Leonardo Fleck works in Palo Alto but his ideals have taken him as far the Pantanal woods and a floating house in the Amazon. He is a biologist, administrator, and economist at the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation, where he’s been doing a remarkable work on sustainability and the conservation of natural ecosystems of planetary importance.
BayBrazil: You have a degree in biology, a master’s degree in conservation biology and in business administration. Your career has always been directed to the use of tools of economics and business to promote the conservation of natural ecosystems. Despite being in Silicon Valley, you are not a typical entrepreneur, are you?
Leonardo: I’m not because I’m not a company owner. But I strongly believe in the power of creating value with entrepreneurial spirit, and I believe I have made use of it throughout my career. I always liked to focus on solutions. Does that make me an intrapreneur? Maybe. I began my career as a biologist dedicated to environmental conservation. I saw value in nature but did not understand why businesses, governments, and society in general, did not see it. I also did not have any idea of how this issue could be addressed. I began studying business administration before even finishing biology, hoping that I would find a solution. I soon realized that in order to change that reality I also needed to have a deep understanding of how ecosystems functioned. So as soon as I graduated in biology, I dropped the course of administration and moved to the Pantanal, where I lived immersed in the woods for a year, so that I could observe the full 12-month cycle of that ecosystem. The experience was revealing and I decided to go further. I moved to Amazon, where I lived for two years in a remote location, in a floating house, four hours by boat from the nearest town. There, I began to develop researches that integrated economy, natural resource management and nature conservation among local communities that depended on natural resources to survive. I concluded my research during the Masters in England, where I expanded my knowledge on the functioning of economic systems and their effects on the environment.
Read the full article here.
Message sent
Thank you for sharing.