Steve McCormick is the former president of The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (2007–2014) and the former president and CEO of

The Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, United States. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in ...

(2000–2007). In May 2014,

Gordon Moore Gordon Earle Moore (January 3, 1929 – March 24, 2023) was an American businessman, engineer, and the co-founder and emeritus chairman of Intel Corporation. He proposed Moore's law which makes the observation that the number of transistors i ...

announced that McCormick was leaving the Moore Foundation to co-found a startup to create the first global, open-source database on

ecosystem services Ecosystem services are the various benefits that humans derive from Ecosystem, ecosystems. The interconnected Biotic_material, living and Abiotic, non-living components of the natural environment offer benefits such as pollination of crops, clean ...

and

natural capital Natural capital is the world's stock of natural resources, which includes geology, soils, air, water and all living organisms. Some natural capital assets provide people with free goods and services, often called ecosystem services. All of t ...

, calle
The Earth Genome
McCormick is a board member for many social impact and environmental organizations.

The Nature Conservancy

McCormick is credited with reorganizing

(TNC) into a "truly global entity to fulfill its mission." 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, with its assets increasing to $5.4 billion. 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. 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 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

). On June 8, 2005, McCormick defended TNC's land acquisition practices in front of the

United States Senate Committee on Finance The United States Senate Committee on Finance (or, less formally, Senate Finance Committee) is a standing committee of the United States Senate. The committee concerns itself with matters relating to taxation and other revenue measures generall ...

, after a 2003 Washington Post article,
Nonprofit Land Bank Amasses Millions
'' questioned TNC's motives. An academic study of the incident concluded that the Post's analysis was "reductionist" to the point of "misleading."

The Moore Foundation

As president and CEO of the Moore Foundation, McCormick wrote prolifically on the importance of supporting basic science, especially for environmental conservation. 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 The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is an American philanthropic nonprofit organization. It was established in 1934 by Alfred P. Sloan Jr., president and chief executive officer of General Motors. The Sloan Foundation makes grants to support origin ...

) to the

Berkeley Institute for Data Science The Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS) is a central hub of research and education within University of California, Berkeley designed to facilitate data-intensive science and earn grants to be disseminated within the sciences. BIDS was init ...

. McCormick left "abruptly" with much speculation as to why. 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.

Board service and awards

McCormick has served on numerous boards, including The Independent Sector, Sustainable Conservation, the

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, that is among the largest List of natural history museums, museums of natural history in the world, housing over ...

, and the advisory board of the

UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources The Rausser College of Natural Resources (RCNR), or Rausser College, is the oldest college at the University of California, Berkeley and in the University of California system. Established in 1868 as the College of Agriculture under the federal ...

. 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.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McCormick, Steve 1951 births American environmentalists American chief executives Living people