Bill Toone FN'26 is an internationally recognized conservation biologist, author, and public speaker who has worked in more than 30 countries and traveled to more than 100. Best known for his pioneering role in the recovery of the California condor, Bill helped develop groundbreaking techniques—including the use of condor puppets—that enabled one of North America’s most endangered birds to survive and recover.
Over more than three decades with the San Diego Zoo and Zoological Society of San Diego, Bill rose to become Curator of Birds and later Director of Applied Conservation. His expeditions and biological surveys have taken him from the rainforests of Madagascar and Papua New Guinea to the savannas of Central Africa, often in partnership with his wife and fellow explorer, Sunni.
A defining moment in Madagascar shifted Bill’s career: when a cyclone devastated a village where he worked, he recognized that conservation must also address human needs. This insight led him to found ECOLIFE Conservation in 2003, a nonprofit that merges humanitarian and ecological solutions. Under his leadership, ECOLIFE has installed more than 13,500 clean cookstoves in Mexico and developed aquaponics programs that save water while producing food sustainably.
Bill has been featured on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, CBS Sunday Morning, and in PBS documentaries, and has worked with public figures including Olivia Newton-John and Robert Redford. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Fellow of the Explorers Club, a two-time TEDx speaker, winner of the 2023 AARP Purpose Prize and the author of On the Wings of the Condor.
