Board of Directors
Finding Species has a diverse ten-member Board of Directors, with expertise in a range of disciplines critical to its operational and institutional success, including in NGO management, fundraising, art, law, finance, and scientific field research. The following individuals currently serve on Finding Species’ Board of Directors.
Nathalie Eddy, JD. (Board President and Treasurer)
Ms. Eddy serves as Assistant Attorney General for the Natural Resources and Environment Division of the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. Previously, she led projects at large and small conservation groups in Washington, DC, including at World Resources Institute, Greenpeace USA, and Climate Action Network, with a focus on increasing public participation in environmental decision-making and combating climate change through legal mechanisms. She has a French law degree and a JD from The George Washington Law School.
Jane Bass
Mrs. Bass is an artist from New York City who works as a ceramicist and freelance editor. Mrs. Bass has also been a contributor to conservation causes for several decades, and is a member of Rachel’s Network. She has a B.A. from Harvard University, where she was in the first class of women to graduate.
Margot Bass (Board Vice-President.)
Ms. Bass is the founder of Finding Species and served as its Executive Director for six years. She has managed conservation research and campaign projects for fifteen years, and has expertise in field botany. She established the Scientists Concerned for Yasuní, a network of scientists who successfully campaigned with Finding Species to stop a major road-building project in the Ecuadorean Amazon. She served as co-director of field taxonomy at the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Tropical Forest Science tree plot in Yasuní National Park. Relying on leaf and bark characters, she identified 20,000 trees in the first census of this mega-diverse plot. While there, she took detailed photographs of several hundred tropical tree species. Previously, she helped catalyze the CITES Appendix II listing of the mahogany tree while at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). She consulted with Fundación Jatun Sacha to calculate forest carbon storage of the Bilsa Biological Reserve, to assess its potential as a carbon offset project. She has also collected tropical dung beetles for Conservation International and the Smithsonian Institution. Ms. Bass has an M.S. in Sustainable Development & Conservation Biology from the University of Maryland, and a B.A. in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University, where she graduated magna cum laude. For her thesis on mycorrhizal fungi, she was awarded the Sigma Xi Undergraduate Ecology Research Prize. She received the Hotchkiss Alumni Association's 2009 Community Service Award for her work at Finding Species.
George Loening
Mr. Loening is the founder and President of Select Equity Group, Inc., a New York asset management firm. He is a trustee of Second Stage Theatre and serves on the US Advisory Board of International Crisis Group. Mr. Loening has a B.A. from Columbia University.
Elizabeth Losos, Ph.D.
Dr. Losos is the President and CEO of the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS), leading an international consortium of 63 universities and research institutions and managing a large staff that trains graduate students in tropical field research. Previously she was Director of the Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS) at the Smithsonian Institution, overseeing a global network of large-scale tropical tree research plots. She also serves on the board of the Amazon Conservation Association. Dr. Losos has a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Master's in Public Policy, both from Princeton University.
Hugo Navarrete, Ph.D.
Dr. Navarrete is Director of the Catholic University of Ecuador Herbarium, the largest plant museum in Ecuador. He is one of the country’s foremost fern taxonomy specialists. He earned his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at Aarhus University in Denmark.
Katie Pakenham
Ms. Pakenham is currently with New Profit, a consulting firm that provides advice to non-profit organizations on how to expand their operations into a national sphere. She was a founding staff member of Common Good Careers, an executive search firm for non-profit organizations. Prior to that, she was a long-term employee of City Year, and served in the development office of Concord Academy. She has a BA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
John Richard, JD.
Mr. Richard is Executive Director of Essential Information, a forum for important public policy debates and a clearinghouse for social activism resources. He has directed various civic, consumer, and environmental nonprofit organizations for over 25 years.
Louise Twiss West, MBA
Ms. Twiss is responsible for business development and client service for HSBC Global Asset Management (Bermuda) Ltd., a position she has held since December 2008. Ms. Twiss previously worked at the Bank of Bermuda, where she held the position of Senior Relationship Manager in Corporate Banking and then Vice President, Corporate Development. Prior to that, Ms. Twiss was a management consultant at AT Kearney in New York and a client service manager at a technology firm in New York. Ms. Twiss graduated cum laude from Princeton University. She has recently completed an MBA from Columbia University and the London Business School.
Robin Foster, Ph.D. (Honorary Board Member)
Dr. Foster is the Conservation Ecologist in the Environmental Conservation Programs at The Field Museum. A leading researcher of South American floristics, ecology, and conservation, Dr. Foster is a member of tropical Rapid Biological Inventory teams, a senior scientist on the Smithsonian 50-hectare tropical tree plot studies, and a developer of rapid photography field guides. He earned his Ph.D. in Botany/Plant Ecology from Duke University.
