Dermot O’Gorman: a message of hope for life on earth

Growing up immersed in nature on New South Wales’ south coast, ‘running around the bush’ and imagining a life working with wildlife, Dermot was gifted a signed copy of the seminal book by his uncle.

“I got it in 1979, the year the Life on Earth television series came out, which really inspired my passion for the planet,” says the Southern Cross University alumnus, now CEO of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Australia. “And, when I got to spend time with him in 2014, I had him sign the same book again in person!” 

During the 35 years between those two influential moments, and over the time since, Dermot has dedicated his expansive career to stopping the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and promote living in harmony with nature. And while his role now involves collaborative global partnerships, regeneration and conservation programs on a country-wide scale, a focus on the future of digital innovation, and cross-sector solutions to some of our environment’s most pressing challenges, he began his working life within the boundaries of NSW national parks.   

“When I was younger, I wanted to be a Park Ranger,” Dermot says, “So I started my career with the NSW Parks & Wildlife Service.”

This was after graduating from an Associate Diploma in Applied Science at Southern Cross University, which Dermot recalls as a ‘wonderful experience.’

 “I was very fortunate to go to SCU,” he says. “It was still reasonably early in their natural resource management program, but it left me so passionate and inspired by tertiary education. And back then there were only a few universities that offered this kind of course, so I was really drawn to Southern Cross for that reason.”

It was during his post-university days at NSW Parks & Wildlife Service, as a 22-year-old working hands-on inside park limits, that Dermot grasped a realisation that would inspire the rest of his career.

“I realised that it was the forces outside the national parks that were the real threat to nature,” he says. “My career and further academic studies have mirrored what flowed on from that realisation — that you need to work at landscape level, but you also need to reform the economics behind all of it. You need to involve communities, businesses and governments in the solutions.” 

So, the bigger picture of conservation called.

After working and studying in London, including the completion of a BSc in Conservation Science from Birkbeck, University of London, and a Master of Science in Environmental Policy from the London School of Economics, Dermot joined WWF in the UK in 1998. During nearly two decades with WWF he has worked all over the world, including as CEO of WWF-China, CEO of WWF-Pacific and, since 2010, back home as CEO of WWF-Australia.

Every decade, Dermot has sought out a transformational education experience. This has included an MBA from IMD Switzerland in 2009 and, in 2020, he was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Stanford University California.  His Stanford research focus was on what he dubs ‘the first regenerative revolution’.  

“I used this opportunity to write about our need to use the fourth industrial revolution, which we are in at the moment, and transform it into a regenerative revolution — a process that is circular, inclusive, that works for people and workers, and is more equitable,” Dermot says. “We have to realise that over the next 30 to 40 years, we are not going to be able to have the same economic model we have now — not with 8 to 10 billion people on the planet. We’ve reached the planetary boundaries. The nature and climate crisis is happening now. And we have a chance to turn this around, but we must do it quickly — it’s not about tweaking at the edges. Governments, communities and businesses play a central role in this, as well as emerging technologies, but overall, there are enormous opportunities ahead.”

Through challenging times, Dermot is motivated by the incredible experiences in nature his work has allowed him.

“Some of the most special moments in my career have been with wildlife, such as seeing a Giant Panda in the wild in China and swimming with Minke Whales in Fiji,” Dermot says. “These moments remind me that you need to spend time in the field and see projects in person. This is another thing I learned from my degree at Southern Cross — the practical importance of getting stuff done on the ground.”

Dermot’s family also inspires him to keep working for what he believes in.

“My wife is a conservationist as well, and she has played a pivotal role in partnering with me to think through and work on these solutions,” he says. “I also have a 15-year-old son, and I want him to inherit a world in which there is nature and no conflict.”  

This is why Dermot’s message is ultimately one of hope.

“As humans, fear is not an emotion that helps us cognitively think through towards solutions,” he says. “Being hopeful is positive, collaborative, and energizing. My message is that we know the problems, we have the tools and resources, and we can do this.”

This bold determination sounds remarkably similar in tone to Sir David Attenborough’s on the day they met when Dermot asked for the global icon’s advice.

“He told me to just get on and do it,” Dermot says with a laugh. “So that’s what I’m doing.”