The Nature Conservancy competitors

David O’Neill is the Chief Conservation Officer and Senior Advisor to the CEO for the National Audubon Society. In this role, he is responsible for creating and advancing the implementation of an organization-wide conservation vision, developing conservation strategies with clearly defined outcomes and ensuring their successful delivery using science-based accountability tools. He manages the organization’s science and policy departments, working with the leaders of those teams to shape advocacy and science agendas that reinforce one another and advance Audubon’s conservation strategies. As a senior advisor, David provides CEO David Yarnold with organizational development advice and is a fundraising partner. He is also the President of the Audubon Action Fund, Audubon's 501c4 partner organization. Prior to joining Audubon, David served as the vice president for Conservation Programs at the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) where he managed a national conservation team and oversaw a $100 million grant portfolio focused on a range of conservation issues including forest health, coastal resilience, estuaries and freshwater biodiversity. David worked closely with senior administrative officials from the Departments of Interior, Agriculture and EPA to shape and advance conservation strategies across the country. He raised tens of millions of dollars from foundations, individuals and corporations to support NFWF priorities. O’Neill has served in executive positions in both the private and non-profit sectors, including as a vice president for Cherokee Investment Partners, a private equity firm based in North Carolina, as the Executive Director of the Chesapeake Bay Trust, where he grew the organization and its influence across the Chesapeake watershed, and as the Director of Land Use Policy for the Urban Land Institute. He is the author of many publications on the relationship between land use and environmental health and was the recipient of the prestigious Andrew White Medal from Loyola University for his contributions to the recovery of the Chesapeake Bay.

Cristián Samper (born September 25, 1965) is a Colombian-American tropical biologist specializing in conservation biology and environmental policy. Since 2012, he has served as President and CEO of WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society). He was acting secretary of the Smithsonian from 2007 to 2008, the first Latin American to hold the position. From 2003 to 2012, he was the Director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, the world's largest natural history collection. In April 2015, Dr. Samper was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Diane Regas is Senior Vice President for Programs at Environmental Defense Fund, where she is responsible for providing overall vision, strategy and leadership for current and new program development.Prior to joining EDF in 2006, Diane spent 20 years developing and supporting scientifically sound responses to environmental challenges at Environmental Protection Agency. Today, her extensive management and policy experience is driving success throughout all of EDF’s programmatic efforts in the United States and beyond. The solutions EDF seeks require a commitment to strong science and bi-partisan solutions, both of which Diane has demonstrated time and again throughout her career. As a senior policy analyst for President Clinton, she advised the president, through the Domestic Policy Advisor on environmental and natural resource issues. Award-winning work protecting and strengthening our rivers, lakes, bays and oceans defined her tenure at EPA, and she also chaired President George W. Bush’s interagency task force on Oceans. She’s been equally productive at EDF. Among numerous accomplishments, thanks to Diane’s teams and their partners, protecting one of the largest ocean areas in history—more than 195,000 square miles—bigger than the state of California; and one out of two fish caught in U.S. waters is from a catch share-style fishery.With the unmatched expertise EDF staff bring to all of our program areas, she’s confident that even greater successes are yet to come. Prior to joining EDF, Diane spent 20 years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where she served during four presidential administrations in some of the agency's highest positions, including Deputy Assistant Administrator.Her EPA accomplishments included: receiving the Presidential Rank Award for ''exceptional long-term accomplishments,'' and leading a path-breaking monitoring strategy, establishing the first-ever scientifically valid national report card on fresh water quality. Diane is a member of the U.S. Supreme Court Bar and California Bar.Diane received her BA in history, her MS in environmental science and her JD at the University of California at Berkeley. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including one of the most prestigious, the Presidential Rank Award.

ALAN SMITHSON is a CEO at Smithsonian Institution.