(https://www.timothywittig.com/) is a conservationist, professor, and former defense intelligence analyst. He is a research fellow at Oxford University (Oxford Martin School), an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London, and has served as Head of Intelligence for both the Royal Foundation’s United for Wildlife Transport and Financial Taskforces (https://unitedforwildlife.org/), and the wildlife investigations charity Focused Conservation.
Dr. Wittig has lived in 8 countries on 3 continents and worked in nearly 50 different countries. His professional background is in research & development and applied sciences, intelligence-led targeting of illicit financial networks, and African and global security.
Dr. Wittig began his career in national security, and was one of the first people in the US Intelligence Community (IC) to treat biodiversity and ecosystem collapse as a threat to global security.
Since their inception in 2016, Dr. Wittig has played a central role in the United for Wildlife Transport and Financial Taskforces, a groundbreaking program of the Royal Foundation of the Prince & Princess of Wales (https://royalfoundation.com/), to use data and intelligence, alongside high-level formal commitments, to mobilize 200+ of the worlds’ largest banks, maritime shipping companies, and airlines to take meaningful action against global wildlife trafficking. Dr. Wittig conceived of and currently runs the central intelligence sharing system of the both Taskforces.