the world, including the Redonda Restoration Programme and helping to manage our team supporting the Predator Free Wellington project. For Ed, seeing the results of these projects is something that makes the work so worthwhile and hopes to be a part of many more restoration projects to come, taking his skills and knowledge around the world.

Dave remotely assists WMIL on specific tasks and projects as an associate ecologist as well as focusing on a number of personal conservation projects.

After graduating from Lincoln University with a BSc in Ecology and Conservation, Baylee spent time monitoring the critically endangered shore plover, collecting data on behaviour, and identifying reasons for breeding failure and chick mortality.

Since joining WMIL in 2019, Baylee has been working with other seabird species including four years of monitoring black-fronted tern/tarapirohe breeding success on a number of Marlborough and Canterbury’s braided rivers, field work on Aotea/Great Barrier Island monitoring takoketai/black petrel populations, and assessing chick survival of flesh-footed shearwaters/toanui. Baylee also assists with predator control projects throughout New Zealand and is involved in a number of WMIL’s international eradication projects. Baylee remotely assists WMIL on specific tasks and projects as an associate ecologist while currently exploring the world.

Hinewai has had a love for conservation and ornithology her whole life and has been involved in an extensive range of projects over the years.

Prior to professionally working for WMIL Hinewai had done volunteering for WMIL and birding groups around Marlborough, working on projects such as trapping, multiple shearwater transfers, gull and passerine banding, and a Chatham albatross translocation. Since joining WMIL Hinewai has gained skills in data collection, analysis, and reporting. Hinewai has worked on a variety of projects within WMIL, including tarapirohe/black fronted tern research and multiple seabird island projects. She has spent a lot of time working with Predator Free Wellington on the Miramar Peninsula phase of the eradication and hopes to continue learning new strategies and innovative techniques for eradications. She enjoys the outdoors, community engagement, and has a love for travelling. Hinewai remotely assists WMIL on specific tasks and projects as an associate ecologist while currently exploring the world.