Professor Somphone was a lecturer at the National University of Laos for the first 15 years of his career, training many of the people who now work in government in forestry and protected area management. He spent the next 15 years of his career working for WWF-Laos as a chief technical advisor to the Biodiversity Conservation Corridor Project and later as the WWF-Lao Country Director. Somphone is employing his broad experience to help Asian Arks develop its concept and business plan for its proposed conservation concession.