About Us

Steven J. McCormick is the president and a trustee of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.  

Steve was previously the president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) where he served in that capacity from 2001 - 2007. As president, he led the organization into becoming a truly global enterprise, operating in 30 countries as well as every state in the U.S. During his tenure, he oversaw an operating budget of over $500 million, and a highly distributed staff of over 3,000. Under Steve’s leadership, revenues from all sources increased significantly, hitting an all-time high of $1.2 billion in 2006.  

Prior to his role as president and CEO of TNC, from 2000 - 2001 Steve was a founding partner of the Resources Law Group, a firm based in Sacramento, which provides transactional and consulting services in land-use and natural resources law and policy, and creates innovative opportunities for conservation philanthropy.  

Steve began his career with TNC in 1976 as western regional legal counsel, and rose through the ranks to spend 16 years as executive director of the California state program. In that role he led an organization-wide effort that created Conservation by Design, the strategic framework that now guides all of TNC’s work around the world.  

Steve serves on the Advisory Board of the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Initiative, and the boards of Independent Sector, Sustainable Conservation, and the California Game Wardens Foundation. He has also served on the U.C. Berkeley College of Natural Resources Advisory Board. Steve is the recipient of the Chevron Conservation Award, the Edmund G. Brown Award for Environmental and Economic Balance, the John Pritzlaff Conservation Award, and the California League of Conservation Voter's Conservation Leadership Award.  

Steve has a B.S. in Agricultural Economics from the University of California at Berkeley (1973), where he graduated with honors, and a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of Law (1976).