—Systemic change begins with personal change—
Mark Tercek is a global conservation leader with expertise in conservation finance, corporate sustainability and cross-sector collaboration. He is a champion of the idea of natural capital—valuing nature for its own sake as well as for the services it provides for people, such as clean air and water, productive soils and a stable climate.
Mark advises companies, start-ups, institutional investors and NGOs on environmental and organizational strategies as well as opportunities in impact investing. From 2008 to 2019, Mark served as CEO of The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the world’s largest global conservation organization, which operates in all 50 states and 72 countries. Under Mark’s leadership, the organization expanded its reach by doubling down on science, working across political and industry lines, and investing in systems to optimize performance among global staff. Mark also led the creation of NatureVest (TNC’s impact capital initiative), drove a $7 billion capital fundraising campaign, and established a permanent department focused on gender, diversity, equity and inclusion (GDEI).
From 1984-2008 Mark was a managing director and partner at Goldman Sachs where he led several of the firm’s key units, including Corporate Finance, Real Estate Investment Banking, Equity Capital Markets and Pine Street, the firm’s leadership development program. In 2005 Mark was tapped to develop the firm’s environmental strategy and to lead its Environmental Markets Group.
Mark has served on boards and councils for a number of global organizations, including: Resources for the Future’s President’s Council; the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions; Harvard Business School’s Social Enterprise Initiative; the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED); the Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health; Acumen; and the AXA Stakeholders Advisory Panel. Mark currently serves on the Williams College Board of Trustees and was on the finance faculty of New York University’s Stern School of Business until 2008.
Mark is a regular public speaker on environmental topics and has addressed business leaders, investors, academics, students and innovators at events around the world, including the World Economic Forum (WEF); TED; Summit; Aspen Ideas Festival; and Bloomberg Sustainability Summits.
Mark is the author of the Washington Post and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling book Nature’s Fortune: How Business and Society Thrive by Investing in Nature. His leadership of TNC has been profiled in The New Yorker, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Delta’s Sky Magazine, Mindful, and Nantucket Magazine. He has written columns and blogs for Forbes, Huffington Post, TNC, as well as other media outlets. His articles and speeches are available at marktercek.org.
Mark earned an M.B.A. from Harvard in 1984 and a B.A. from Williams College in 1979.
Mark and his wife Amy live in Washington, D.C. with their dog Taz. He continues to explore nature with his children, Ali, Margo, Luke, and Rex.
Mark Tercek stands tall in environmental action. He was president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy for 11 years. From Wikipedia: "Founded in 1951, The Nature Conservancy has over one million members, and has protected more than 119,000,000 acres of land and thousands of miles of rivers worldwide. The largest environmental nonprofit by assets and revenue in the Americas, The Nature Conservancy ranks as one of the most trusted national organizations in Harris Interactive polls every year since 2005. Forbes magazine rated The Nature Conservancy's fundraising efficiency at 88 percent in its 2005 survey of the largest U.S. charities. The Conservancy received a three-star rating from Charity Navigator in 2016 (three-star in 2015)." Before then he was a partner at Goldman Sachs. Curious how someone goes from investment banking with Hank Paulson to the Nature Conservancy? He describes that calling. We also enjoy that we both are reaching new audiences---I share about Magamedia and he about talking about global warming in Alabama. As much as the content he shared, I loved his emotion of, as I read it, enthusiasm and expectation of success, knowing the challenges and the likelihood of catastrophe, whatever progress he makes.