Cristián Samper

He was recruited to serve as deputy director and staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama in 2001,[5] and became the Director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., in 2003. During his tenure at the Smithsonian, he raised more than $300 million in private philanthropy. While leading the National Museum of Natural History, Samper shepherded many new programs, improved business practices, and completed facility and exhibit additions and upgrades. In 2008, the museum launched the Encyclopedia of Life, a web-based global partnership to provide on-line access to knowledge about life on Earth. In addition, Samper developed the Recovering Voices initiative, aimed at working with indigenous communities to document, preserve, and revive endangered languages and cultural traditions. Some of the important renovations under Samper's leadership included the Behring Family Hall of Mammals (2003); the Butterfly Pavilion (2007); the Sant Ocean Hall (2008); the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins (2010); and the Q?rius Education Center (2013).

Other important improvements led by Samper were the upgrading of collections storage facilities, including a $100 million expansion and renovation of the Museum Support Center; a state-of-the-art collections facility; and expansion of digitization of collections. A major interest of Samper has been efforts to mentor and guide the development of future leaders and scientists. While at the museum he developed a succession plan for research scientists, including a major recruitment of the next generation of scientists across the museum, and established the Buck Fellowship Program to train the next generation of scientists.

In 2006, he made some controversial changes to an exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, "Seasons of Life and Land".[6] Following the resignation of Secretary Lawrence M. Small in the wake of inquiries into personal expenditures, the Board of Regents appointed Samper as the Smithsonian's Acting Secretary in 2007 and 2008.[7] He returned to the museum in July 2008 upon the appointment of G. Wayne Clough. In July 2012, he stepped down from the directorship of the museum to assume the position of president and CEO of WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society).[8]

Samper served as president and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) for a decade from 2012 to 2022, where he oversaw the world's largest collection of urban parks—including the Bronx Zoo, New York Aquarium, Central Park Zoo, Queens Zoo, and Prospect Park Zoo—and a global conservation program in 60 countries and across all the world's oceans. He forged partnerships with NGOs, foundations, governments, and zoos and aquariums in the United States and across the world to address a range of conservation issues, including ending elephant poaching[9] and all illegal wildlife trade[10] and advancing nature-based solutions to climate change.

During his tenure leading WCS, Samper has helped the organization to pursue its conservation mission on many fronts—both at its New York City parks and in its field work across the globe. He led a $350 million reconstruction and expansion of the New York Aquarium following its destruction by Hurricane Sandy, including a new award-winning exhibit, Ocean Wonders: Sharks!,[11] which features the science and conservation work in the nearby Hudson River Canyon.

Samper is a leading champion of the role of zoological parks in educating the public and inspiring them to protect wildlife and wild places. With more than 200 million visitors every year, Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) institutions are in a unique position to connect people to nature and solve problems like wildlife trafficking and climate change. Addressing the Association of Zoos and Aquariums as the keynote speaker at its annual meeting in 2014, Samper noted: "All the zoos and aquariums -- the AZA members – have more than almost 3,000 conservation projects that are happening right now as we speak. And they take place in a hundred and twenty-seven countries and every one of them is starting to make a difference. Together, we as a community are investing $160,000,000 a year in field conservation. That is larger than the budget of most of the other conservation groups in this country and makes AZA one of the largest investors in field conservation."[12]

In 2013, WCS took the lead in bringing together African elephant range states, fellow conservation NGOs, government leaders, and the Clinton Global Initiative for a multi-year commitment to stop the killing, stop the trafficking, and stop the demand for elephant ivory. Samper was named to President Obama's Advisory Council on Wildlife Trafficking the same year. WCS created and led the 96 Elephants Campaign, which helped spark actions in the U.S. and around the globe to save elephants—including state ivory bans in New York,[13] New Jersey, California, and Washington, as well as in China and Europe.

The WCS 2030 strategy builds on this vision, and includes bold initiatives to build a global network of Nature's Strongholds to save the most important places for biodiversity; the protection of intact forests to help solve the climate crisis; and a One Health initiative to promote the link between wildlife and human health, with the goal of preventing future pandemics. It also includes an initiative to use the Bronx Zoo as a gateway for conservation and education, while expanding the use of digital tools to connect a global audience to wildlife.

During his tenure, WCS adopted a Code of Conduct, established a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Council and plan, created a regional structure for its global conservation programs, doubled the number of peer-reviewed publications, and expanded digital outreach programs. During this time, WCS doubled the annual fundraising from private donors, expanded grants from European and multilateral donors, and invested more than $1.5 billion for its field conservation programs globally.

In July 2020, Samper issued a public apology for the treatment of Ota Benga,[14] a young Central African from the Mbuti people of present-day Democratic Republic of Congo who was exhibited at the St. Louis World's Fair and later displayed at the Bronx Zoo.

Samper joined the Bezos Earth Fund as principal advisor in 2021, and became its managing director and leader of nature solutions in 2022.[15] He is responsible for a grants portfolio that includes the protection and restoration of nature, as well as the transformation of food systems. He designed and leads the Protecting Our Planet Challenge, a coalition of private foundations that pledged to invest $5 billion to protect 30 percent of the planet by 2030, the single largest pledge for nature conservation.