Meet The Advanced Conservation Strategies Staff And Board

C. Josh Donlan

Dr. Donlan is the founder and Executive Director of Advanced Conservation Strategies. Josh leads the organization by building interdisciplinary teams to tackle problems in novel ways. Trained as a field ecologist and conservation biologist, Josh holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University and an M.A. from University of California. He has worked on a variety of environmental issues in over a dozen countries, including the management of invasive species, island restoration, ecological history, and developing financial and incentive instruments for conservation. Josh served as the Chief Scientist for Galápagos National Park where he helped run Project Isabela, the world’s largest island restoration project. He has also worked closely with the international NGO Island Conservation over the past decade. Josh currently serves as a key advisor to the Chilean and Argentinean governments on the restoration of the Tierra del Fuego bioregion. He is a senior fellow with the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation, the Environmental Leadership Program, the Kinship Foundation, and the Alcoa Foundation’s Conservation and Sustainability Program. Josh has published over 75 scientific and public articles on a variety of topics, some of which have received widespread media attention. He was highlighted in New York Times Magazine’s “Big Ideas of 2005” issue and named “25 of 2005 Saving the Planet” by Outside Magazine. Most recently, his work was selected for Houghton Mifflin’s “The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2008” Anthology. Josh is a Copeland Felllow in Global Sustainability at Amherst College and resides near Park City, Utah.

◆ A 2-page Curriculum Vitae of Josh Donlan

◆ An extended Curriculum Vitae of Josh Donlan

Chris Wilcox

Chris Wilcox is a Senior Scientist with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia’s governmental research agency, leading a team of 15 scientists and students exploring marine ecology and biodiversity conservation.  His research focuses on the dynamics of declining species, understanding their distributions and dynamics, along with the human drivers that are causing their decline. He has a strong interest in developing ecologically based tools to resolve natural resource conflicts. Under this framework, Chris use field studies and mathematical models to develop new approaches to environmental challenges, leading to more holistic solutions. Much of his work strives to integrate economics and ecological dynamics to look for solutions that allow limited resource extraction that is both economically efficient and ecologically sustainable in the long term. He was the co-leader of CSIRO’s marine biodiversity program, and is currently leading their main initiative in creating incentives for marine conservation. Dr. Wilcox holds two degrees from University of Kansas, and a M.S. and Ph.D. degree in Conservation Biology from University of California. He has published over 40 papers in a variety of fields related to conservation, and is a senior fellow with the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation.

James Mandel

James Mandel works with Advanced Conservation Strategies on issues related to conservation finance. He is currently working as a consultant with McKinsey and Company, where he focuses on social sector and education work, and resides in Philadelphia.  Jamie recently finished his Ph.D. at Cornell University, studying the relationships between soaring bird flight and weather. At Cornell, Jamie completed a two-year National Science Foundation training program in nonlinear dynamics. Prior to graduate school, Jamie was a Systems Manager for the Automated Radio Telemetry System Program on Barro Colorado Island in Panama. He holds a B.S in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University, where he studied the relationship between spatial distribution and the ecology tropical trees.

Board of Directors

Michael Donlan, Microsoft Corporation

Mr. Donlan is Microsoft Asia Pacific’s Managing Director and General Manager for Public Sector. Michael leads a team of regional sales, technical, and marketing staff that holds responsibilities in the Government, Education and Healthcare sectors. Prior to arriving in Singapore in September 2007, Michael was the General Manager for Microsoft Technology Incubation & Programs based in Washington, D.C. Before taking on the leadership role in the U.S. Public Sector team, Michael was the National Technology Officer for Microsoft Public Sector in the United States. Before joining Microsoft in 2003, Mr. Donlan served as Managing Director of Managed Services/Outsourcing at BearingPoint and served as Managing Technologist at Oracle Corporation’s Government, Education and Healthcare business unit. Mr. Donlan also was CEO and founder of CRM technology firm, Advenix Communications. Prior to Oracle, Mr. Donlan was Chief Architect for a U.S. Government financial regulator and designed database systems and enterprise networks for Fortune 500 corporations and financial regulatory organizations. He has presented software technologies and concepts at numerous seminars and tradeshows and is active in various industry associations and institutes. He serves on the executive advisory board of the College of Business at James Madison University in Virginia. Michael lives in Singapore with his wife and two children.

Harry Greene, Cornell University

Dr. Greene is a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Faculty Curator of Amphibians and Reptiles in the Museum of Vertebrates at Cornell University. Prior to Cornell, he spent fourteen years as a Professor and Curator at University of California Berkeley. Dr. Greene’s research focuses on the behavioral ecology, evolution, and conservation of predators, especially snakes in deserts and tropical rain forests. Fieldwork has taken him to North, Central, and South America as well as Europe, Africa, and Asia. He now works mainly in the borderlands of Arizona, Texas, and Mexico. He is the author of over 165 publications, and his book Snakes: the Evolution of Mystery in Nature won a PEN Center West Literary Award for nonfiction. Dr Greene’s honors include the Edward Osborne Wilson Award of the American Society of Naturalists, and his an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the California Academy of Sciences. He has also won numerous distinguished awards for his teaching of natural history and biology. Dr Greene is the consulting editor for University of California Press’ Organisms and Environments Series. His latest book Tracks and Shadows: Field Biology As Art is due out in 2009. Harry lives in Ithaca, New York with his wife and two dogs.

Karl W. Lohwater, Buck Consultants

Mr. Lohwater is the General Counsel & Secretary of Buck Consultants, an international actuarial and human resources consulting firm. He manages the Legal and Risk Management & Compliance departments at Buck Consultants and also serves as the Chief Financial Officer of Buck Kwasha Securities, an NASD-member broker-dealer. Karl is a member of the Consulting Leadership Council at Buck Consultants and periodically consults with clients on matters involving international equity programs, the tax aspects of international compensation and benefit programs, and fiduciary responsibility and retirement governance. Karl received his LLM (Taxation) from New York University Law School; J.D. from Columbia University Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar; and B.A. from The College of Wooster, where he was a mathematics major. Karl is a Certified Compensation Professional, a designation awarded by World at Work (formerly the American Compensation Association). He is co-author of Communicating Total Rewards, which is one of the booklets in World at Work’s How-To Series for the Human Resource Professional. Karl is also an FAA-certified Airline Transport Pilot who is type rated on Cessna Citation jets and Bell JetRanger helicopters, a commercial blimp pilot, and a Gold Seal Flight Instructor who holds all seven flight instructor ratings issued by the FAA.

Bernie Tershy, University of California

Dr. Tershy is an Assistant Adjunct Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of California at Santa Cruz. His research focuses on the ecology and conservation of seabirds and the restoration of island ecosystems. Dr. Tershy is the co-founder of the non-profit Island Conservation, and served as the Executive Director for ten years. He is a member of the World Conservation Union’s Invasive Species Specialist Group, the Galapagos Island Invasive Species Technical Advisory Group, and has consulted on island conservation issues to the US, Mexican, and Costa Rican Governments. Dr. Tershy co-directs a research lab at the University of California Santa Cruz with Don Croll, and has published over fifty papers on seabirds, marine ecology, and the conservation of island ecosystems. He lives in Santa Cruz, California with his wife Erika and three boys.

Advisory Board

Richard Cudney, The David & Lucile Packard Foundation

Dr. Cudney-Bueno was born and raised in Mexico City, and has lived in northwestern Mexico and the southwestern U.S. since 1993. He did his undergraduate studies in marine sciences at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, and holds a M.S. and Ph.D. in Natural Resources and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Arizona. Dr. Cudney’s professional work focuses on the links between science, management, and conservation of marine resources and ecosystems. His research is at the nexus between social and ecological systems and explores key ecological and natural history information that is not only useful for management, but also inspires respect and action to protect our oceans and the cultures and communities who depend on them. He is the founder of the PANGAS Project, an interdisciplinary, bi-national initiative for ecosystem-based research and management of coastal fisheries. From 2004-2006, he co-directed the Gulf of California Estuary Initiative for the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, which defined the state of knowledge and conservation priorities of wetlands in the Sea of Cortés. Previously, as Coordinator of Fisheries Programs for the Intercultural Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans, Dr. Cudney conducted comprehensive assessments of small-scale fisheries in the upper Gulf of California, and worked with commercial fishermen to establish and monitor the first network of community-based marine reserves in the Gulf of California. Those efforts led to Mexico’s National Conservation Recognition Award in 2003. Richard is a senior fellow with the Environmental Leadership Program and serves on the Bi-national Advisory Board of the San Diego Natural History Museum, the Board of the Gulf of California Conservation Fund, the Advisory Board of Advanced Conservation Strategies, the Donor Advisory Board of the Gulf of California Marine Endowment for Marine Protected Areas, and the Vaquita Commission, a Mexican commission established to further conservation efforts of the Vaquita porpoise, the world’s most endangered marine porpoise. Dr. Cudney has also led and participated as a naturalist guide in more than 30 expeditions to the Gulf of California and the Copper Canyon for Lindblad Expeditions and the Smithsonian. In June 2008, he joined the David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s Conservation and Science Program to direct grant-making strategies for coastal and marine conservation in Mexico. He is also an adjunct professor at the School of Natural Resources of the University of Arizona and a Research Associate at the Institute of Marine Sciences of the University of California, Santa Cruz. He lives in Santa Cruz, California with his wife and two children.

Sean Kiernan is currently the Business Development Director for Ausra, a Palo Alto based company that develops and deploys utility-scale solar thermal power technology to serve global electricity needs in a dependable, market-competitive, and environmentally responsible manner. Mr. Kiernan currently oversees the development of several large-scale solar thermal power plants in the Southwest United States. He has over ten years experience in working the in field of international energy development. He has led efforts to scientifically assess the risks that new power generation facilities pose to the environment in six different countries. He holds a B.S. in Environmental Studies from Radford University and a Graduate Certificate in Environmental Management from Tufts University. Mr. Kiernan is also a member of the World Environment Center, an independent, not-for-profit, non-advocacy organization promoting sustainable development and the efficient use of natural resources in multinational corporations. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife.

Tom Gorton, Studio Aspect

Mr. Gorton is the Founder and Design Director of Studio Aspect, a San Francisco Bay Area based design studio. Studio Aspect Design is a division of David Wiener Ventures, a think tank for highly innovative business opportunities, developing complete programs to bring these opportunities to fruition through carefully integrated design, engineering, production, marketing, sales, product positioning, and corporate identity. Mr. Gorton and Studio Aspect serve as a resource for Advanced Conservation Strategies’ communication design and production needs. Studio Aspect has worked with a variety of clients in the environmental and outdoor recreation sectors, including Marin Bikes, the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team, Island Conservation, and Recycle Utah.