The Team

As a life-long philanthropist, Laure established her foundation in 1995 in order to formalize her charitable giving in the areas of education and social services for disadvantaged children. In 2015, she established The LaureL STEM Fund, with a focus on STEM education and medical research.

Laure is a former clinical researcher whose experience includes trials for treatment of cystic fibrosis, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, cancer and infant nutrition. She has held clinical research positions at several California Bay Area companies, including Matrix Pharmaceutical and Genelabs Technologies. Early in her career, Laure founded Woods Consulting, Inc., to advise companies that test the safety and efficacy of medications devices, diagnostic products and treatment regimens intended for human use.

As someone struggling with late-stage Lyme disease, Laure co-founded the Bay Area Lyme Foundation, to advance research aimed at making this tick-borne disease easy to diagnose and simple to cure. She currently serves as Board Chair of that organization. Laure also serves on the Board of the L.K. Whittier Foundation, a private foundation supporting medical and technology research. She holds a BS in Animal Science from the University of California at Davis.

Jon has had a diverse career in the media and event industry. He began working in advertising in London before moving onto exhibitions and trade shows. In the '90s, he transferred to Los Angeles with his British company, where he worked at major art fairs and wine shows. Later, Jon launched Softworld in the US and served as its CEO until it was acquired by a larger media company. He has held senior positions at Gartner, The Economist, Bloomberg Media, and Recode. More recently, Jon switched to the non-profit space as the Executive Director of the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto and collaborated with Andy Wegst to produce “Africa: The Struggle of Beauty,” an exhibition that used fine art photography to highlight the plight of African wildlife.

Jon's passion for wildlife began in his childhood in the UK, where he regularly watched films with his family featuring Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers. These films, like "Born Free" and "The Ring of Bright Water," sparked his lifelong love of wildlife. His visit to Kruger Park in Africa to see beautiful animals in the wild had a profound impact on him. He witnessed a young female elephant emerge from the bush, playfully trumpeting with her ungainly trunk, and was deeply moved. While the experience brought him joy, it also troubled him as he considered the elephant's potential for survival. He felt a strong desire to help and is honored to be part of Andy's visionary mission at Maono, given his deep respect for Andy's work as a filmmaker and photographer.

Dale Sakai is a renowned strategist in the technology industry with over two decades of experience in general management. He has worked for large corporations like IBM and startups that have received funding from venture capitalists and investment banks like Kleiner Perkins and Goldman Sachs. His expertise lies in market-based and analytic approaches to strategic planning.

Currently, Mr. Sakai is a co-founder of Obo Incorporated. Obo provides a Product Decision System (PDS) that helps companies create profitable products and improve their valuation. The underlying methods were created by Mr. Sakai in collaboration with experts from IBM, Oracle, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and MIT Sloan School of Management.

Before founding Obo, Mr. Sakai was the managing director of the Incyte Group. He used his strategic planning methods to assist leading technology companies, private equity firms, and venture capital groups like IBM, Oracle, Symantec, KKR, and Accel Partners.

Mr. Sakai holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics from Amherst College, a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Stanford University, and a Master's degree in Management Science from Stanford University.

Ann Johnson Prum is an experienced independent nature and science cinematographer, as well as a media producer with over 25 years of experience. She is the owner of Coneflower Studios, which is a woman-owned documentary production company that focuses on nature and science. Her works include 12 programs for PBS Nature, as well as additional programs for TBS, Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, ABC, and Science Channel. Her dedication to her work has earned her numerous awards, including two national Emmy Awards for PBS Nature: An Original Duckumentary (2013, Best Natural History Program) and Super Hummingbirds (2017, Best Cinematography).

She has also been nominated for 12 additional Emmy awards, as well as five Cine Golden Eagles, and other national and international awards. Johnson Prum has assembled teams of the greatest talents in science and wildlife documentary to communicate science and nature to the public, with filming locations ranging from Amazonia to Antarctica and the Argonne National synchrotron to urban hospital emergency rooms. She is a graduate of Bowdoin College, where she earned a BA in Environmental Science and Art History.

Brenda Razo is a Mexican wildlife producer and photographer who is bilingual and has worked in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. She has created various online television shows in Mexico City, which focused on social and health issues. Brenda has always been passionate about teaching and sharing knowledge; she has been an art and language tutor for many years.

Additionally, her love for wildlife conservation began in her childhood and developed into a profession when she collaborated on a documentary about the vaquita in 2015. This experience motivated her to create her own educational campaign about wildlife conservation in Mexico City. Brenda has participated in talks in elementary schools, TV, and radio programs, promoting the conservation of the vaquita porpoise. Since then, she has worked on several projects related to wildlife conservation with Andrew Wegst. Brenda holds a Bachelor's Degree in Painting from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and has also completed several filmmaking courses, including the recent REDucation camera training in Los Angeles.