MEET THE TEAM
NBS combines the core team’s experience in engaging policymakers, natural resource management and conservation with financial expertise to further forest conservation and help companies meet their ESG/Sutstainability commitments.

SRI VENKATESWARA RAO, M.SC.
Co-founder, Director
Sri has over 14 years of experience in conservation project management and regularly liaises with federal and state government agencies. He was a YSEALI Professional Fellow at the Environmental Law Institute in Washington DC. Sri is currently the Conservation Finance Manager for Rimba and is currently a Fellow with the Kinship Foundation based in Chicago.

GOPALASAMY REUBEN CLEMENTS, PH.D.
Co-founder, Conservation Science
Reuben has 15 years of conservation research and management experience in Malaysia. He has published over 80 scientific articles and managed projects that have received USD 4.4 million in funding to date. He is the co-founder of Rimba, and a sustainable finance specialist with Zoological Society London.

TAJANG JINGGUT, PH.D.
Co-founder, Project Development
Tajang has 14 years of experience in building and developing projects and programmes in the fields of conservation, sustainable land use and research. He has a fundraising portfolio of USD 10 million for programmes and projects that he has designed and managed.

DYLAN JEFRI ONG, B.ENG
Co-founder, Project Development
Dylan has over 19 years of experience as a consultant specializing in biodiversity conservation and natural resource planning, Some of the key conservation related projects that he has worked on include the National Physical Plan, Central Forest Spine (CFS) Masterplan, Heart of Borneo, East Coast Economic Region (ECER) Masterplan and National Policy on Biodiversity.

NORIZAN MOHD MAZLAN, M.SC.
Co-founder, Partnership Development
Norizan has 22 years of experience working as a water engineer and in conservation. She led the Peninsular Malaysia Terrestrial Conservation programme in WWF-Malaysia. Her skillsets include partnership building, providing direction of scientific, technical and policy matters, programme management against a robust monitoring and evaluation framework.

LEE JO KIEN, PH.D.
Project Design
Jo has over 10 years of experience in the conservation of ecologically important landscapes in the areas of project design, project implementation, and research. He played a key role in the design and implementation of the People for Peat Business Hub. He was a YSEALI Professional Fellow (Spring 2019) and a Kinship Conservation Fellow (2022).

JOE KELLY
Spatial Ecology
Joe has been involved with research and conservation in tropical Africa and Asia for 14 years. He has led field projects from bird diversity on Indonesian islands to forest elephant movements in Cameroon, and currently makes use of remote sensing and data science to help inform conservation policy.

JULIA NG SU CHEN, PH.D.
Project Development
Julia has over 15 years of experience in conservation project management in
Malaysia, focusing on jurisdictional and landscape approaches. Her skillsets
include project planning and management, often collaborating with stakeholders from the government and private industries. She is an Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation Coach, and she has received scholarships from Chevening, Yayasan Sime Darby, and SEARCA, underscoring her commitment to ongoing learning and professional development in the field.

WILLIAM YAP
Remote Sensing Analyst
William has 12 years of experience working on species conservation. He was part of the WWF Tigers Alive Initiative team (and later the WWF Wildlife Practice) from 2014-2020, working on many regional issues affecting tiger conservation across all the tiger range countries in Asia. During his time with WWF, he initially assisted and later led the effort to roll out and improve the use of the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) across the many sites within the WWF global network. He specializes in protected area enforcement, project planning, wildlife technology and remote sensing.

DHIYA SHAFIQAH RIDZUAN, M.SC.
Project Manager
Dhiya has 9 years of experience in conservation research, management, and public outreach and awareness. Her primary expertise is in freshwater conservation, with a special interest in the sustainable use of river and water resources, river biomonitoring, and water quality. She previously worked on mangrove and peat swamp conservation in Terengganu.
Currently, as the Project Manager at Kenyir for Life, Dhiya leads biodiversity monitoring at Kenyir State Park using Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) and builds strategic research partnerships with academic institutions, businesses, and governmental organizations.

BRYAN NESARAJ GEORGE, M.SC.
Data Analyst
Bryan joined the NBS team as a fresh graduate with a BSc in Biomedicine from Sunway University. Prior to joining, he has spent more than 3 years volunteering, interning and working part time with various environmental and wildlife based organisations, including Rimba, Panthera Malaysia, and others, to gain valuable experience in different aspects of the conservation field, such as field research, data cataloging and analysis, and others. Currently, as the Data Analyst for Kenyir for Life, Bryan runs the data analytics and statistics for the biodiversity monitoring at Kenyir State Park. He also focuses on developing and implementing the Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) efforts for the project.