The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy is considered a Big Green environmental group, one of the largest and most prominent in the world. It is a member of Natural Resources Council of America. It "sits on nearly a billion dollars in assets and is awash in cash, thanks to a tidal wave of corporate donations, much of it from notorious polluters such as Arco, Archer-Daniels-Midland, British Petroleum, DuPont, Shell and Freeport-McMoRan. The group eschews political work in favor of the relatively noncontroversial project of buying land. Calling itself "Nature's real estate agent," the Nature Conservancy purchases private land and then sells it to state and federal agencies, often, according to its critics, at a considerable mark-up. Last year, the group violated its apolitical policy to concoct the compromise rewrite of the Endangered Species Act with a secret coalition of corporations and trade associations, including the National Homebuilder's Association and timber giant Georgie-Pacific. The group is led by John Sawhill, former energy aide to Nixon and Ford and a fanatical proponent of nuclear power, who has enjoyed lucrative positions on the boards of Procter & Gamble, North American Coal Company and Pacific Gas & Electric. Budget: $337 million Staff: 1,200 Members: 720,000 individuals; 220 corporations Salary of CEO: More than $196,000, including benefits." The Washington Post has produced  a Special Report titled BIG GREEN which as series of investigative articles exposes the corporate infestation of The Nature Conservancy and "documents on the organization's transformation from a grassroots group to a corporate juggernaut."


 * President - Mark R. Tercek (as of July 2008)
 * Former President - Steve McCormick (2001-07)
 * Former Acting President and CEO - Stephanie Meeks (She took over the top spot when Steve McCormick left to run the Moore Foundation)

Directors
Accessed June 2009:


 * Chairman of the Board - Roger Milliken, Jr. - President, Baskahegan Company
 * President and Chief Executive Officer - Mark R. Tercek - The Nature Conservancy
 * Vice Chair - Gordon Crawford - Senior Vice President, Capital Research and Management Company
 * Vice Chair - Roberto Hernández Ramírez - Chairman, Banco Nacional de Mexico
 * Treasurer & Chair, Finance Committee - Muneer A. Satter - Managing Director, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
 * Secretary - Georgia Welles - Conservationist
 * Chair, Audit Committee - John P. Sall - Executive Vice President, Director and Co-Founder, SAS Institute
 * Chair, Conservation Activities Review Committee - Teresa Beck - Former President, American Stores Co.
 * Chair, Governance, Nominating, and Human Resources Committee - Harry Groome - Author and Conservationist
 * Joel E. Cohen - Abby Rockefeller Mauze Professor, Rockefeller University and Columbia University
 * Gretchen C. Daily - Department of Biological Sciences and Woods Institute for the Environment–Stanford University
 * Steven A. Denning - Chairman, General Atlantic LLC
 * Frank E. Loy - Former Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs United States Government
 * James C. Morgan - Chairman Emeritus, Applied Materials, Inc.
 * Thomas S. Middleton - Senior Managing Director, Blackstone Group
 * William W. Murdoch - Professor of Ecology, University of California–Santa Barbara
 * Stephen Polasky - Professor of Ecological/Environmental Economics, University of Minnesota
 * Cristián Samper - Director, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.
 * Christine M. Scott - Conservationist
 * Thomas J. Tierney - Chairman and Co-Founder, The Bridgespan Group, Inc.
 * Shirley Young - President, Shirley Young Associates

Former Board of directors
Source
 * Teresa Beck - Conservationist
 * Dr. Joel E. Cohen - Abby Rockefeller Mauze Professor Rockefeller University and Columbia University
 * Gretchen C. Daily - Department of Biological Sciences and Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University - Stanford, California
 * Harry Groome - Conservationist
 * Roberto Hernández-Ramírez - Chairman Banco Nacional de Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico
 * Dr. Frances C. James - Professor Emeritus Florida State University, Department of Biological Science, Tallahassee, Florida
 * Roger Milliken, Jr. - President Baskahegan Company, Cumberland, Maine
 * William W. Murdoch - Professor of Ecology, University of California–Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California
 * John P. Sall - Executive Vice President, Director and Co-Founder SAS Institute, Cary, North Carolina
 * Muneer A. Satter - Managing Director The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Chicago, Illinois
 * Christine M. Scott - Conservationist
 * Georgia Welles - Conservationist
 * Shirley A. Young - President Shirley Young Associates, New York, New York & Shanghai, China

Executive Committee

 * John P. Morgridge - Chairman of the Board of Directors, Chairman Cisco Systems, Inc.
 * Steven J. McCormick - President and Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Georgia-Pacific Corporation
 * A. D. Correll, Jr. - Chair, Audit Committee
 * James C. Morgan - Chair, Governance, Nominating, and Human Resources Committee, Chairman Applied Materials, Inc.
 * Carol E. Dinkins - Vice Chair, Senior Partner Vinson & Elkins L.L.P.
 * Gordon Crawford - Treasurer & Chair, Finance Committee, Senior Vice President Capital Research and Management Company
 * Jan V. Portman - Secretary, Conservationist

Contact Details
Worldwide Office The Nature Conservancy 4245 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 100 Arlington, VA 22203-1606 Phone: +1 (703) 841-5300 Web: http://www.nature.org/

Sourcewatch Resources

 * Environmental organizations
 * Nongovernmental organizations
 * Kelvin H. Taketa
 * Christopher T. Bayley
 * Anthony Cavalieri - former advisor
 * Sanjayan Muttulingam - lead scientist
 * Graham Chisholm - California
 * Louisa C. Duemling