Carl McGuinness
Global Director Natural Climate Solutions
Carl McGuinness Carl McGuinness headshot. © TNC
Areas of Expertise
Climate Change/Climate Solutions
Biography
As NCS Director, Carl will oversee the Global NCS team including NCS Science, Forests and Climate, and TNC’s growing work on Peatlands. He will collaborate with field teams and continue to help implement the NCS strategic framework.
Prior to this role, Carl was TNC’s Deputy Country Director of New Zealand and comes from a long background in Conservation both at TNC and with the New Zealand government. Carl led the establishment of the TNC New Zealand conservation program, becoming Conservation Director in 2019 and growing the program and team to where it is today. He also covered the External Affairs/Government Relationships portfolio for the country. Carl has been a member of a number of TNC global committees and working groups, as well as spending part of his time as the TNC India Program Advisor during 2022.
Before joining TNC in January 2018, Carl came from an extensive 20-year career in conservation with the New Zealand government. In his time there, he led a variety of multi-disciplinary teams distributed across the country and managed a range of functional areas including conservation science, operations, visitor assets, strategy, partner relationships and organizational design. He was also heavily involved with training and development of organizational culture, systems and leadership development programs.
Originally trained as an invertebrate ecologist, Carl also has qualifications in statistics, plant health and public administration.