We were deeply saddened by Tom Hill's passing in July 2024. However, his legacy will live on through the work we do at Big Life. Click here to read A Tribute to Tom Hill, written by co-founder Richard Bonham. In Richard's words, we will hear Tom's voice every time we hear a lion roar.

Tom Hill, a graduate of the University of Texas and the Wharton School of Business (MBA in Finance) was a New York City-based entrepreneur for more than three decades. He co-founded Shoppers Voice, Inc. in 1968 (“the first interactive communications medium” according to The New York Times). The company later expanded its scope and was re-named Newmedia Marketing Companies, Inc., maintaining long-term client relationships with Nestle, Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive, and Toyota, among others, after which he began a consulting firm that for years served leading multinational companies (including Royal Dutch Shell and Marsh & McLennan Companies). In the 1980s and early 1990s, he was also active in private equity.

Having been a co-founder of the Institute of Human Origins in 1981 and The Trust for African Rock Art in 1996, Mr. Hill chose in 2000 to devote himself fulltime to philanthropic and non-profit endeavors. He moved to rural Kenya, where he was a co-founder of the Maasailand Preservation Trust, whose mission was to stabilize and sustain the Amboseli-Tsavo ecosystem at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. MPT eventually merged with Big Life, where Tom continued to be involved as a Co-Founder, Board Director, and Treasurer for many years.

In 2003, Mr. Hill and his colleague Richard Bonham created what would ultimately become Big Life's Predator Compensation Fund, an innovation in wildlife conservation strategy that has proven highly successful at saving the great predators of the region–especially lions–reversing their otherwise imminent extinction in the very cradle of their existence.