Executive Team

Meet the leaders who guide our journey forward.

Jill Tiefenthaler
Chief Executive
Officer
Jennifer Chick
Chief Marketing and Brand
Officer
Kristi Craig
Chief Investment
Officer
Mara Dell Headshot
Mara Dell
Chief Human Resources
Officer
Emily Dunham
Chief Campus & Experiences
Officer
Deborah R. Grayson
Chief Education AND Community Engagement Officer
Ian Miller
Chief Science & Innovation
Officer
Alex Moen Headshot
Alex Moen
Chief Explorer Engagement
Officer
Kara Ramirez Mullins Headshot
Kara Ramirez Mullins
Chief Advancement
Officer
Duncan Phillips, Chief Communications Officer
Duncan Phillips
Chief Communications
Officer
Sumeet Seam Headshot
Sumeet Seam
Chief Legal
Officer
Jason Southern Headshot
Jason Southern
Chief Technology & Information
Officer
Kim Waldron Headshot
Kim Waldron
Chief of Staff &
Program Alignment
Darien Wright
Chief Financial & Operating
Officer
Kaitlin Yarnall Headshot
Kaitlin Yarnall
Chief Storytelling
Officer
board of trustees

Meet the Board

Our organization is guided by a board of trustees comprised of international, distinguished educators, business executives, policy makers, and conservationists.

Kevin J. Maroni
Chair of the Board of Trustees
Katherine Bradley Headshot
Katherine Bradley
Vice Chair
Brendan P. Bechtel
Afsaneh Beschloss
Kate E. Brandt
Ángel Cabrera
John K. Delaney
Joseph DeSimone
Henry Ellenbogen
Evan G. Greenberg
Deborah Lehr
David S. Marriott
Strive Masiyiwa
Dina Powell McCormick
Mark C. Moore
Mark C. Moore
Dambisa Moyo
Nancy E. Pfund Headshot
Nancy E. Pfund
Frederick J. Ryan, Jr.
Rajiv Shah
Ellen Stofan Headshot
Ellen Stofan
Jill Tiefenthaler
Fernando Trujillo
Anthony A. Williams Headshot
Anthony A. Williams

Cleveland Abbe (1888-1890)
Joan Abrahamson (1999-2012)
Joe L. Allbritton (1987-2001)
William L. Allen (1995-2004)
Owen R. Anderson (1981-1994) (Vice Chairman 1984-1994)
Robert B. Anderson (1960-1963)
Dawn L. Arnall (2014)
H. H. Arnold (1939-1949)
O. P. Austin (1903-1932)
Wanda M. Austin (2012-2016)
Cyrus C. Babb (1894)
Marcus Baker (1888-1903)
J. R. Bartlett (1888)
R. N. Batchelder (1893)
Alexander Graham Bell (1898-1922)
Charles J. Bell (1888-1929)
Rogers Birnie, Jr. (1888-1891)
Henry F. Blount (1892-1917)
Thomas E. Bolger (1979-2002)
Michael R. Bonsignore (2004-2020)
Frank Borman (1976-2000)
Lewis M. Branscomb (1984-2001)
Robert L. Breeden (1984-1991)
Lyman J. Briggs (1933-1962)
Alfred H. Brooks (1905-1907)
J. Carter Brown (1978-2002)
Warren Earl Burger (1975-1992)
George K. Burgess (1930-1932)
Richard E. Byrd (1954-1956)
Leonard Carmichael (1957-1973)
Thomas H. Carroll (1964)
Jean Case (2010-2025) (Chairman 2016-2025)
Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin (1903-1911)
Colby M. Chester (1904-1932)
Martha E. Church (1990-2006)
Leo Otis Colbert (1939-1968)
Michael Collins (1982-2005)
Calvin Coolidge (1929-1932)
Frederick V. Coville (1897-1936)
C. W. Dabney, Jr. (1896-1897)
William H. Dall (1896-1899)
Jack Dangermond (2017-2021)
George Davidson (1900-1911)
William Morris Davis (1900-1905)
Charles G. Dawes (1925-1950)
David T. Day (1896-1899) (1902-1904)
Robert E. Doyle (1975-1983) (Vice Chairman 1981-1983)
Hugh L. Dryden (1951-1965)
George L. Dyer (1889)
John Joy Edson (1899-1935)
Alexandra Grosvenor Eller (2010-2022)
Lloyd H. Elliott (1969-1993) (Vice Chairman 1977-1993)
George M. Elsey (1978-1993)
Michela A. English (1992-1995)
Roger A. Enrico (2001-2015)
John M. Fahey, Jr. (1997-2015) (Chairman 2011-2015)
David Fairchild (1903-1954)
Franklin L. Fisher (1945-1953)
Robert V. Fleming (1930-1967)
John Foote (1924-1931)
Henry Gannett (1888-1914)
Wilbur E. Garrett (1982-1989)
Walter S. Gifford (1933-1950)
Grove Karl Gilbert (1891-1905)
James H. Gilliam, Jr. (1999-2003)
Daniel Coit Gilman (1901-1908)
Daniel S. Goldin (2003-2013)
George Brown Goode (1888-1891)
James Howard Gore (1905-1939)
William P.E. Graves (1990-1994)
Adolphus Washington Greely (1888-1935)
Crawford H. Greenewalt (1959-1977)
Gilbert H. Grosvenor (1905-1965) (Chairman 1954-1965)
Gilbert M. Grosvenor (1966-2014) (Chairman 1987-2010)
Melville Bell Grosvenor (1945-1975) (Chairman 1968-1975) (Chairman Emeritus 1976-1981)
Arthur B. Hanson (1968-1990)
Elisha Hanson (1937-1962)
William R. Harvey (2012-2016)
Caryl P. Haskins (1965-1983)
Everett Hayden (1890-1898)
Alfred J. Hayre (1987-1991)
Angelo Heilprin (1902-1904)
A. J. Henry (1888-1911)
A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. (1983-1998)
Jesse R. Hildebrand (1947-1951)
David J. Hill (1899-1902)
Russell Hinman (1902-1904)
Susan Hockfield (Sept-Nov 2012)
Nina Hoffman (1996-1998)
Jerome H. Holland (1978-1984)
Gardiner Greene Hubbard (1888-1897)
Charles Evans Hughes (1930-1948)
Carlisle H. Humelsine (1973-1988)
George W. Hutchison (1935-1944)
John Hyde (1892-1901)
John Jay Iselin (1987-2007)
Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson (1974-1987)
Willard D. Johnson (1888-1891)
Ernest Lester Jones (1922-1928)
Rudolph Kauffmann (1906-1927)
Samuel H. Kauffmann (1897-1905)
James C. Kautz (1994-2007)
Timothy T. Kelly (1991-1995) (2011-2012)
C. A. Kenaston (1889-1891)
George Kennan (1888-1889)
Charles F. Kettering (1937-1958)
Gary E. Knell (2013-2017)
Maria Elena Lagomasino (2007-2015)
John Oliver La Gorce (1920-1959) (Vice Chairman 1957-1959)
Emory S. Land (1943-1971)
Franklin K. Lane (1910-1921)
Curtis E. LeMay (1951-1985)
Leroy A. Lincoln (1939-1956)
Jane A. Lubchenco (2014-2021)
T. L. Macdonald (1910-1923)
H. Randolph Maddox (1952-1974)
J. Willard Marriott, Jr. (1987-2009)
George C. Marshall (1949-1959)
Stephen T. Mather (1922-1929)
William McChesney Martin, Jr. (1965-1981)
William John McGee (1891-1904)
Benjamin M. McKelway (1955-1974)
Floretta Dukes McKenzie (1987-2009)
Thomas W. McKnew (1949-1986) (Vice Chairman 1962-1965?) (Chairman 1966-1967) (Advisory Chairman 1968-1986) (Chairman Emeritus 1987-1991)
George W. Melville (1894)
Thomas Corwin Mendenhall (1891-1894)
Clinton Hart Merriam (1888-1942)
Henry Mitchell (1888)
Willis L. Moore (1897-1910)
Nigel Morris (2013-2015)
Reg Murphy (1994-2015) (Vice Chairman 1998-2010)
Walter K. Myers (1961-1967)
Frederick Haynes Newell (1892-1899)
Patrick F. Noonan (1990-2015)
Ernest E. Norris (1943-1957)
Simon Newton Dexter (S. N. D.) North (1904-1924)
Theodore W. Noyes (1928-1946)
Herbert G. Ogden (1888-1893) (1896-1899)
Dennis R. Patrick (1999-2002)
Raymond S. Patton (1930-1937)
John Barton Payne (1924-1934)
Melvin M. Payne (1959-1986) (Chairman 1976-1986) (Chairman Emeritus 1987-1991)
Robert E. Peary (1917-1920)
John J. Pershing (1928-1948)
John E. Pillsbury (1910-1919)
Gifford Pinchot (1898-1904)
William B. Powell (1888-1902)
William V. Pratt (1933-1956)
Henry Smith Pritchett (1899-1900)
J.R. Proctor (1896)
George R. Putnam (1912-1953)
Peter H. Raven (2008-2018)
Nathaniel P. Reed (1988-2007)
William K. Reilly (1994-2005) (briefly emeritus in 2006) (2007-2012)
Floyd K. Richtmyer (1939)
Rozanne L. Ridgway (1993-2010)
Lyndon Rive (2018-2022)
Laurance S. Rockefeller (1958-1985)
Edward P. Roski, Jr. (2007-2021)
Israel C. Russell (1901-1906)
Rollin Daniel Salisbury (1901-1909)
James R. Sasser (2000-2012)
B. Francis Saul II (1985-2015)
Robert C. Seamans, Jr. (1969-1993)
Gerd Schulte-Hillen (2000-2012)
Eliza Ruhumah Scidmore (1892-1906)
George Shiras, III (1912-1942)
Robert B. Sims (1996-1998)
George Otis Smith (1908-1943)
Grant Squires (1912-1928)
Joseph Stanley-Brown (1899-1900)
William Howard Taft (1916-1929)
Almon Harris Thompson (1888-1890)
Otto Hilgard Tittmann (1889-1890) (1902-1938)
Juan T. Trippe (1943-1976)
Paul B. Tylor (1991)
Mike Ulica (2018)
Frederick G. Vosburgh (1963-1979)
Ted Waitt (2009-2017)
James H. Wakelin, Jr. (1963-1986)
B. H. Warder (1891)
Earl Warren (1955-1974)
James E. Webb (1967-1980)
James C. Welling (1888-1890)
Oscar Westover (1936-1938)
Alexander Wetmore (1933-1975)
Henry White (1914-1927)
J. B. Wight (1896-1897)
Edwin Willits (1892-1894)
John M. Wilson (1905-1919)
Lloyd B. Wilson (1943-1967)
Conrad L. Wirth (1957-1984)
William E. Wrather (1952-1963)
Louis B. Wright (1965-1974)
Tracy R. Wolstencroft (2008-2021) (Vice Chairman 2016-2021)

Note: Prior to 1920, the board was referred to as the Board of Managers. Prior to 1906, those serving as other officer roles in this time period are included in this list as having served on the board.

The CRE

Committee for Research and Exploration

The Committee for Research and Exploration (CRE) is an external, interdisciplinary advisory body of experts who actively support National Geographic’s mission to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world. The CRE provides strategic advice to help improve the impact of NGS’s funding opportunities.

Kamal Bawa
Veronica Boix Mansilla
Justin Brashares
Victor R. Caivano
Ruth DeFries
Anthony (Tony) Jackson
Andrew (Andy) Revkin
Jeremy (Jerry) Sabloff
Jyotika Virmani

Photo Credits from top of page: Renan Ozturk. Below: Michael Nichols, Andy Mann, Paul Nicklen, Ami Vitale, Christian Tryon, Kenneth Garrett, Mark Thiessen.