Megan Epler Wood

Megan Epler Wood "founded The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) in 1990, the oldest and largest non-profit organization in the world dedicated to making ecotourism a tool for sustainable tourism development worldwide. She was its President & CEO from 1991-2002. Since 2003, Megan’s firm EplerWood International has devoted itself to aiding some of the poorest countries in the world with sustainable tourism development, including the nations of Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, Mexico, El Salvador, Brazil, and Honduras.

"Her published works includes; Ecotourism: Principles, Practices and Policies for Sustainability for UNEP in 2002. She has lectured at Columbia Business School, Harvard University, Wellesley, Duke University, University of Vermont, and The George Washington University. She was named a Senior Fellow at the Institute at the Golden Gate in 2010 where she is developing next generation thinking on the development of tourism as a sustainable economic development tool in collaboration with leading universities, NGOs, and business professionals."

"In the early 1980s, Epler Wood worked for the communications office of World Wildlife Fund-U.S. drawing attention to ground-breaking initiatives in biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. Subsequently, she worked as an independent television producer for the National Audubon Society, World Wildlife Fund-U.S., and the National Geographic Society. Her film, The Environmental Tourist, broadcast by the Turner Broadcasting Corporation and PBS in 1991, was the first major television documentary on ecotourism... "In 2006, Epler Wood founded NativeEnergy Travel Offsets (NETO) with her business partner, Richard G. Edwards, as a subsidiary of NativeEnergy, a firm that provides carbon offsets using wind and other renewable energy sources. Dynamic growth in the marketplace and growing investment interest led NativeEnergy Travel Offsets to merge with its parent company NativeEnergy in December 2008 to create one dynamic firm. Edwards and Epler Wood are now shareholders in Native Energy. NETO developed a broad range of clients for NativeEnergy, including Hilton Hotels, Wyndham, American Express, Backroads, Ecoventura, the Sierra Club Outings program and National Wildlife Federation Expeditions among many others."