Brian O’Donnell

For more than two decades, Brian O’Donnell has been a leading conservationist.  Brian is the director of the Campaign for Nature, an effort that works to increase global targets and financing for protected and conserved areas under the Convention on Biological Diversity and to elevate biodiversity conservation as a global priority.  Brian led a campaign that resulted in the historic global agreement at COP15 to set a target of protecting at least 30% of the earth’s land and seas by 2030. He helped organize a High Ambition Coalition of more than 115 countries to support the campaign’s goals.

From 2007 through early 2017, Brian worked as the Executive Director of the Conservation Lands Foundation. Brian Led the foundation’s efforts to protect, restore, and expand the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s National Conservation Lands. At CLF, Brian led a campaign that protected millions of acres of land as National Monuments. Prior to joining CLF, Brian was the National Public Lands Director for Trout Unlimited (TU). He led TU’s efforts to protect U.S. National Forest Roadless Areas, permanently protect more than a million acres in the Wyoming Range, and secure Oregon’s Copper-Salmon Wilderness. Brian also worked for The Wilderness Society where he led campaigns resulting in the congressional designation of the Black Rock Desert and Sloan Canyon National Conservation Areas and dozens of new legislated Wilderness areas throughout Nevada.

Brian has a degree in economics from Rollins College. Brian was a member of the inaugural class of Presidential Leadership Scholars (www.presidentialleadershipscholars.org). He lives in Durango, Colorado, with his wife Melyssa and daughter Kara.