Board Members
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Jeff Woodman
Board Chair
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Jim Brumm
Board Vice-Chair
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Eduardo Forno
Board Treasurer
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Steve Voorhees
Board Secretary
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Adrian Forsyth
Co-Founder
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Enrique Ortiz
Co-Founder
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Amy Rosenthal
Board Member
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Thomas Lovejoy
Board Member
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Bruce Babbitt
Board Member
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Miles Silman
Board Member
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Pedro Solano
Board Member
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Manuel Pulgar-Vidal
Board Member
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Doug Sarno
Board Member
Jeff Woodman
Jeff Woodman has served on Amazon Conservation’s Board of Directors since 2009, holding the position of Treasurer of the Board beginning in 2011, and taking over the role of Executive Director for Amazon Conservation in 2013. Previously, he was a futures and options trader for Vitol, Inc. in Houston, Texas. He is currently president of his family foundation, has a passionate interest in conservation, and is an avid birder.
Jim Brumm
Jim Brumm served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Mitsubishi Corporation’s US subsidiary and on the board of Mitsubishi Corporation in Japan. He has served and continues to serve on a number of boards involved in bird conservation, indigenous peoples rights, animal welfare, and conservation science. Jim has a deep interest in and commitment to conservation and to indigenous peoples and community rights and development. He is also a birder but claims he is nowhere near as good as his good friend and Amazon Conservation Board Chair Jeff Woodman.
Eduardo Forno
Eduardo Forno serves as Executive Director of Conservation International Bolivia’s office since 1992, supporting conservation and poverty reduction efforts, protected areas, and sustainable development for both indigenous people as well as municipalities. He has also worked for the World Bank, UNDP, IUCN, and The Nature Conservancy, among others.
In addition, he currently serves as board president for Amazon Conservation sister organization in Bolivia, Conservación Amazónica-ACEAA. A field ecologist, he graduated in biology from the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, La Paz, Bolivia, where he studied the high Andes and Bolivian savanna butterflies.
Steve Voorhees
Steve Voorhees is a renewable energy entrepreneur. He is currently the CEO and founder of Teichos Energy, a utility-scale solar development company. Prior to starting Teichos Voorhees founded and served as CEO of Ridgeline Energy (an early wind power development company). Before entering the wind and solar energy business, Voorhees invented the patented BikeLid Systems. Voorhees worked as a field engineer for the University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory and has a bachelor’s degree in geography from Middlebury College. He currently serves on the board of directors for the Amazon Conservation Association.
Adrian Forsyth
Adrian, the Co-Founder of Amazon Conservation, has a Harvard PhD in tropical ecology and 30 years of conservation experience in the region. He has served as the Director of Biodiversity Science at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Vice President at Conservation International, and VP for Programs at the blue moon fund.
He is currently an strategic advisor with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and Andes Amazon Fund. He also serves as President of the Board of Friends of the Osa, a nonprofit he founded in Costa Rica.
Adrian has supported his fieldwork by serving as a university professor, professional conservationist, and consultant. He is also one of North America’s finest writers on the subject of natural history and has authored nine books.
Enrique Ortiz
Pedro, the Co-Founder of the Amazon Conservation, is one of Peru’s most respected conservationists, having established one of the first environmental groups in Peru (APECO). He has excellent scientific credentials as an authority on rainforest management and has worked with major groups such as Conservation International, the Wildlife Conservation Society, blue moon fund, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
He is currently the Program Director for the Andes Amazon Fund. He was featured in the documentary film Amazon Gold that bears witness to the destruction of the rainforest due to illegal gold mining along the Madre de Dios River in Peru.
Amy Rosenthal
Amy Rosenthal is the Rowe Family Director of the Keller Science Action Center, an interdisciplinary team of conservation ecologists, geographers, anthropologists, and outdoor educators steeped in the Museum's science and collections. In this role, Amy helps lead the Museum's efforts to develop solutions for advancing environmental conservation and quality of life, particularly in the Andes Amazon and the Chicago region.
Amy joined the Museum in 2017. Previously, she has worked with universities, non-profits, and philanthropies to catalyze conservation and sustainable development, particularly in Latin America. Amy holds a BA from Amherst College and a MA from Stanford University and serves on the board of the Amazon Conservation Association.
Previously, Amy was Deputy Director for Projects at Amazon Conservation Association, where she designed and managed major conservation initiatives and established ACA’s REDD program. She has contributed to policy and research across Latin America and in Indonesia. Amy holds a Master’s degree from Stanford University and a bachelor’s from Amherst College.
She currently serves as treasurer of the Amazon Conservation board of directors.
Thomas Lovejoy
Thomas Lovejoy is a conservation biologist made the fate of tropical forests a public issue. In 1980, he coined the term “biological diversity” and drew up the first projections of global extinction rates for the Global 2000 Report to the President. Dr. Lovejoy is currently a professor of Environmental Science and Policy at George Mason University.
From 2002 to 2008 he served as President of the Heinz Center. Before moving to The Heinz Center, he was the World Bank’s Chief Biodiversity Advisor, Lead Specialist for Environment for Latin America and the Caribbean and Senior Advisor to the President of the United Nations Foundation. Dr. Lovejoy has been Assistant Secretary and Counselor to the Secretary at the Smithsonian Institution, Science Advisor to the Secretary of the Interior, and Executive Vice President of the World Wildlife Fund–U.S.
He developed the idea for the Minimum Critical Size of Ecosystems project (a joint project between the Smithsonian and Brazil’s INPA), originated the concept of debt-for-nature swaps, and is the founder of the public television series Nature. In 2001 he was awarded the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. He received his BS and PhD (biology) degrees from Yale University.
Bruce Babbitt
Bruce Babbitt Served as Governor of Arizona from 1978 to 1987 and as Secretary of the Interior from 1993 to 2001. He received a BA in geology from the University of Notre Dame, a MSc in geophysics from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne which he attended as a Marshall Scholar and a JD from Harvard Law School.
He is the Chairman of the Board of the World Wildlife Fund and a fellow of the Blue Moon Fund where he is presently researching infrastructure development issues in the Amazon Basin.
Miles Silman
Miles Silman is a professor of Biology and director of the Wake Forest University Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability, has performed research in the western Amazon and the Andes for over 20 years. His research is focused on biodiversity and the responses of ecosystems to climate change, particularly the effects of climate on setting species ranges, as well as fundamental ecosystem processes such as carbon storage and nutrient cycling.
Dr. Silman’s current projects include the Andes Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Group, a consortium studying the effects of climate change on biodiversity and ecosystem function in the Peruvian Andes. Previous work includes the study of the role of life history and plant-animal interactions in the structure and diversity of tropical tree communities in Manu National Park, Peru, and a paleoecological investigation into the composition and stability of tropical tree communities over time.
Dr. Silman received a PhD in zoology from Duke University and graduated with a BA in biology from the University of Missouri.
Pedro Solano
Pedro Solano is an internationally known environmental lawyer with over 20 years experience, currently as the Executive Director of SPDA (the Peruvian Society for Environmental Law). Mr. Solano has played a key role in the design of the legal framework to regulate Peruvian natural protected areas and other legal instruments for conservation.
He has worked on environmental politics and policy, legal tools and incentives for private and community-based conservation and ecotourism, at both a national and international level. He has published ten books on conservation topics.
Manuel Pulgar-Vidal
Manuel Pulgar-Vidal is a lawyer specializing in environmental issues, currently the Leader of the Climate & Energy Global Practice of World Wild Fund for Nature International. As the former Minister of Enviroment of Peru, he has a long history of supporting conservation in the Amazon. He is an expert in the area of environmental law and policy with special emphasis on issues related to environmental policy and management, at national, regional and local levels.
Before his appointment as Minister, he had been the Executive Director of the Peruvian Society for Environmental Law (Sociedad Peruana de Derecho Ambiental SPDA), where is currently a board member. In 2014 and 2015, he was president of the UN Climate Convention’s twentieth conference of the parties (COP 20). Manuel received a Master’s Degree in Business Law from Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC), Peru. He is based in the WWF offices in Berlin Germany.
Doug Sarno
Doug Sarno serves as the President of Forum Facilitation Group and Principal at The Participation Company (TPC). Doug is recognized throughout the world as an expert in stakeholder participation and group decision-making with over 30 years of experience as a facilitator, strategist, and trainer on a wide range of issues. He regularly supports government agencies, non-profit organizations and stakeholder groups in conducting effective communication, decision-making, dispute resolution, stakeholder participation, collaboration, strategic planning and visioning, leadership, governance, and organizational effectiveness.
His extensive work and numerous trainings, articles, reports, and presentations on these topics have resulted in positive changes in the way participatory decision-making is approached worldwide. He was an original designer and a Master Trainer for the week-long International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) Certificate Training in Public Participation, which he has taught to thousands of students worldwide.
Doug received his MBA from the University of Maryland and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Virginia. He is also a Master Certified Public Participation Professional (MCP3).
