Cristián Samper
Managing Director & Leader for Nature Solutions, Bezos Earth Fund
Dr. Cristián Samper serves as the Managing Director and Leader for Nature Solutions at the Bezos Earth Fund, overseeing all its work related to the protection and restoration of nature, as well as the transformation of food systems. He helped the Bezos Earth Fund design and launch the Protecting Our Planet Challenge, a coalition of eleven foundations that are investing $5 billion to support the implementation of 30x30 globally.
Prior to joining WCS, Samper was Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History from 2003–2012, was and founding Director of Colombia’s Alexander von Humboldt Biodiversity Institute in Colombia in 1995. A biologist from the Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia with a PhD from Harvard University, he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Samper was raised in Colombia.
