About The Nature Conservancy - Board Member Profiles

Board of Directors Member Profiles

Teresa Beck, Utah

Teresa served as President of American Stores Co. from 1998 to 1999. She also served as the company's chief financial officer from 1993 to 1998. Prior to her career with American Stores, Teresa served as an audit manager for Ernst & Young and as a controller of the Steiner Financial Corp. of San Francisco. Teresa serves on Boards for Lexmark International where she is Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee; Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc where she service on the Audit Committee; and Questar Corp. where she is Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee.

Teresa was named one of eight Outstanding Directors for 2004 by The Institute of Outstanding Directors, in recognition of her efforts to overhaul financial reporting at Textron, Inc. In 1998, she was included in Fortune Magazine's first-ever list of the 50 most powerful women in American business.

Gordon Crawford, California

Senior Vice President: Capital Research and Management Company. Director: Capital Group Companies. Chairman: Southern California Public Radio. Vice Chairman and Director: Museum of Television and Radio.

Gretchen C. Daily, California

Dr. Daily is Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences; Senior Fellow in the Woods Institute for the Environment; Director of the Center for Conservation Biology; and Director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources, at Stanford University. She is also Chair of The Natural Capital Project, a partnership among TNC, WWF, and Stanford, working to make conservation economically attractive and commonplace. Her recent honors include election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2003) and the US National Academy of Sciences (2005).

Steven A. Denning, Connecticut

Steven A. Denning is the Chairman of General Atlantic. He joined the firm in 1980 and has built the organization into one of the leading global equity investment firms focused exclusively on investing in growth companies. He is a director of TASC, Inc. (Private), Gavilon Holdings, LLC (Private), IHS, Inc. (NYSE: IHS), Genpact (NYSE: G) and The Thomson Reuters Corporation (NYSE: TRI; TSX: TRI).

Mr. Denning joined General Atlantic after working with McKinsey & Company as a consultant. He received an MBA from Stanford Business School in 1978. Prior to business school, Mr. Denning served six years in the U.S Navy, where he also obtained an MS degree from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He received a BS from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1970.

Mr. Denning is a member of the Board of Trustees of Stanford University, The Brookings Institute, and the Advisory Board of the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University. He is Vice Chairman of the Board of the American Museum of Natural History and a member of the Board of Directors of The Nature Conservancy. He is Emeritus Chairman of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Advisory Board and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the McKinsey Investment Office Advisory Council, and the Board of Governors of the Partnership for Public Service. He was formerly a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Parks Conservation Association, the Connecticut Science Center, the Georgia Tech Foundation and the Cancer Research Institute.

Harry Groome, Pennsylvania and the Adirondacks

Chairman: The Adirondack Nature Conservancy & Land Trust. Emeritus Trustee and Former Chairman: Pennsylvania Chapter, The Nature Conservancy. Director: The Atlantic Salmon Federation (US). Former Chairman: SmithKline Beecham Consumer HealthCare. Former Director: Alergan, Inc.; The BOC Group; Royal Doulton; SmithKline Beecham plc; Walsh International. Former Trustee: The Academy of Natural Sciences (Philadelphia).

Roberto Hernández Ramírez, Mexico

Chairman: Banco Nacional de Mexico. Chairman of the Board of Trustees: Nacional Museum of Arts. Honorary Chairman: Museum of the Arts of Veracruz. Board Member: Citigroup Inc., Grupo Financiero Banamex, Grupo Televisa, Ingenieros Asociados (ICA), Grupo Modelo, Müenchener de México, Grupo Maseca, Universidad de las Americas. Member: Mexican Businessmen Council, Council of the Universidad de Veracruz, Council for Mexico City's Historic Downtown (Patronato del Centro Histórico, A.C.) International Advisory Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Former Chairman: Mexican Stock Exchange, Mexican Banking Association, Universidad Iberoamericana. Former Member: Government Board of the Central Bank and Bancomext the Mexican Eximbank, Mexican Investment Board, Entrepreneurial Coordination Council (C.C.E.).

Frank E. Loy, Washington, D.C.

Former under secretary of state for global affairs from 1998 to 2001, Loy coordinated U.S. foreign relations on issues such as the environment, the promotion of democracy, human rights, refugees and humanitarian affairs and counter-narcotics. In this position he served as the chief U.S. negotiator for climate change, as well as for treaties on trade in genetically-modified agricultural products.

From 1981-1995, Loy was president of the German Marshall Fund, a foundation focused on American and European political, economic and environmental relations. In addition, he was a founding director of The Institute of International Economics and of the Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe. He served in the Department of State from 1979-1981 as the director of the Bureau of Refugee Programs and from 1965-1970 as the deputy assistant secretary for economic affairs. Loy also spent numerous years in the business community. He was senior vice-president for international affairs of Pan American Airlines, practiced corporate law with the Los Angeles firm of O’Melveny & Myers, and has served on numerous corporate boards of directors.

Thomas J. Meredith, Texas

Tom Meredith is a co-founder and general partner of Meritage Capital, L.P., an investment management firm specializing in multi-manager hedge funds. Tom is also chief executive officer of MFI Capital, a private investment firm. He served as Acting Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Motorola from April 1, 2007 until March 1, 2008. He is also a member of Motorola's Board of Directors. Previously, he served in a variety of capacities for Dell Inc., including chief financial officer, managing director of Dell Ventures and senior vice president of business development and strategy. Mr. Meredith is an adjunct professor at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas and serves on the advisory boards of both the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the LBJ School at the University of Texas. In addition to his position as a director of The Nature Conservancy, Mr. Meredith serves as director of the EastWest Institute. Mr. Meredith received a B.S. degree in Political Science from St. Francis University, a J.D. degree from Duquesne University and an LL.M. degree in Taxation from Georgetown University.

Thomas S. Middleton, New York

Senior Managing Director of the Blackstone Group specializing in mergers and acquisitions in the communications industry. Prior to joining Blackstone he was Vice Chairman of Investment Banking and Head of the Telecom Group at Merrill Lynch. Tom also worked in mergers and acquisitions at Salomon Brothers and Kidder, Peabody. Tom is a Trustee and Former Chairman of the New York State Board of The Nature Conservancy. He's a Board member of the United Way of Pelham and The Pelham Arts Center. He serves on the Advisory Board of The Picture House, Huguenot Memorial Church, and Northwestern University Parents Fund.

Roger Milliken, Jr., Maine

President: Baskahegan Company. Trustee: Maine Chapter, The Nature Conservancy. Board Member: Land for Maine’s Future Board. Advisory Board: OSI Northern Forests Protection Fund. Chair: Advisory Committee to the Forest Conservation Program of the Manomet Center for Conservation Science. Co-Founder and Former Chair: Maine Forest Biodiversity Project. Former Chair: Maine Forest Products Council.

James C. Morgan, California

Chairman Emeritus of Applied Materials. He previously served as chairman of the board from 1987 to 2009 and as chief executive officer from 1977 to 2003. Prior to joining Applied Materials as president in 1976, he was a senior partner with WestVen Management, a private venture capital partnership affiliated with the Bank of America Corporation. Prior to WestVen, he was with Textron, a leading diversified manufacturing company. Co-Chair, Asia-Pacific Council and Trustee, California Chapter of The Nature Conservancy. Vice Chairman, The President's Export Council. Former Co-Chairman, Japan-Western U.S. Association; member of the U.S.-Japan Private Sector Government Commission and Commission on U.S.-Pacific Trade and Investment Policy. Advisor to the Center for Science, Technology, and Society. Honors: Awarded National Medal of Technology by President Clinton; International Citizen of the Year, World Forum of Silicon Valley; National Friendship Award, People’s Republic of China; Global Humanitarian Award, The Tech Museum of Innovation; Global Pioneer Award, Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI); and the Spirit of Silicon Valley Lifetime Achievement Award from the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. Co-authored the book, “Cracking the Japanese Market: Strategies for Success in the New Global Economy”. Holds a BSME and MBA from Cornell University.

Stephen Polasky, Minnesota

At the University of Minnesota, Polasky holds the Fesler-Lampert Chair in Ecological/Environmental Economics. His research interests include biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, integrating ecological and economic analysis, renewable energy, and game theory. Polasky was the senior staff economist for environment and resources for the President's Council of Economic Advisers from 1998-1999, and served as associate editor and co-editor for the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management from 1996 to 2002. He's a member of the Environmental Economics Advisory Committee and the Committee on Valuing the Protection of Ecological Systems and Services for the Science Advisory Board of U.S. EPA.

Mary H. Ruckelshaus, Washington

Mary is a research biologist with NOAA Fisheries in Seattle. Her research interests focus on marine and estuarine systems, particularly the dynamics of salmon and their ecosystems, understanding climate impacts on marine communities, and developing quantitative approaches to estimating marine ecosystem services. She currently leads the Ecosystem Science Program at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center. She and her team work to develop quantitative methods to evaluate watershed and coastal marine management strategies and and climate impacts on marine resources and human communities.

>She has worked extensively on marine conservation and reserve design issues, and maintains a close involvement with her long-term research sites in the marine habitats of the San Juan Islands in Washington State. She has two decades of experience in research biology and conservation. She is a Trustee on The Nature Conservancy’s Washington Board, is co-lead of the Marine Initiative of The Natural Capital Project, and is chief scientist of The Puget Sound Partnership, a public-private partnership working to recover the Puget Sound ecosystem.

Mary received her bachelor’s degree in human biology from Stanford, a master’s degree in fisheries from the University of Washington, and a doctoral degree in botany, also from Washington.

John P. Sall, North Carolina

Executive Vice President, Director and Co-founder: SAS Institute. Governor's Advisory Commission: North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences. Campaign Steering Committee and PAMS Chair: NC State University Campaign. Founder and Trustee: Cary Academy; Sall Family Foundation.

Cristián Samper, Washington D.C.

Cristián has been the Director of the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution since 2003, where he is responsible for the largest natural history collection in the world, hosts more than 6 million visitors each year and leads research programs in biology, geology and anthropology. A scientist and an international authority on conservation biology and environmental policy, he has dedicated the majority of his career to understanding and protecting Earth’s most precious ecosystems. Cristián was raised in Colombia, where he studied biology at the Universidad de Los Andes and then went on to get his PhD in biology from Harvard University. In addition to serving as the Colombian government’s chief science advisor for biodiversity, Samper was the founder and first director of the Von Humboldt Institute, the national biodiversity research institute of Colombia. In 2001, his devotion to Colombia’s ecological preservation earned him the country’s National Medal of the Environment. Cristián also served as chairman of the Subsidiary Body of Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, a role in which Samper helped to develop a global strategy for plant conservation. He was instrumental in the launch of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a project to assess the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being. He has served as Acting Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and is a member of the boards of the American Association of Museums and the Center for International Forest Research.

Director: National Museum of Natural History. Board member: American Association of Museums; Center for International Forest Research (CIFOR). Advisory Board: UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Former Chair: Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice, United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. Former Vice-Chair: IUCN Species Survival Commission. Panel member: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Founder: Instituto Alexander von Humboldt, Colombia.

Muneer A. Satter, Illinois

Satter is a Managing Director at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in the Principal Investment Area and Global Head of the Mezzanine Group. He joined Goldman Sachs in 1988, moved to London in 1992 to co-head the firm’s merchant banking group in Europe, and was promoted as Partner and Managing Director in 1996. He is Co-Chairman of the Board of Diveo Broadband Networks, Inc., and serves on the Boards of CCC Information Services Group, Inc. and Grupo Clarin, S.A. Satter received a B.A. from Northwestern University, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. He is Co-Chairman of the Board for Room-to-Read, an international youth literacy organization based in San Francisco that serves youth in the Asia/Pacific region.

Thomas J. Tierney, Massachusetts

Chairman and Co-founder, The Bridgespan Group, Inc. Tom is the former Chief Executive Officer of Bain & Company and has authored and contributed to numerous publications on a variety of topics related to nonprofit leadership. Tom received his MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from University of California at Davis. Board member: National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, Overseer: Hoover Institution; Corporation Member: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Director: eBay, Incorporated. Past Board Member: United Way of the Bay Area, United Way of Massachusetts Bay, The Committee for Economic Development, Catholic Charities, The California Nature Conservancy, WGBH, and The National Academies.

Moses Tsang, Hong Kong

Mr. Tsang is the Chairman and Managing Partner of Ajia Partners and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of EC Investment Services Limited. Prior to that, he was a General Partner of Goldman Sachs Group where he led the establishment of the Fixed Income Group in Tokyo and headed the Debt Syndicate Group in London. He served as the Chairman of Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C. between 1989 and 1994.

Mr. Tsang is also an Independent Non-Executive Director of China Central Properties Limited. Non-Executive Director of Fubon Bank. He serves as Co-Chair of The Nature Conservancy’s Asia Pacific Council, a member of the Trustee Advisory Council and a councilor of the Copenhagen Climate Council. Mr. Tsang is a trustee of the Hong Kong Center for Economic Research of The University of Hong Kong. He also serves as the Chairman of Brown University Parents’ Council (Hong Kong), and a member of Brown University Advisory Council in Asia. He is a member of the Chairman’s Council for the Hong Kong International School, and is a member of the World Presidents’ Organization – Hong Kong Chapter.

Georgia Welles, Ohio

Board Member: The Nature Conservancy. Trustee Emeritus and Former Chair: Global Priorities Committee, Ohio Chapter TNC. Chair, Honorary Trustee and Member of the Art Committee: Apollo Society, Toledo Museum of Art. Trustee: Vero Beach Museum of Art. Former Executive Committee Member: Ohio Arts Council. Trustee: Endowment Fund, Maumee Valley Country Day School. Former President of Board: National Association of Independent Schools. Founding Chair: NAIS Trustee committee. Former Trustee Member: St Georges School, Newport, R.I. Vice-President: Cricket Island Foundation.

Shirley Young, New York and Asia-Pacific

President: Shirley Young Associates, LLC. Member of the Worldwide Board of Directors and member of the Asia Pacific Council for The Nature Conservancy. Governor and Founding Chairman: Committee of 100. Chairman: U.S.- China Cultural Institute. Senior Advisor and Former Corporate Vice President: General Motors Corporation. Board of Directors: Salesforce.com, TeleTech Holdings Corporation. Past positions held: Executive Vice President: Grey Advertising. President: Grey Strategic Marketing. Board Member: Bank of America, Bell Atlantic/Verizon Corporation, Dayton Hudson/Holiday Inn/Promus/ Harrah's Entertainment. Bombay Co. Trustee: Wellesley College, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Phillips Academy. Member of the Board of Associates of the Harvard Business School. Honorary Professor: Tsinghua University, Beijing, Tongji University, Shanghai. Honorary Trustee: Jiaotong University, Shanghai.