Saengduean Chailert, also known as Lek, was born in Thailand in 1962. In return for saving the life of a young man, her grandfather, a shaman or traditional healer, was given an elephant named Thong Kham, meaning Golden One. The bond that developed between Lek and Thong Kham sparked a love and respect for elephants that was to shape the course of her life.

After graduating from Chiang Mai Rajabhat University, Lek worked in the tourism industry where she witnessed the mistreatment and suffering of many elephants and began to provide medical aid to elephants in remote villages. In the 1990’s, Lek started rescuing injured, neglected, and elderly elephants, and in 2003 was able to establish a permanent homeland for them in the beautiful Mae Taeng valley, near Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. Today, Elephant Nature Park is home to over 120 elephants who are finally able to live free from abuse within family herds and develop close friendships with one another. Elephants at the park are not required to work or perform, and are not ridden. Instead, they are able to live a more natural, dignified life where they are respected and cared for with love.

Lek has worked tirelessly to raise international awareness about the plight of both captive and wild Asian elephants. She has been influential in improving the lives of hundreds of elephants in Asia through the work of Save Elephant Foundation, which educates elephant owners and helps them to transition away from elephant riding, performances, and other harmful practices, and instead, adopt the Saddle Off model based on compassion, understanding, and respect. In a male-dominated industry steeped in tradition and resistant to change, Lek’s desire to improve the living conditions of captive Asian elephants has required great courage, pragmatism, and perseverance.

Lek is an award-winning conservationist who has been working for over two decades to improve the lives of elephants in Asia and advance their welfare. Her work has received international acclaim and has been documented by National Geographic, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, the BBC, DW, and CNN, as well as in print media around the world, including The Guardian, USA Today, and Forbes. She has received widespread recognition for her work protecting elephants, including being awarded the ‘Légion d’Honneur’ by President Macron in 2022, honored as one of six Women Heroes of Global Conservation by Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton in 2010, one of TIME Magazine’s Heroes of Asia in 2005, the Ford Foundation’s Hero of the Planet in 2001, and the Genesis Award from the Humane Society of the United States in 2003 and 2019.