Professor Doug Armstrong is recognised as a key player behind New Zealand’s reputation as a world leader in the field of restoration ecology and reintroduction biology. He is internationally renowned for his expertise in conservation and wildlife management. His research focuses on improving methods for understanding population and metapopulation dynamics of threatened wildlife. With over three decades of academic achievement, he has influenced policy and practices internationally in a number of fields within ecology and conservation biology. His most notable impact has been on reintroduction programmes, specifically bird reintroduction. This work directly influenced the New Zealand government’s goal of Predator Free New Zealand by 2050. Not only is his work helping to save many of Aotearoa’s species from extinction, but he has created conceptual models that have been applied to organisms at-risk across the globe. In addition to being an academic at the forefront of his field, he has dedicated his career to the development and support of postgraduate and early career researchers, many of whom are emerging as conservation leaders themselves.