Executive Director

Zara McDonald is a San Francisco Bay Area native who spent most of her childhood in Europe, and much of that in the United Kingdom. She is an avid competitive marathoner and endurance trail runner, whose interest in wild cats peaked when she encountered mountain lions twice, during her long solitary runs in the Headlands in Marin County, Northern California. Zara initially became involved in Mountain lion research and outreach in California, and then expanded her efforts to include all wild cat species.

Zara’s business background serves her in good stead as Felidae’s Executive Director. After receiving an MBA from UC Berkeley Haas School of Business in 1997, she co-founded a company that developed the first GPS wrist devices for runners and hikers. Nike, Timex, and Polar courted Volcano, Inc. for their revolutionary device. After Zara left the world of GPS technology she spent six months in India at an Iyengar Yoga teaching program. During her sojourn in India she traveled to Ranthambhore and Sunderban National Park where she saw her first tigers in the wild. Moved by this experience and feeling a stronger pull to work with animals she returned to school for a year of premed education as a precursor to wildlife biology studies. Concurrently in 2004 Zara co-founded an equity fund, Veda Ventures, LLC that targets sustainable start-up companies for seed capital.

After connecting with a scientist at a conference in the fall of 2004, and returning from intense field work with mountain lions, she decided that collaborating on important wild cat projects and raising awareness through education and outreach would fill a void in the existing conservation space, as well as in her own life.

Zara formed Felidae Conservation Fund (501c3) in April 2006 to protect wild cat species globally, by supporting strong science, and by conducting strong and compelling outreach and education.