Lena Aahlby (Australia)
Global Director of Programmes, World Animal ProtectionLena has been involved in a range of social justice issues over the past 30+ years. While at university, she was very involved in women’s rights issues. Immediately after finishing her PhD in Chemical Engineering, she became a campaigner for Greenpeace in her native Sweden, campaigning for a nuclear–free world, for protecting the ozone layer, and for climate protection during the very early days of the movement. She’s lived in Australia, in the US, and in the Netherlands and worked in almost every corner of the world.
She led Greenpeace International’s campaigns department between 2003 and 2009 before relocating back to Australia where she now lives just south of Sydney. In Australia she worked for ActionAid and also consulted for a range of organisations. Between 2012 and 2018 she was the chair of Greenpeace Australia Pacific. She is now the Global Director of Programmes for World Animal Protection overseeing the organisations campaigns and programme work. In her free time, she’s involved in a local wildlife rescue and rehabilitation organisation which means that she usually has a number of orphaned kangaroo joeys and baby possums at home to look after.