Dereck Joubert is an award-winning wildlife filmmaker and National Geographic Explorer-at-Large who has been filming, researching, and exploring wild Africa for more than 3 decades with his wife, Beverly Joubert. Their mission is to save the wild places of Africa and to protect the creatures that depend on them.

For his work, Dereck has received many accolades including seven Emmy Awards, Lifetime Achievement awards, Peabody, Panda, and World Ecology awards and an induction into the American Academy of Achievement. Together with his wife, Beverly, they received the Presidential Order of Meritorious Service, from the president of Botswana.

Dereck is CEO of Great Plains Conservation, a ‘conservation tourism’ company protecting more than 1 million acres of land. Through Great Plains and its Foundation they find and fund projects that preserve, rescue, and recover landscapes, wildlife, and communities in Africa.

Dereck and his wife, Beverly met in high school and married in 1983. They have been filming, researching, and exploring wild Africa for more than three decades, often living in a canvas tent, in the middle of wilderness, working from sun-up to sundown, in their expedition vehicle.

In 2009, the Jouberts founded the Big Cats Initiative with National Geographic Society, a long-term effort to halt the decline of big cats in the wild and protect the ecosystems they inhabit. This program has now transitioned to the Great Plains Big Cats Initiative, under the Jouberts’ leadership. Dereck and his wife have co-produced over 40 films for National Geographic.

Over the years, their discoveries in the field have challenged conventional wisdom about some of Africa's top predators. Eternal Enemies: Lions and Hyenas, narrated by Jeremy Irons, has been viewed by more than a billion viewers in 127 countries, while their Emmy-winning 2006 film Eye of the Leopard follows the life of a single female leopard from infancy to maturity.

In March 2017, the Joubert's survived a near-fatal Cape buffalo attack at their camp in Botswana's Okavango Delta.  This brought into sharp perspective the impermanence of time and the race we are all in to make a difference.

Setting their sights on sweeping change, Dereck and Beverly created Rhinos Without Borders, a revolutionary initiative that moved 87 rhinos from high poaching areas to safety. Their current wildlife conservation projects include everything from building teams of Female Rangers to relocating elephants, giraffes and other species to restore and rewild depleted habitats.

“Impact is what we all strive for. A life without meaning is a wasted life, and we live by this, rising each day to make a difference and to make the best use of our waking hours so our dreams come true. Our dream is of a time when humans become just one more species in balance with nature, not constantly at war with it.”

- Dereck Joubert