Allan Savory

Zimbabwe-born Allan Savory pursued an early career as a research biologist and game ranger in Africa's British Colonial Service and later as a farmer and game rancher. In the 1960s he made a significant breakthrough in understanding what was causing the desertification of the world’s grassland ecosystems and worked with numerous managers on four continents to develop regenerative solutions. He served as a Member of Parliament in the latter days of Zimbabwe’s civil war and became the leader of the opposition to the ruling party headed by Ian Smith. Exiled in 1979 as a result of his opposition, he immigrated to the United States, where he continued this consulting work with land managers. The growth of that business, a desire to assist many more people, and the need for furthering his work led him to continue its development in the nonprofit world, co-founding the Africa Centre for Holistic Management in Zimbabwe in 1992 and the Savory Institute in Boulder, Colorado, in 2009.