Nature Conservancy Woes Not Just Sexual Harassment; Corporate Rot, Arrogance Drove Internal Anger

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“When Mark Tercek first started there was a real feeling like the private sector was the solution to a lot of things,” Ruffo said of the mood across the conservation movement and government. “For the Conservancy in particular that was maybe taken to extreme.” Tercek inked partnerships with multinational corporations with long reputations as top environmental offenders: Coca-Cola, oil giant BP, mining heavyweight BHP Billiton and Dow Chemical. His signature program, NatureVest, leveraged his investment banking background and a partnership with JPMorgan Chase to drive $1 billion of private capital for conservation — including sustainable timber harvesting, carbon credits, a restructuring of island nations’ debt to expand marine conservation, and grants to promote more sustainable cattle grazing.

He hired former investment bankers and added alumni from big agriculture companies, such as Monsanto. The Nature Conservancy was hardly the only big environmental group embracing the corporate approach at the time — the Sierra Club had taken criticism in 2007 for making an endorsement deal with Clorox, and later revealed that it had accepted $26 million in undisclosed donations from the natural gas industry.

But the TNC’s shift didn’t endear Tercek and McPeek to the scientists, ecologists and naturalists who staffed the group’s operations around the globe, a senior leader said. “[They] sort of embodied and represented the change from place-by-place conservation to working at a global scale — like with the investment community, working with the insurance community,” one senior leader said of the pair, speaking anonymously to candidly discuss high-level personnel issues. “These things that were not strengths of the long-timers at TNC.”

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Addressing the gathering at the organization’s Arlington headquarters and livestreamed to its offices across the U.S. and worldwide, Tercek doubled down on his announcement the previous night that McPeek would stay on as president despite being the object of “he-said/she-said” accusations in the report. The report included accusations that a Conservancy leader identified as Executive 1 had kissed a subordinate against her will. Several current and former staffers familiar with the circumstances have told POLITICO that the executive was McPeek. Tercek repeatedly referred to the incident as “the kiss thing,” according to a senior staffer who watched the town hall. Employees watched with scowls and arms crossed. A colleague asked Tercek whether he had confidence that McPeek could continue to lead the organization. Tercek said yes. But it was the beginning of the end. “It was like, holy shit, you could just hear it and see it, people losing confidence in a leader,” the senior staffer said.

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https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/07/nature-conservancy-discrimination-leadership-turnover-1399149