Matt Jordan as CEO of the Gorongosa Trust is working to create a world where people and the planet thrive together.

With a focus on forestry, ecotourism and agribusiness, his expertise has resulted in robust social enterprise activities that incorporate local communities while helping tackle climate change.

Jordan and his team have an extraordinary story of success to tell. In the 1990s, the richest of African parks was nothing more than a cemetery: animals slaughtered by starving soldiers, ivory tusks sold to finance the purchase of weapons, and villages pounded by air raids. Only a hundred elephants, fifteen buffaloes, forty hippos, a few zebras and antelopes, a dozen lions had survived. Gorongosa had lost 95% of its wildlife population. Through the efforts of the Gorongosa Trust, in less than thirty years, the National Park has been reborn from its ashes. A feat in a bloodless country, among the poorest in the world.

Jordan as CEO of the Gorongosa Trust led the Gorongosa Restoration Project, and Our Gorongosa, a social and environmental enterprise focused on planting thousands of acres of coffee trees and crea ted the brand Gorongosa National Park – Premier Ground Coffee – Elephants Never Forget to market to the US, Mozambique, and the UK. Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique is perhaps Africa’s greatest wildlife restoration story.

Jordan holds an MBA from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, an MSc in Environ mental Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin anda BSc in Mathematics and Civil Engineering from Portland State University.