Michael A. Reuter

For more than 35 years in the U.S. and around the world, Michael has designed and collaborated on systems-based approaches to large-scale societal challenges, generating tangible, lasting impacts for the environment and the people who rely on it. He has extensive experience facilitating the sustainable and equitable use of our vital rivers, lakes and aquifers. He has focused on shared solutions that integrate nature with agriculture, navigation, flood management and other needs of people and communities. This approach underpins TNC’s conservation goals around the world.

Michael led the negotiation to create the Emiquon Preserve, now a RAMSAR-designated wetland of international importance. He founded the Great Rivers Partnership in 2004, which expanded TNC's water programs globally to more than a dozen countries in South America, Asia and Africa. Through this effort, TNC focused on building strong partnerships with governments and businesses to design and achieve a broad set of sustainable and equitable solutions to recurring water management challenges. Michael and his colleagues designed and advanced comprehensive, collaborative approaches to management of the Yangtze River in Asia, the Zambezi and Ogooué Rivers in Africa, the Colorado and Mississippi Rivers in North America, and the Magdalena, Paraguay-Parana and Tapajós Rivers in South America.

Michael led the creation and development of the North America Water Program in 2010, which engaged 50 state chapters and more than 400 water staff, as well as a wide variety of external partners working on some of the nation’s most significant water challenges, including protecting water supplies, reducing flood risk, building multi-purpose infrastructure and conserving vital ecosystems.

Michael is a founding board member of America’s Watershed Initiative—partnering with more than 400 organizations to establish a shared vision and integrated management approach for the entire Mississippi River Basin as a national and global model. Michael played volunteer leadership roles in national and multinational initiatives such as the Field to Market Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, the International Society for River Science, the U.S. Water Partnership and the Institute for Principled Leadership in Public Service at Bradley University. He received the Silver Eagle Award from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and One Conservancy Award from The Nature Conservancy.

Michael holds a B.S. degree in agricultural economics from Iowa State University and a Master of Liberal Studies from Bradley University. He lives in the St. Louis area with his wife and three children. He is a longtime ally and advocate for his daughter with different abilities and is deeply committed to the value that stems from increasing the diversity of voices in our lives.

He enjoys hiking, biking and canoeing with family and friends and recently trekked the Tour du Mont Blanc and the Carpathian mountain regions in Europe and the Patagonia and Andes regions in South America. Michael also biked 534 miles in seven days as part of the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI).