Terry D Garcia
CEO Exploration Ventures

Terry Garcia is currently CEO of Exploration Ventures, a company providing strategic advice to global clients in a range of industries, including science and technology, conservation, art, entertainment/media and education.

For 17 years, Garcia served as Executive Vice President and Chief Science and Exploration Officer for the National Geographic Society. He was responsible for the Society’s core mission programs, including programs that supported and managed more than 400 scientific field research, conservation and exploration projects annually.

In June 2010 Garcia was appointed by President Obama to serve on the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. The Commission investigated the root causes of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

In 2011, he received Peru’s highest civilian award, “Orden del Sol del Peru,” for his role in helping repatriate a collection of ancient artifacts taken from Machu Picchu in 1912.

Prior to joining National Geographic in 2000, Garcia was Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Deputy Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) where he oversaw U.S. coastal, ocean, and atmospheric programs, including recovery of endangered species, habitat conservation planning, Clean Water Act implementation, the development of the national marine sanctuary system and commercial satellite licensing. From 1994 to 1996, he was NOAA’s general counsel. Among other responsibilities, he led the implementation of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Restoration Plan for Prince William Sound and the Gulf of Alaska.

Before entering government service, Garcia was a partner in the national law firms of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and Hughes Hubbard & Reed.

He is a research affiliate for the MIT Media Lab Open Agriculture Initiative. In 2011, he was named by the First Minister of Scotland to be Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Government of Scotland’s Saltire Challenge Prize for marine renewable energy. He also serves on NOAA’s Sanctuary System Business Advisory Council. He is a member of the boards of directors of Mystic Aquarium and the Amazonian Center for Environmental Education and Research (ACEER) and the advisory board of the Harte Research Institute of Gulf of Mexico Studies, Texas A&M University. Garcia also has served on the U.S. National Committee for the Census of Marine Life, the board of trustees of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation as well as panels convened by the NOAA, National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Public Administration.