Steve McCormick (executive)

McCormick is credited with reorganizing The Nature Conservancy (TNC) into a "truly global entity to fulfill its mission."[3][4][5][6][7] During his tenure, the group grew to operate in 30 countries and all 50 states in the United States, with revenues in excess of $650 million,[3] with its assets increasing to $5.4 billion.[8] McCormick began his career with TNC in 1976 as western regional legal counsel. He then spent 16 years as executive director of California and Western Region.[9] In 2004, he asked TNC's science staff to develop a framework to guide global conservation at the organization, which ultimately produced The Atlas of Global Conservation to collate environmental information[10][11][12] He led the effort to create and incorporate the strategic framework that still guides the group's work, called Conservation by Design (see "Method" at The Nature Conservancy).[11][13][14] On June 8, 2005, McCormick defended TNC's land acquisition practices in front of the United States Senate Committee on Finance,[15] after a 2003 Washington Post article, Nonprofit Land Bank Amasses Millions, questioned TNC's motives.[16][17] An academic study of the incident concluded that the Post's analysis was "reductionist" to the point of "misleading."[18]

As president and CEO of the Moore Foundation, McCormick wrote prolifically on the importance of supporting basic science, especially for environmental conservation.[19][20][21][22][23] McCormick oversaw more than $1 billion in grants, many of which were granted to scientific research, including $34.2 million to simulate experimental research in the physics of quantum materials and $12.5 million (joint with Sloan Foundation) to the Berkeley Institute for Data Science.[24][25][26] McCormick left "abruptly" with much speculation as to why.[27][28] It became clear in subsequent months that McCormick left to create a 501(c)(3) non-profit, The Earth Genome, to make environmental information more accessible, using best practices from the tech industry.[29][30]

McCormick has served on numerous boards, including The Independent Sector,[31] Sustainable Conservation,[32] the California Academy of Sciences,[33] and the advisory board of the UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources.[34] He is the recipient of the Chevron Conservation Award; the Department of Interior Silver Award; and the Edmund G. Brown Award for Environmental and Economic Balance.[34]