David Yarnold did not depart empty-handed when he left his turbulent tenure as chief of the Nationwide Audubon Society.
As a substitute, Yarnold, Audubon’s president and CEO for a decade, obtained complete compensation of $1.3 million in 2021, the yr he left the group amid complaints from his workers and inside auditors issued in POLITICO’s protection on the time about what workers known as a poisonous work tradition. to the excellent conservation group. That included $600,000 in severance pay cut up between 2021 and 2022.
Yarnold was removed from alone.
5 outstanding environmental teams reported paying compensation to greater than two dozen environmental group officers since 2019, in keeping with a overview of tax paperwork by E&E Information. The majority of reported funds 18 of the 25 had been six figures.
The paperwork, which nonprofits are legally required to make public, supply a glimpse into the funds of environmental teams which have seen govt turnover and turmoil in recent times. labor fueled by components such because the Covid-19 pandemic, the #MeToo motion, a union push and broad recognition of problems with race and variety.
The main points of worker separations usually are not publicly disclosed on these tax kinds, however organizations pay departing workers for a wide range of causes. These severance packages may end up from layoffs or layoffs. They could even be awarded as gratuities to workers who depart or as funds made to meet contractual obligations.
Nationwide Audubon Society
At Audubon, the board of administrators determines CEO compensation and compensation, mentioned Ingrid Milne, the group’s chief monetary officer.
Audubon disclosed severance pay to 2 different high-ranking executives in its newest tax submitting. Former chief working officer Stephen Meyer obtained $376,723, and former director of discipline and technique Rebeccah Sanders obtained a severance fee of $355,350. Meyer and Sanders left the group in July 2021.
These severance funds had been primarily based on pre-existing commitments by former CEO Yarnold, Milne mentioned.
Yarnold declined to remark for this story. Meyer and Sanders didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Audubon additionally paid compensation to the chief who preceded Yarnold.
Former Audubon chairman John Flicker obtained $315,000 in compensation when he resigned in 2010, the group’s tax returns present. Glints’ severance pay was the best of 4 Audubon executives whose compensation that yr was detailed within the filings.
Severance pay relies on former workers’ seniority with the corporate, in keeping with the submitting.
Different main environmental and conservation teams, together with the Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Membership, the Pure Sources Protection Council and the Environmental Protection Fund, have additionally reported severance funds to outgoing executives in recent times.
Conservation of Nature
The Nature Conservancy, the most important U.S. environmental group by income, detailed severance funds to 9 executives in 2019 and 2020, in keeping with its tax filings, because the group noticed turnover in its ranks superiors
The group’s then-CEO Mark Tercek introduced his departure in 2019, shortly after three different senior workers stepped down following an investigation into sexual harassment and office misconduct (Greenwire10 June 2019).
A kind of workers, former Nature Conservancy President Brian McPeek, obtained a $700,000 severance fee in 2019 and one other $350,000 severance fee in 2020, the group’s newest tax filings present .
In complete, McPeek obtained $1.2 million in wage and different advantages from the group in 2019 and $503,302 in 2020, the yr after his resignation.
An inside investigation in 2019 concluded that McPeek had inappropriately kissed one other workers member in 2010, E&E Information reported on the time.
The Nature Conservancy’s inside investigation additionally concluded that two executives Mark Burget and Kacky Andrews had not adequately disclosed their romantic relationship. Burget and Andrews resigned, although they disputed the allegations on the time, in keeping with information stories.
Burget, who was the group’s govt vice chairman and normal supervisor of North America, obtained a separation fee of $728,876 in 2020, tax kinds present. Andrews, who was govt vice chairman of world methods, obtained $487,500 in compensation that yr.
Andrews and Burget, who based the agency Tumalo Creek Companions LLC, didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Tercek obtained $248,383 from the group in 2020, the yr after his resignation. That determine mirrored deferred compensation to the previous CEO, in keeping with Nature Conservancy spokeswoman Rachel Winters. Tercek didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Different senior Nature Conservancy workers who obtained severance pay in 2019 and 2020: Director of Improvement James Asp ($600,000), Chief of Exterior Affairs Glenn Prickett ($250,000), Regional Managing Director Karen Berky ($224,900 {dollars}), regional director Charles Bedford ($050,000) ), world normal supervisor and chief scientist for strategic innovation Heather Tallis ($97,115) and chief data officer Marc Touitou ($40,000).
When requested about funds to former executives, Winters mentioned: “Attributable to confidentiality, we can’t focus on particulars about any particular person.
Sierra Membership
Former Sierra Membership govt director Michael Brune, who stepped down in 2021, obtained $156,000 in compensation that yr, the group’s tax returns present.
Brune, who had led the influential environmental group for greater than a decade, additionally stepped down throughout a troublesome interval for his group and the environmental motion on the whole.
He wrote a chunk in July 2020 that denounced Sierra Membership founder John Muir as a racist. Brune mentioned he needed to carry himself and different Sierra Membership leaders, workers and volunteers accountable every time we did not dwell as much as our dedication to grow to be an actively anti-racist group.
When he stepped down in 2021, Brune mentioned the transformation of the organizations was not but full and he regretted not having the ability to do extra (GreenwireAugust 16, 2021).
Brune declined to remark for this story.
A minimum of seven different prime Sierra Membership officers obtained severance pay in 2021 and 2020, in keeping with the newest tax filings.
They embrace 2021 funds to nationwide program director Jesse Simons ($135,192), authorized director Patrick Gallagher ($116,250), chief working officer Jennifer Trahan ($58,371), normal counsel Phil Keen ($90,150) and head of communications Maggie Kash ($79,615).
The group’s former chief monetary officer, Louis Barnes, obtained $115,000 in severance pay in 2020. Nellis Kennedy-Howard, the group’s director of fairness, inclusion and justice, obtained $51,765 in severance after depart in June 2020.
Gallagher accepted an early retirement incentive the group was providing on the time, he mentioned in a latest interview.
I used to be purchased out as a part of an early retirement package deal provided to many Sierra Membership workers, mentioned Gallagher, who was 63 on the time of the acquisition.
Pure Sources Protection Council
Former Pure Sources Protection Council chairwoman Rhea Suh obtained severance pay totaling $645,544 after leaving workplace in 2019, tax kinds present.
Suh led the group from 2015 to 2019 after serving within the Obama administration’s Inside Division.
NRDC’s 2019 tax return exhibits Suh earned a complete of $680,598 from the group that yr, together with wage, advantages and deferred compensation. That quantity included severance pay of $368,144, the submitting mentioned. Suh obtained one other severance fee of $277,400 in calendar yr 2020, the submitting exhibits.
It’s our longstanding coverage to not share particulars about people’ incomes past what’s required by the IRS, NRDC spokesman Mark Drajem mentioned in an electronic mail.
Suh didn’t reply to a request for remark.
His predecessor on the job, Peter Lehner, additionally obtained severance pay, the group’s tax filings present. Lehner, who led the group from 2007 to 2015, obtained $355,100 in compensation in 2015.
The filings didn’t embrace any particulars on the fee of severance funds to Gina McCarthy, who took over after Suh’s departure however stepped down in 2021 to affix the Biden administration as White Home local weather adviser . Extra funds to McCarthy could possibly be mirrored in tax filings protecting 2021, but to be launched.
One other former NRDC worker, former improvement director Anders Yang, obtained a $370,000 settlement fee from the group, in keeping with the group’s newest tax submitting.
Yang sued NRDC in 2018, alleging that he was unfairly fired and that the group subjected him to disparate therapy primarily based on a medical situation. NRDC denied their allegations. The case was filed in 2020.
An legal professional for Yang, Darci Burrell, mentioned neither she nor Yang might touch upon the decision of her case.
Environmental Protection Fund
The Environmental Protection Fund has been run by the identical chief, Fred Krupp, for practically 4 a long time.
The group, nonetheless, has seen some turnover amongst its leaders in recent times, with its tax returns displaying severance funds to 4 senior workers since 2019.
These included $248,601 in severance paid in 2020 to Daniel Dudek, who left his place as vice chairman of Asian operations in August 2020. David Festa, EDF’s vice chairman for ecosystems, obtained $145,392 in severance when he resigned in September 2020. James Marston, who labored in local weather and vitality at EDF till September 2020, obtained $208,104 in separation pay.
In 2019, EDF paid $156,608 in severance to Jessica Isaacs, who was chief administrative officer till August of that yr.
EDF didn’t reply to requests for remark.
