The Land Program in The Nature Conservancy of California advances strategic initiatives aimed at conserving and restoring terrestrial ecosystems so they can sustain biodiversity in the face of climate change and provide a suite of ecosystem services that benefit society – and to create models for doing so that can be scaled through replication or policy change to effect conservation more broadly. The Land Program Director leads and manages this team and effort. The position is effectively the director of TNC’s “land trust” in California. As such, this position leads what is effectively the largest land trust in the State.

 

The Director is responsible for leading and managing teams advancing two major strategies. TNC-California’s Land Protection Strategy seeks to galvanize a public and private protection agenda that fills in key gaps in California’s protected area network, and to serve as a center of excellence in the organization in terms of transactional expertise, innovative deal structuring and financing, and ambitious real estate pipeline development and management. Its Stewarding, Restoring and Leveraging our Lands Strategy advances best practices for efficient and effective management of a diverse and dispersed portfolio of land and water assets, with the aim of maximizing the potential of the overall preserve system to protect priority biodiversity, and leveraging the places we have protected to build constituency and influence to drive additional conservation at and beyond those places. The Land Program Director leads and manages the team of conservation professionals driving this work and ensures that the Conservancy provides the protection and stewardship results needed at this urgent moment of the global extinction, climate and sustainability crises.

 

The California Land Program Director:

• Develops, communicates, and drives a compelling vision for the Land Program.
• Provides executive leadership in a dynamic, fast-paced organization.
• Develops and advances strategies to increase the pace and scale of biodiversity conservation, with an aim of demonstrating innovative, multi-benefit and collaborative approaches to conservation that are effective in California and that can be scaled and exported for application elsewhere.
• Leads and manages the team that manages the Chapter’s roughly 600,000 acres of conservation interests, including iconic nature preserves such as TNC’s Santa Cruz Island Preserve and the Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve.
• Provides overall direction of the Chapter’s land protection efforts, with investment in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
• Recruits, manages, and develops a talented, high-performing team of conservation professionals.
• Fosters a culture of collaboration, initiative taking, and accountability for delivering meaningful results.
• Cultivates and manages strategic relationships, and serves as the Program’s principal contact for industry, government agencies, conservation organizations, tribes and foundations.
• In partnership with science staff, ensures that robust science and decision analysis underpins priorities and strategies.
• In partnership with development and external affairs staff, leads the Program in fundraising from private and public sources.
• In partnership with marketing staff, utilizes strategic communications to advance conservation goals.
• In partnership with internal and external experts in conservation technology and finance, develops and deploys innovative approaches to conservation.
• Holds overall responsibility for financial management of the Program, including setting financial goals, analyzing results, and taking corrective actions.
• Negotiates complex agreements and oversees policy initiatives, often in political environments.
• Manages financial, legal, and reputational risks to the organization and leads staff in risk identification, assessment, and management.
• Communicates effectively and compellingly in oral, written and graphical forms; is called to speak publicly and to various audiences on a regular basis.

Travels frequently within California and occasionally outside of California, including internationally.