Dr Mohammad Farhadinia co-founded the Iranian Cheetah Society in 2001 and served as Deputy Project Manager for the GEF/UNDP Conservation of Asiatic Cheetah Project from 2008 to 2011. He holds an MSc in Environmental Sciences from the University of Tehran and a DPhil in Zoology from the University of Oxford. At Oxford, he was a Research Fellow at the Oxford Martin School and an OPEN Fellow, working on the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and developing-country engagement with biodiversity commitments alongside the UN World Conservation Monitoring Centre. He is co-chair of the Persian Leopard Working Group, a trustee of the UK Field Studies Council, and a Lecturer at the University of Kent since 2022. His research examines rewilding, species restoration, and ecological and social outcomes of translocations. He has supervised over 40 postgraduate students (inc 8 PhD), published more than 70 peer-reviewed papers, and authored three conservation books/chapters.