Charles Bedford, Principal, brings over 25 years experience of conservation results in both the United States and throughout Asia and the Pacific. As Asia Pacific Regional Managing Director for The Nature Conservancy, he provided oversight to eleven conservation country programs for and managed advisory/philanthropic boards and four hundred employees.
Working in areas as diverse as the creation of new national parks in Mongolia, the creation of sustainable tuna fisheries using cutting-edge technology in the Pacific, to the restoration of historic oyster habitat along the China coast, and the largest land conservation project ever done in Australia, Charles has taken radical ideas and seen them to fruition by working in partnership with local people to conserve the natural resources, lands, and waters on which all of our lives depend.
He has worked with the Asia Pacific region’s top business and government leadership on next-generation conservation solutions including conservation finance, park and preserve declarations, climate change, fisheries and forest management. He has been instrumental in working with private companies to create partnerships across Asia, including high-profile projects with Rio Tinto, Bank of America and Three Gorges Dam Company as well as with financial institutions, fisheries and forestry companies across the region.
Charles has deep experience and expertise in philanthropy leadership, board creation and management, and organisational development; helping to create and expand philanthropic boards in China, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and overseeing the region, Additionally, he’s pioneered and built new conservation NGOs in China, Indonesia, Mongolia, Myanmar and New Zealand.
Charles is currently an Adjunct and Visiting Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He has served as Executive Director of the Colorado State Land Board, legal advisor to Colorado Governor Roy Romer, and associate attorney with the law firm of Kutak Rock. He holds a JD from the University of Colorado and a BSFS from Georgetown University.
