The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Mark Tercek

President and CEO

Brief Biography  

Mark Tercek is president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy, the global conservation organization known for its intense focus on collaboration and getting things done for the benefit of people and nature.

A former managing director for Goldman Sachs, where he spent 25 years, Mark brings deep business experience to his role leading the Conservancy, which he joined in 2008. 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’s forthcoming book, Nature’s Fortune: How Business and Society Thrive by Investing in Nature, which will be published by Basic Books this April, explores why responsible stewardship of nature is of the utmost importance to businesses, governments and societies.

Read Mark Tercek's Full Biography

Media Highlights

In the News

• Mark Tercek on The Huffington Post
• The Goldman Banker Turned Environmentalist
  Financial Times; April 3, 2013
• Business Class - Mark Tercek: Author, Executive (PDF)
  Delta Sky; April 2013
• How to Make the Most of "Wild Wealth"
  Financial Times; March 29, 2013
• Cuomo’s Flood Zone Plan
  The New York Times; February 12, 2013
• EXECUTIVE PERSPECTIVE: Mark Tercek of The Nature Conservancy
  Thomson Reuters; December 20, 2012
• Nature Conservancy CEO's Reading List: Science, Mystery Novels and Meditation
  The Chronicle of Philanthropy; November 11, 2012
• 4 Smart Ways to Rebuild After Superstorm Sandy
  Christian Science Monitor; November 5, 2012
• Funds Would Save Wilderness Area on US-Canadian Border from Drilling and Mining
  Washington Post; September 14, 2012
• Conservation Lessons of the Dust Bowl
  Care2.com; May 24, 2012
• Bedfellows in Green: Big Business and the Environment
  Big Think; December 8, 2011
• Mark Tercek at SXSW Eco: Valuing Nature
  TriplePundit.com; October 7, 2011
• Environmental Movement Needs to "Cross Boundaries"
  SmartPlanet.com; October 6, 2011
• Natural Causes
  Wall Street Journal Magazine; June 2010
• Seeing REDD With the Nature Conservancy's Mark Tercek
  Greenbiz.com; September 14, 2009
• Redefining Conservation in the 21st Century (Video interview)
  Aspen Institute; March 2009 

 

Publications

• Nature’s Fortune: How Business and Society Thrive by Investing in Nature
  By Mark R. Tercek and Jonathan Adams; April 2013
• Mark Tercek on The Huffington Post
• EXECUTIVE PERSPECTIVE: Mark Tercek of The Nature Conservancy
  Thomson Reuters; December 20, 2012
• 4 Smart Ways to Rebuild After Superstorm Sandy
  Christian Science Monitor; November 5, 2012
• Conservation Lessons of the Dust Bowl
  May 24, 2012
  Published on Care2.com
• Take a Global View of Climate Change 
  March 24, 2010
  Op-ed in Politico by Mark and Oxfam USA president Raymond C. Offenheiser on the need to help communities adapt to climate change.
• Protecting Forests and Lands through Environmental Markets and Finance
  February 10, 2009
  Published by the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Read Mark Tercek's Full Biography

Mark Tercek

President and CEO

 

Read Mark Tercek's Full Biography

Mark Tercek

President and CEO

 

Read Mark Tercek's Full Biography

Mark Tercek is president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy, the global conservation organization known for its intense focus on collaboration and getting things done for the benefit of people and nature.

A former managing director for Goldman Sachs, where he spent 25 years, Mark brings deep business experience to his role leading the Conservancy, which he joined in 2008. 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’s forthcoming book, Nature’s Fortune: How Business and Society Thrive by Investing in Nature, which will be published by Basic Books this April, explores why responsible stewardship of nature is of the utmost importance to businesses, governments and societies.

Growing up as a city kid in Cleveland, Mark was a late-bloomer to conservation. It was becoming a parent that sparked his passion for nature. “I want to be able to look my kids in the eye,” he says, “and tell them I did all I could to leave the world a better place.”

After more than two decades as an investment banker heading various business units for Goldman Sachs, Mark found an outlet for his interest in conservation when he was tapped to develop the firm’s environmental strategy. Inspired by the opportunity to help businesses, governments and environmental organizations work together in new, innovative ways, Mark left Goldman Sachs in 2008 to head up The Nature Conservancy. 

Mark was recently appointed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to serve on the New York State 2100 Commission, which was created in the wake of Superstorm Sandy to advise the governor and the state on how to make the state’s infrastructure more resilient to future storms. Mark is also a member of several boards and councils, including Resources for the Future, the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions and the Commission on Climate and Tropical Forests. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mark earned an M.B.A. from Harvard in 1984 and a B.A. from Williams College in 1979.