Meet Our Director
Born in Manchester, Alexander S. Howson has been involved in conservation and animal rights for most of his life. At the age of 14, he began a rehoming centre for unwanted fish that were too big to be housed and kept the ‘fish cellar’ going for several years. As a teenager, he also volunteered at wildlife rehabilitation centres on his weekends and was featured in several national magazines for Wildlife and animal rights. He then went on to study at Leicester and Oxford universities, before completing his Masters degree at the University of Cambridge.
In 2018, he recognised a problem in his local area with hedgehog survival rates and enacted a local initiative that would later become the Wildlife One society. Alexander made the first several dozen hedgehog homes, before enlisting the help of volunteers. The project grew exponentially and involved incorporating the hedgehog boxes into several schools’ woodwork curriculums, and it now provides free lesson plans and conservation projects for schools across the country. Wildlife One has now grown to fight for conservation and animal rights across multiple sectors, providing free information on Animal care, working with schools to educate children, and partnering with both the public and private sectors to reduce pesticide usage. Throughout each of these periods of growth, Alexander has been the societies driving force, recruiting all our staff volunteers, generating support for the Society, and developing our strategic road map; growing the Wildlife One Society from a small local initiative to a national organisation with a massive impact on communities across the country.
Due to his publications and prominence, Alexander has been nominated for serval awards and has been made a fellow of the royal geographical society and a certified member of the MRS.
A note from the director
It seemed pertinent, under my own small section of our website, to make note of my own feelings, and to thank everyone involved in the Wildlife One society. Firstly, I have to thank our Web developers. The rebrand was a long time in the making, and the website looks better than I believe any of us imagined. I also need to express my profound gratitude to our volunteers, both staff and out-of-house. Without you, Wildlife One would not be what it is and whenever I am Discussing our society with people, or I’m travelling to host talks, it still seems incredibly strange to think of the scope of the organisation, that it should grow from such a small local initiative to what we have today. It could not have been done without so many dedicated people.
I don’t think it is ever a good idea to misrepresent anything, and as such, I am not going to pretend that the soceity snowballed into existence, and took off under a life of its own. While we have been incredibly lucky to grow a community-led project into a nationwide project that deals with private and public sectors, goes into schools to educate on conservation, and is able to do all the things Wildlife does so well in around six years – it has not been an easy journey.
There have been countless sleepless nights where we have had to work round the clock, countless setbacks and countless issues to tackle. Yet, through every hardship and trial, we have stayed resolute because we knew we were making a difference. The difference we have made has been incredible and I could not be prouder of what we’ve Accomplished. In the years that follow, I know we’re going to continue making a massive impact on conservation and I look forward to having every single one of you by my side as we do it.
Thank you for everything.
Alexander S. Howson