Douglas R. Tompkins

Douglas R. Tompkins

"A former fashion magnate who co-founded North Face and Esprit, Tompkins was prompted to sell-up after an “epiphany” in the 1980s. He has since devoted his $150m fortune to buying up vast tracts of land in Chile, then Argentina, creating what is now one of the world’s largest privately owned conservation sites...

"In the late 80s, when Esprit was flying high in American fashion Tompkins read George Sessions's and Bill Devall's primer, Deep Ecology: Living As if Nature Mattered, and decided to make a change...

"In 1988 he and several friends bought 1,000 acres of forest in Chile's Lake District. And in 1989 founded the Ira-Hiti Foundation, the name often given to the Deep Ecology Foundation. Then in 1990 he sold his share of Esprit for a reported $150million.

"Miguel Stutzin of the National Committee for the Defence of Fauna and Flora (Chile’s oldest and most organized environmental group): "This kind of philanthropy doesn't exist in Latin America -- giving without getting something in return. And that has created enormous suspicions”."

He is now married to Kristine McDivitt. His first wife was Susie Tompkins Buell.

He produced the DVD The Next Economy: Transitions from Globalization to Eco-localism.

He was "climbing buddies" with the founder of Patagonia.

Affiliations

 * Director, El Bosque Pumalin Foundation
 * Conservation Leader, Apply the Brakes
 * Advisory Board, New Economics Institute
 * Member, Committee of 100 for Tibet
 * Life Member, American Alpine Club
 * Patron (2009), Resurgence

Publications

 * Douglas Tompkins, “Worldwide Experience in the Creation of Areas for Conservation”, Undated.

Related

 * Edward Hume, Eco Barons: The Dreamers, Schemers, and Millionaires Who Are Saving Our Planet (HarperCollins, 2009).

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Foundation for Ecology and Development
 * Sea Shepherd
 * Cat Survival Trust
 * Episcopalian
 * Sebastian Pinera
 * Yvon Chouinard
 * Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
 * Ancient Forests International