Meet our team

Phoebe Wakhungu

Finance Manager

Phoebe leads Lion Landscapes’ finance function, helping to ensure that resources raised for large carnivore conservation are managed with rigour and support the landscapes and communities they are intended to serve. Her role includes overseeing tax compliance and statutory audits across the UK, Kenya and Tanzania, as well as developing financial tools and frameworks that strengthen financial management across the organisation.

With over fifteen years’ experience across the commercial and non-profit sectors in East Africa, she specialises in financial management, tax, compliance, risk and financial systems. Before joining Lion Landscapes, her career spanned finance leadership and advisory work in tax policy, compliance, audits and process optimisation. This experience underpins her work building the financial foundations that allow organisations to make informed decisions, remain accountable and use resources effectively - while the numbers, controls and processes quietly behave themselves in the background.

Phoebe entered university to study Sociology and left as both a sociologist and a Certified Public Accountant, having picked up CPA on the side largely to stave off boredom. She has never formally practised Sociology, though she would argue that it never quite left her. Conservation finance is ultimately about people, and the numbers only matter because of what they make possible.

She is a KRA Tax Agent, a member of ICPAK and CPA Australia. She holds an MBA in Finance from Kenyatta University and a BA in Sociology from the University of Nairobi, and is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Business Administration at USIU-Africa. She contributed to Kenya’s Income Tax (Charitable Organisations and Donations Exemption) Rules, 2024.

When she is not working, Phoebe is often travelling across Africa, exploring different countries, discovering hidden gems, experiencing new cultures and occasionally taking the road less travelled to find the stories and places that do not always make it into the guidebooks. She also enjoys a good Sudoku puzzle, meaningful conversations and the occasional quiet moment to recharge - because, yes, finance people do exist outside spreadsheets.