Brett Jenks
CEO
Brett Jenks is a globally recognized conservation leader, social entrepreneur, and the Chief Executive Officer of Rare. For more than three decades, he has advanced community-led solutions that safeguard nature, strengthen local livelihoods, and build climate resilience.
Under Brett’s leadership, Rare has grown its global reach and expanded its portfolio of programs focused on people-centered solutions for sustainable fisheries, regenerative agriculture, and climate-positive everyday actions. He has been a leading voice in bringing behavioral science, impact investing, and creative cross-sector partnerships to bear on conservation’s greatest challenges—always with an emphasis on empowering the communities most connected to the ecosystems we aim to protect.
Brett holds a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and an MBA from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. Over the years, he has served on boards and advisory groups including the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Human Science of Environmental Action, the Closed Loop Fund committee, and the board of the Grantham Foundation for the Environment. He is also a Catto Fellow, Braddock Scholar, McNulty Prize laureate with the Aspen Institute, and a recipient of the Rose-Walters Prize for Global Environmental Activism from Dickinson College.
Driven by the belief that individual and collective choices can add up to meaningful environmental impact, Brett continues to champion innovative, evidence-based approaches that help people and nature thrive together.
About Brett
Position: CEO
Home time zone: ET (GMT -4)
Languages spoken: English, Spanish (fluent)
Areas of expertise:
- Nonprofit leadership
- Conservation
- Conservation and climate finance
- Impact investing
- Innovation and tech for nature
Big ideas:
- “AI should amplify human potential, not replace it. And when placed responsibly in the hands of people closest to the challenges, its upside is enormous.”
- “We must begin to invest heavily in the biological, social, and economic resilience of the world’s most vulnerable communities. It might be the single best investment we can make in human development and nature protection in the decades to come.”
- “Twenty years from now, we imagine that every conservationist will be well-versed in behavioral economics and social psychology and human-centered design and our capacity for change will be far greater than it is today.”
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