A movement is born
2 years ago, if you had asked me what occupied my professional thoughts, it would be the same as today – close the ~U$711B nature financing gap. If you had asked me how, I would have pointed to where my energies were focused – strategy, operations, and investment toward positive progress. I would have described our outsized influence, and the billions we’d already leveraged.
It was two years ago that I first met the charismatic force that is Jay Lipman. After an evening conversation, I knew that I wanted to be in his orbit. It was also two years ago that Jay, Gail Gallie, and Patricia Zurita met at a dinner, and Nature2 (now THE NAT) was conceived. The core thesis – there is a plan around the ~US711B (The Biodiversity Framework), it seems like a lot but really isn’t (less than 1% of global assets under management), and people don’t really know about it (“nature financing whatnow?”). By a stroke of tremendous luck, I was brought into the fold. For so long, I’d been focused on the plan and the capital required. Knowing about it would come, I told myself, once we do it.
Last year, Gail shared a spark of an idea. “What if we took something like the Met Gala and made it all about Nature and the financing gap? I remained skeptical. And then, well then, I had the privilege of watching Gail in action. As described in a recent article, a ‘cultural tour de force’, but honestly and something I’m deeply grateful for, a values-aligned partner. Last Sunday the inaugural NAT Gala was held. The production, the celebrity, the glamour, the fashion was all there, yes. But, what struck me was that my greatest conservation heroes and mentors were there as well. Profiled on the evening, Sylvia Earle, who for me more than Jaque Cousteau, has inspired generations of marine appreciation; and, Peter Seligmann, who gave me my first real job, whose trust gave me my first big opportunities, whose advice gave me strength to engage with unlikely partners, and who has continued to be a source of inspiration through my career. Beyond those on stage, icons in the field – Jennifer Morris, Daniela Raik, Patricia, Cristian Samper and the list goes on and on.
What I hadn’t quite realized is that culture could turn the switch. That rather than focus on coolness or the Mission, we could make the Mission cool. And, in so doing, we could right size a focus on the mission. In the afterglow of climate week, the NAT Gala, the NAT Solutions Series, and many conversations on nature finance we should take a moment to acknowledge what just happened. It has been a journey to get here, but here is just the beginning. Big plans ahead … big, bold, ambitious plans! So grateful to work with this team and see it grow. If you are wondering how to contribute, you are already part of it. The NAT is for all of us. We are The NAT. We are NATure.
Culture + Capital + Conservation =
Nature Returns
