David Yarnold

Work

As Executive Director, David Yarnold is responsible for all operations of Environmental Defense Fund, a leading national nonprofit with 300 employees, 500,000 members and a $75 million budget.

Background

Yarnold is a boundary-crosser, an NGO leader from the for-profit ranks, having joined EDF in 2005 after nearly 27 years at the San Jose Mercury News. He authored EDF's California strategy and was a key leader in the passage of the nation's most sweeping climate change legislation.

Yarnold has sharpened and strengthened the unique EDF approach of harmonizing corporate profitability and environmental benefits. In 2006, he announced EDF would be the first environmental advocacy group to open an office in Bentonville, Arkansas, to influence Wal-Mart's environmental practices.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning editor, Yarnold helped make the Mercury News one of the nation's most acclaimed publications, ranked among the 10 best papers nationally and called by one international organization "America's boldest newspaper." As Executive Editor, he managed a global newsroom of more than 400 people while chronicling the rise of Silicon Valley.

He has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, BBC, the PBS News Hour and elsewhere. He has spoken at numerous conferences on diversity in the environmental movement and served as a guest instructor at the nation’s leading journalism training institutes on topics ranging from diversity to building a high-performance culture.

He is on the board of directors of the American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley, EcoAmerica and the Stanford University Graduate School of Businesses' Center for Social Innovation.