Jennifer Morris took over as CEO of The Nature Conservancy weeks before the world went into lockdown, hardly the entrance she'd planned, but one that set the tone for how she'd lead: in person, close to the ground, building trust fast. As one of the newest B Team Leaders, she spoke with us about what drew her in, leading through crisis, and why nature remains one of the few genuinely nonpartisan issues left.

What excites you about The B Team?

The private sector is where so many solutions live. We can't solve today's challenges without deep engagement from business, and this group brings together leaders from across sectors. Being part of a community that operates as both a thought-leadership body and an action-oriented one, and bringing the environmental and social issues I see every day in my job into that room, is incredibly exciting to me.

You became CEO just weeks before the pandemic hit. How did that shape the way you led into a new organization?

Realizing it would be hard to build trust over a computer screen, I rented an RV with my husband, child, and dog and drove around the U.S. to meet staff outside, where they were comfortable. That first summer we covered ten states in the Northeast. People appreciated that I was willing to go to places the CEO doesn't usually travel to, and it's become a hallmark of how I lead: deep engagement with staff, trying to understand the last mile of our work, whether that's managing bison in remote locations or spending time with teams who work underwater. It keeps me on the road, but staying close and listening is core to who I try to be as a leader.

You didn't start in environmental work. What was the turning point?

I went to Namibia in 1991 intending to teach English for a couple of years before studying public health. Living next to a hospital near the Angola border, I saw firsthand how public health issues in the villages I worked in were tied not just to poverty, but to environmental degradation (deforestation, land loss, and the daily work of finding firewood and water). That's when I decided to tackle these issues further upstream instead. It led me to Conservation International, where I spent 23 years building environmental businesses around the world, before The Nature Conservancy recruited me as CEO.

Your board chair is a former Republican senator. How do you keep nature nonpartisan when climate has become so polarized?

We meet people where they are. We work with fishing and hunting communities, cattle ranchers, and farmers – nature has a through line for everyone, even as climate discourse has become weaponized. One investment in nature yields seven to eight times that in benefits for people, but nature still gets less than 10% of climate finance despite being 30% of the solution. So we lean into what resonates: if you hunt, you need preserved land. If you fish, you need dams sited so they don't interrupt spawning grounds. We also do real work in public health (for instance, tree cover in urban environments measurably reduces cancer and cardiac risk). Having a board chair who's both a physician and a Republican former Senate Majority Leader has made him an incredible asset in that connection.

You've made the business case for nature, including on harmful subsidies. What's your advice to leaders trying to bring stakeholders along?

Business is shifting from morality to materiality. B Team Leader companies recognize they can't produce or sell products without water. We're seeing that play out right now in the Colorado River Basin. That's not an ethical argument; it's a material risk. My call to action for corporate leaders is to stay the course on what they already know is right for the long term, rather than succumbing to short-term outcomes that undermine it. A lot of that depends on investors asking the right questions, not just about this year's returns, but about what companies are doing to ensure their own longevity. If investors don't ask, it's harder for leaders inside companies to push for change. Get that right, and we spend less talent and treasure recovering from the last storm, and more building toward the next things for the planet.

Jennifer Morris is CEO of The Nature Conservancy and a B Team Leader. Learn more about Jennifer.

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