Dr. Richard Leakey

Paleoanthropologist-
Conservationist-Activist
"Why Our Origins Matter"

Dr. Leaky spoke Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Read more about Richard and the Leakey Foundation

Read more from Dr. Leakey's Agent

Richard Leakey is a man of principle and purpose who has made international headlines for over 30 years. Serving his native Kenya as a senior government official, opposition political activist, conservationist, administrator, museum director, scientific researcher, author and farmer, Leakey has been both successful and controversial.

The son of the famous Drs. Louis B. and Mary Leakey, he is also the world’s best-known paleoanthropologist, credited with some of the most significant fossil discoveries of the 20th century.

Unwavering in his devotion to his country and uncompromising in his crusade against government corruption, Leakey became Director of Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) in 1989, where he led a movement to end elephant poaching in Africa that all but eliminated the international ivory trade. In 1994 he resigned his post, declaring that corruption had undermined KWS.

Despite constant government-sponsored verbal and physical attacks and a plane crash that claimed both of his legs, Leakey continued to fight against a system he considered oppressive and self-defeating, establishing the political party Safina to unify the opposition to President Daniel Arap Moi.

In 1998, at the behest of the government, he returned to KWS, salvaging it from bankruptcy. In 1999 he was appointed Head of the Civil Service and Secretary of the Cabinet, where he fought corruption (this time from within the government) and addressed such issues as poverty, AIDS and the privatization of state-owned enterprises. However, heated conflicts between Leakey and the Kenyan government arose once again and he was forced to step down.

Yet his influence remained. In 2002 he supported the historic presidential election victory of opposition candidate Mwai Kibaki over Uhuru Kenyatta, Moi’s handpicked successor, signaling a new day in Kenya ’s future and its fight for democracy.

Leakey, who recently joined Stony Brook University as a visiting professor of Anthropology, has now turned his focus to conservation and the environment and raising awareness of major ecosystems crises.

He is organizing an annual environmental forum at Stony Brook, which will gather 100 of the world’s top scientists and government officials to discuss the implementation of major international initiatives -- addressing solutions to such global issues as climate change, biodiversity, inequities of wealth, AIDS and sustainable development. Leakey also is working to develop a $500 million endowment for wildlife preservation for the National Parks of East Africa.

Leakey is the author of over 100 articles and books, including Origins, The Sixth Extinction, The Origin of Humankind and his latest book, the memoir, Wildlife Wars: My Fight to Save Africa ’s Natural Treasures. He also has presented several TV programs, including the 5-part Making of Mankind and NBC’s Earthwatch.

Winner of the Humane Society’s Joseph Wood Krutch Medal, Leakey was profiled on 60 Minutes and named one of TIME’s 100 Greatest Minds of the Century.

-Courtesy of Royce Carlton, Inc.

[Davidson Distinguished Lecture Series]