Petronel Nieuwoudt
Founder & CEO

Petronel Nieuwoudt is the Founder and CEO of Care for Wild Rhino Sanctuary and has dedicated her life to the protection, rehabilitation and long-term survival of wildlife.

Her conservation journey began after her studies, when she joined the South African Police Service’s Endangered Species Protection Unit and rose to the rank of Captain. She later founded The Game Capture School, where she helped train others in ethical wildlife capture and management. Her deep commitment to rehabilitation also led to the establishment of Sondela Wildlife Centre and Tamboti Wildlife Centre.

In 2011, Petronel founded Care for Wild Africa as a rehabilitation centre for indigenous wildlife. As South Africa’s rhino poaching crisis intensified, Care for Wild evolved into the world’s largest specialised sanctuary for orphaned rhinos.

Today, Petronel’s work extends far beyond rescue and rehabilitation. Her vision is rooted in conservation, community development, sustainability and long-term impact. Through Care for Wild, she continues to protect both rhinos and people, creating opportunities for local communities while helping secure a future for one of Africa’s most threatened species.

Chris de Bruno Austin

Chris de Bruno Austin is a globally recognised forest and wildfire specialist, and serves as Managing Director of WoF International / Kishugu Holdings Limited and CEO of the Kishugu Group of Companies.

He led the successful implementation of the South African Government’s Working on Fire Programme, a nationally recognised initiative known for its impact on rural job creation, skills development and fire management capacity.

Chris has contributed to a wide range of international projects, including climate change programmes, forestry skills development for small-scale farmers, vegetation management in national parks, and large-scale fire management strategies. His technical expertise includes the development of fire management plans for significant conservation landscapes such as Ngorongoro, Serengeti and the Okavango Delta.

He has also played an important role in advancing fire management research, including the SavFIRE project in Kruger National Park.

Nico Oosthuizen

Nico Oosthuizen brings more than two decades of experience in the forestry and fire management sectors. He serves as a Divisional Director for Working on Fire International, where he leads the New Markets division and supports the group’s strategic growth into new territories.

Nico also holds key leadership positions within the organisation, including President of the General Council for WoF Mozambique, where he works to establish partnerships with the Mozambican Government and related institutions.

In addition to his role in conservation and fire management, Nico is actively involved in regional business and tourism development. He serves as President of the Barberton Chamber of Business and as a Director of the Kruger Lowveld Chamber of Business and Tourism.

He also contributes to heritage preservation through his involvement with the Barberton Makhonjwa World Heritage Site task team.

Mark Ngwenyama

Mark Ngwenyama brings more than 22 years of political, administrative and community engagement experience to his role.

He serves as Relationship Manager for the Barberton Chamber of Business’s Batobic programme and has played a significant role in community liaison and political support coordination for the Barberton Makhonjwa World Heritage Site, Mpumalanga’s first World Heritage Site.

Mark has also served in Parliament through the ANC Parliamentary Caucus and the Parliamentary Constituency Office, where he built extensive experience in public administration, stakeholder coordination and community-focused support.

With more than 18 years of direct experience working with communities in Barberton and the surrounding areas, Mark brings valuable local insight, relationship-building ability and a deep commitment to community upliftment.

Carrie Barnes

Carrie Barnes is the National Sales Leader for Radiology Informatics and PhilipsHealthcare. In the role she manages teams, new business development,customer success, sales structure, and reporting, commercialization,contracting and strategic partnership and luminaries. With cross collaboration her teams work to develop strategy, implement performance and manage revenue operations alignment.

Barnes career spans 23 years working in strategic roles with Siemens Medical, Toshiba, Carestream, Roche and most recently Fujifilm Medical Systems. She then went on to become Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships at FUJIFILM Medical Systems. In this role her key responsibilities included documenting and executing existing partnership planning and strategy, monitoring partnership progress across many business lines, and estimating financial effects from these partnerships and alliances.

Barnes earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Peter Coyle

Peter Coyle has been a solicitor for over thirty years and a business owner for twenty five of those. Peter started his career in the City of London where he specialised in banking and corporate insolvency. Since 1996 Peter has owned and managed three firms of solicitors in the Home Counties, servicing clients predominantly working within the banking sector and within sport. It was the FIFA 2010 World Cup which first introduced Peter to South Africa and his love of the country has grown and grown ever since. As well as looking after the legal and compliance function for Care for Wild Rhino Sanctuary (UK), Peter is involved with two other South African NFP organisations which promote education and sport to disadvantaged communities in the Western Cape and Kwazulu-Natal. Peter also serves as a trustee for another UK charity which funds medical research into a condition which gives rise to chronic disabilities (and often death) for identical twin babies. In the limited time which all of these commitments leave, Peter works as a FIFA licenced football agent – oh, and dotes on his wife and three grown-up children!

Susie Robbie

Susie Robbie is a passionate advocate for sustainability and youth empowerment through education and employability initiatives. With over a decade of experience in corporate law and ESG consulting, she has led impactful social investment strategies that create lasting value for communities. Susie built and led a team that spearheaded award-winning social investment at Investec Bank in London and serves as a Non-Executive Director for The Diversity Trust, a UK social enterprise. Now an impact strategy and communications consultant and B Corp B Leader, she helps businesses to prioritise responsible practices that achieve sustainable growth.