Jim Leape is the Director General of WWF International, a position to which he was appointed in December 2005. Leape has worked in conservation for more than three decades. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, he began his career as an environmental lawyer - bringing environmental protection cases in the United States, advising the United Nations Environment Programme in Nairobi, Kenya, and co-authoring the leading American text on environmental law. Leape first joined WWF in the US in 1989, and for ten years led their conservation programmes around the world, serving as Executive Vice President. In that role, he helped shape the global strategy of the WWF Network and represented WWF in many international fora. From 2001 to 2005, he directed the conservation and science initiatives of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, one of the largest philanthropies in the US. As Director General, Jim Leape is the chief executive of WWF International and leader of the global WWF Network, which works in more than 100 countries and has an annual income of EUR 525 million.