Freelanders

Freeland is a frontline counter-trafficking organization staffed by law enforcement, development and communications specialists in Asia, Africa and the Americas who build capacity, raise awareness, and promote good governance to protect vulnerable people, wildlife, and ecosystems from crime, corruption, and neglect.

Freeland International Board and
Management Committee

STEVE GALSTER
Chairman

Steve founded Freeland and currently chairs the entire organization through its international management committee. He is an expert on transnational organized crime, trafficking, and illicit markets, having investigated arms, wildlife, and human trafficking across the world since 1985. Projects he designed disrupted illicit trades in people and wildlife, enabling the recovery of endangered species and vulnerable communities in Russia, Africa and Asia. He and his teams helped authorities bring down major criminals and corrupt officers in 4 different continents, together with freezing and seizing over $50 million in illegal assets. Galster and his reports have featured on CNN, BBC, TIME, National Geographic, Discovery, Al Jazeera, and in the New York Times. He is the co-creator of 7 organizations: WildAid, Wildlife Alliance, Phoenix, ASEAN-WEN, Freeland, ACET, and EarthTeam. Steve designed some of Freeland’s signature programs, like Surviving Together, CTOC, and was instrumental in the formation of the first wildlife enforcement network (WEN). Galster graduated from George Washington University with an M.A. in Security Policy Studies and Grinnell College with a B.A. in Political Science.

POL. MAJ. GEN. PETCHARAT SANGCHAI
Chief Executive Officer,
Freeland - Thailand

Petcharat has 38 years of experience in the Royal Thai Police ( 1978-2016 ) working nationally and internationally as a Metropolitan police investigator, Narcotics officer,
chief of police station in provincial police regional 7 , and most recently Deputy commissioner of narcotics suppression bureau.
He decided to choose to join forces with Freeland as his final step, bringing his decades of experience to his new role as a Chief Executive Officer of Freeland, Thailand. In his new role as the CEO he looks at the overall performance and direction of both the team members working in Thailand and the Freeland team board. He also preserves the organizational structure to comply with the policies and goals of Freeland, in cooperation with The Royal Thai Police, The Department of National Parks, the Customs Department , and other related NGOs and organizations.

JULIANA FERREIRA
Executive Director,
Freeland - Brazil

Dr. Juliana Machado Ferreira founded and serves as Executive Director of Freeland Brasil, whose mission is to conserve biodiversity by ending wildlife trafficking. She designs and implements projects with three major focuses: reducing demand for wild pets and wildlife parts and products through educational efforts and awareness actions; supporting law enforcement against wildlife trafficking, international articulation and facilitation for the development of a regional wildlife enforcement network; and developing scientific research to produce tools for law enforcement use. Ferreira is a TED Senior Fellow and received her Ph.D. in Conservation Genetics from Sao Paulo University.

ONKURI MAJUMDAR
Managing Director
Freeland - India

Onkuri is the Deputy Director of Programs at Freeland and has worked on wildlife law enforcement support for over a decade in India and southeast Asia, training hundreds of police, Customs and forest officers on covert investigation techniques. She has also provided analytic support in successful police operations against wildlife and human traffickers. In recognition of her work on wildlife conservation, Onkuri was selected as an Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leader in 2013, and a National Geographic Emerging Explorer in 2015. She has also done a TEDx talk in Cyprus on the illegal wildlife trade. Her work has been featured in the National Geographic series “Crimes Against Nature”.