An Investment Banker Will Head Nation’s Largest Environmental Group

Mark R. Tercek did not take a traditional path to the leadership of the nation’s largest environmental charity.

But Mr. Tercek, a 51-year-old investment banker, believes his mix of skills has prepared him well for his new role as the chief executive of the Nature Conservancy.

Mr. Tercek, a managing director of the investment firm Goldman Sachs, and head of the firm’s Center for Environmental Markets, will replace Steven J. McCormick, who left the charity in October, and will earn a salary of $450,000. When he becomes the organization’s full-time leader in July, Mr. Tercek will be guiding a charity that is facing some significant challenges.

The Arlington, Va., organization recently started a $1-billion fund-raising campaign and is in the early stages of a 10-year plan to expand its overseas programs.

The Nature Conservancy is also working to regain its momentum following a 2003 investigation into its business practices by The Washington Post that sparked a Senate investigation and prompted the organization to restructure its board.

Given the Nature Conservancy’s size and complexity, some observers had speculated that the organization would hire its new leader from within.

In fact, Mr. McCormick said upon his departure that only one Nature Conservancy president — John Sawhill — had come from the outside.

“It was hard for him,” Mr. McCormick said at the time. “It’s quite possible to find someone from the outside, but they will have to become well steeped in the culture of the Nature Conservancy very quickly.”

But Mr. Tercek’s experience, which mixes high-level business and conservation, persuaded the board that he is the best choice for leading the organization, said John P. Morgridge, the Nature Conservancy’s chairman.

“At this important time for conservation and for our organization, Mark’s knowledge of global cultures and governments, his passion for conservation, and his experience as a decisive consensus builder in an intensely results-oriented organization positions him to lead the conservancy to accelerate our work around the globe,” Mr. Morgridge said in a statement.

Investment Background

Mr. Tercek has spent much of his professional career as an investment banker, joining Goldman Sachs in 1984 and becoming a partner in the New York firm in 1996.

But his most recent work, as the head of Goldman Sachs’s Center for Environmental Markets, has been overseeing an effort to match environmentally friendly policies with profitable business practices.

The center was created in 2005 when Mr. Tercek approached Henry Paulson, who was the company’s chief executive, about his desire for a career change. Mr. Paulson, who is now the U.S. Treasury Secretary, was also the chairman of the Nature Conservancy’s board of directors at the time.

Mr. Tercek said in an interview that he wanted to become more involved in environmental work and was considering leaving the firm to pursue a job in the nonprofit world.

Mr. Paulson instead decided to create a new position within the firm to accommodate Mr. Tercek’s goals.

Since then, Mr. Tercek has managed efforts to develop environmental strategies for each Goldman Sachs business unit, pushed the firm to invest heavily in renewable energy, and developed programs to advise its clients on investment opportunities with environmentally friendly companies and ventures.

The center also works with think tanks and academic institutions to develop ways to link environmental conservation with business.

As part of that effort, Mr. Tercek has worked with nonprofit organizations such as Resources for the Future and the World Resources Institute, both in Washington, and the Woods Hole Research Center, in Falmouth, Mass., on climate-change projects.

He also holds positions on a Council on Foreign Relations task force on climate change, the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Chilean Advisory Council, and the Prince of Wales’s Prince’s Rainforest Project.

In addition, he has worked with Gretchen Daily, a professor of biology at Stanford University and a board member of the Nature Conservancy, on a project that measures the economic value of forest ecosystems.

That relationship helped Mr. Tercek become one of the key candidates to become the organization’s president.

“Mark is opening innovative possibilities for aligning economic forces with conservation,” Ms. Daily said. “His vision is central to taking conservation to scale, incorporating the values of nature into real decisions, and engaging leaders globally.”

Another current Nature Conservancy board member, Muneer A. Satter, is a Goldman Sachs managing director.

Mr. Tercek said he expects a steep learning curve as he makes the transition from business to one of the nation’s largest and most complex charities.

The Nature Conservancy ranked No. 20 on The Chronicle’s most recent list of charities that raise the most money from private sources, having brought in nearly $518-million from private sources in 2006.

“It’s an agenda to listen and learn first,” Mr. Tercek said. “But, at the same time, I’m ready to get into action, too. The stakes are very high. The conservancy has to be the action-oriented, results-oriented organization that it has been. That is my goal for it.”

He said he plans to spend as much time as possible over the coming weeks getting to know the organization and its key players before moving into the president’s role full time.

Stephanie K. Meeks, who has been the Nature Conservancy’s acting chief executive, will remain in that role until Mr. Tercek takes over this summer.