Martin Goebel

Martin Goebel is the founding President of Sustainable Northwest. He has been responsible for initiating most of its community sustainability partnerships in Oregon, Idaho, Washington and California. He spearheaded the early-stage design of Sustainable Northwest’s Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities Partnership and its sustainability finance initiatives and serves as the principal liaison with Sustainable Northwest’s board and donors.

Born and raised in Mexico in a tri-cultural environment, Martin received a Bachelor's Degree in Forestry at Oregon State University, and a Master's Degree at Texas A&M University in Natural Resources Conservation and Development.

In his early career Martin worked for the National Park Service as a seasonal ranger at Crater Lake National Park. He has also practiced community forestry with the forest service of Mexico. His international conservation career began with The Nature Conservancy’s International Program as assistant director for science. He later helped found and worked at Conservation International as its Mexico Program director, a position he also held subsequently at World Wildlife Fund. As WWF’s Mexico Program director he founded the Mexico Nature Conservation Fund.

From 1996 through 2006 Martin served as a trustee of the Summit Foundation. He has served on the Oregon Sustainability Board since its inception. Currently Martin is a Trustee of the Compton Foundation, where he chairs its environment & sustainability and its nominating committees, and of the recently established American School Foundation - USA. He also serves on the advisory councils of Oregon Solutions, San Diego Museum of Natural History Museum, and the Mexico Nature Conservation Fund (Mexico City). Since 2006 Martin has served as an advisor to the Walton Family Foundation. In all these organizations he endeavors to promote environmental and sustainable development values and practice, ecosystem-level conservation initiatives that build local capacity, foster responsible market and business practices, and foster healthy, long-term partnership between government agencies, non-profit organizations, research institutions, grassroots community groups, private enterprise, bi- and multi-lateral development agencies, and philanthropies. Martin enjoys speaking publicly and frequently writes and publishes on the subjects of conservation and sustainable development in the Pacific Northwest and Latin America. He is also an avid fly fisherman and enjoys sailing and travel.

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