MINUTES OF BOARD OF DIRECTORS RETREAT
MARCH 11-12, 2013 | AIRLIE CENTER, WARRENTON, VIRGINIA
Attendees: James Harmon – Chair, Harriet Babbitt – Vice Chair, Afsaneh Beschloss,
Robin Chase, Tiffany Clay, Daniel Cruise, Leslie Dach, Alice Emerson, Jamshyd Godrej,
Kathleen McGinty, Preston Miller, Michael Polsky, Bill Richardson, Theodore Roosevelt
IV, Alison Sander, Andrew Steer, Lee Thomas, Todd Thomson, Susan Tierney, D. James
Umpleby, Clinton Vince, Daniel Weiss
Staff: Anisha Anantapadmanabhan, Manish Bapna, Steve Barker, Rachel Biderman,
Elizabeth Cook, Holger Dalkmann, Vivian Fong, Craig Hanson, Aaron Holdway, Kirsty
Jenkinson, Lailai Li, Jennifer Morgan, Robin Murphy, Chris Perceval, Janet
Ranganathan, Rina Rodriguez, Shailesh Sreedjaram, Andrew Steer, Oretta Tarkhani,
Peter Veit
Guest: John Disharoon
DAY ONE (MARCH 11)
The Chair called the meeting to order at 1:30 p.m. Mr. Harmon welcomed everyone and
reviewed the agenda. He offered brief remarks on WRI’s recent progress and its course
ahead, underscoring that the ultimate purpose of the retreat was to agree on directions
and actions that will equip WRI for increased impact in the coming years. Mr. Harmon
said that the most important thing WRI is doing is expanding geographically and
building for the future. He expressed his confidence that Dr. Steer will take us to the
next level.
OVERVIEW OF WRI’S STRATEGY REFRESH
Ms. McGinty opened the first session and introduced Dr. Steer, who gave a presentation
that provided an overview of WRI’s strategy refresh and its main propositions:
1. We will focus on issues of global significance that must be addressed urgently in
this decade and the next: Energy, Climate, Food, Water, Forests, and Cities, with
cross-cutting issues including business, finance, and governance.
2. We will judge our success on whether solutions and results are brought to scale.
3. We will build our economic and political capacity for impact.
4. We will lead in remote-sensing, crowd-sourcing, and visualization techniques.
5. Our geography will reflect our global ambition.
6. Our funding model will address the need for greater agility.
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7. Our Board will play a bigger, more consequential and international role in our
success.
Dr. Steer said the Management Team would produce by the Fall Board meeting a fully
worked up program detailing plans on the above areas.
Ms. McGinty invited Governor Richardson and Dr. Tierney to offer their comments on
the foregoing propositions. Governor Richardson said he believed the propositions
offered a terrific vision. Dr. Tierney said she believed the six focus areas chosen are the
right onesDirectors requested further clarity on the process for deciding what we say
“no” to and how we will operationalize a complex matrix to avoid siloing and achieve
synergies across programs and countries. Mr. Thomson underlined that the integration
across issues is the key and that WRI can play an important cross-cutting role that
others do not. Dr. Steer said that these points would be given attention in the workedup strategy.
As an example of a product line, Mr. Bapna gave a brief presentation on Global Forest
Watch (GFW), which will be launched shortly. He said GFW will gather, analyze, and
share timely, high-resolution data on forest cover, enhanced through crowd-sourced onthe-ground inputs. Mr. Thomas said GFW is an excellent example of focusing on an
urgent issue and taking it to scale.
SCALE, TECHNOLOGY, AND USING OUR TOP TALENT:
BREAK-OUT SESSIONS AND REPORT BACK
The Board welcomed its newest member, Jim Umpleby of Caterpillar, to the meeting.
Mr. Umpleby introduced himself and described his background and interests. Mr.
Harmon acknowledged the important role Caterpillar has played in WRI’s work,
particularly on sustainable cities.
Mr. Cruise opened the session by introducing a short video statement from Ms.
Beinecke. On the Board, she suggested WRI create opportunities for Directors to get to
know staff in the areas they are interested in. On impact, she said scale was about
putting enough weight behind a limited number of issues so that WRI would get both
results and attention. She pointed to one of WRI’s signature achievements, the
Greenhouse Gas Protocol, which has had a large impact through scale. When you
achieve scale, she said, you own that space.
Scaling and Escalating Our Impact
Ms. Clay presented WRI’s propositions on scaling:
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WRI will only pursue projects with potential to have impact at scale.
Projects need to articulate a clear strategy for scaling, including selecting their
“escalator.”
Scaling should be made part of the culture and DNA of WRI through staff
training.
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Ms. Clay, serving as rapporteur, said that Directors agreed on the importance of scaling
and discussed the need for top-down accountability on stage gates and milestones to
ensure projects actually move to scale. Directors also discussed how to ensure the right
mechanism to deal with the tension between innovation and the focus on scale.
Information into Action
Ms. Chase presented WRI’s propositions:
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Build institutional capacity and skills by making strategic hires in information
communication (including Geographic Information Systems [GIS]), visualization,
and interactive technologies.
Harvest low-hanging fruit such as creating a common GIS data template and web
portal, training staff on interactive communication technologies, and establishing
a cross-program committee to advance open data.
Leverage opportunities for using remote sensing across WRI.
Recruit a Board member from the information technology sector.
Mr. Thomson, the rapporteur, said that Directors agreed on the proposed course of
action and the five-year vision of becoming the go-to place for accessible, decisionrelevant information and analysis on select global resources and becoming a leader in
interactive, open-data platforms. Directors discussed the opportunities and threats
presented by a more transparent, data-filled world and how WRI should respond – e.g.,
in the realm of crowdsourcing.
Maximizing the Value of Our Board
Dr. Tierney presented WRI’s propositions:
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Define a structured role with each Board member every two years to spur
engagement and action.
Create advisory committees that tap into Board members’ specific areas of
expertise.
Adopt a fundraising policy with the WRI Board and country office boards that
includes giving and assisting with fundraising.
By 2017, 50 percent of WRI’s Board members are from outside the U.S.
Mr. Polsky, the rapporteur, said there was broad agreement on the first three
propositions, but the Directors proposed to have a small group of Board members
discuss the target for internationalizing the Board. Mr. Polsky said advisory committees
provide the most direct way to engage Directors and create a situation where both
Directors and WRI benefit.
CASE STUDY ON BOARD ENGAGEMENT
Mr. Thomas provided an update on his work with WRI’s Climate and Energy Program in
engaging with prominent politicians on climate impacts and adaptation. He explained
how he worked with scientists in Florida to create a presentation on local climate
impacts and used this to brief prominent local political leaders who could help to bring
broader attention to the issue. He asked fellow Directors for assistance in approaching
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other politicians and having similar conversations with them. Mr. Harmon said this
work provided an excellent example of Board engagement.
GLOBAL DRIVERS OF CHANGE
Ms. Sander gave an engaging presentation on global drivers of change entitled “Riding
the Right Waves for Maximal Impact.” Building on her work, which involves tracking
more than 100 exponential global trends, her main message was that linear approaches
are insufficient in a world of exponential change, underlining the need for WRI to focus
on scale. She summarized the results of her staff and Board survey and provided sample
quotations from respondents which highlighted concerns about the scale of global
challenges WRI aims to address and the need for bold thinking to achieve greater
impact. Ms. Sander focused on three emerging trends: resource scarcity, tech trends
2.0, and “environment in a box.”
In closing, Ms. Sander asked how, in a world of scaling problems, we scale the solutions.
She said that in an exponential world it is important to choose areas of work carefully,
looking for alignment with powerful solutions; to build capabilities and theories of
change for each area of work that scale as powerfully; to select the metrics by which to
measure success; to frame the problem for maximal leverage and connection; and to
build in periodic refresh to acknowledge pace of change in context.
DINNER SPEECHES
Mr. Dach, Mr. Roosevelt, and Mr. Thomson each gave a speech at dinner in which they
reflected on their ten years at WRI and outlined their thoughts on the organization’s
future. On behalf of the entire Board, Mr. Harmon thanked the departing Directors for
their long and meritorious service. Mr. Roosevelt, it was announced, will remain
involved with WRI as co-chair of the new Global Advisory Council.
DAY TWO (MARCH 12)
REFLECTIONS ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE RETREAT
Mr. Miller provided an excellent summary of the first day of the retreat and Mr. Polsky
offered his reflections. Mr. Polsky said the proposed strategies are excellent and that the
most important thing now is to execute them with vision and focus. In addition, Mr.
Polsky said he was struck by the quality of WRI’s people, both staff and Directors. He
said we need to think about how to fully utilize this tremendous human resource.
OUR GEOGRAPHY: CURRENT STATUS AND FUTURE PLANS
Mr. Godrej opened the session by noting the importance of WRI’s decision to set up
offices in China, India and Brazil. He summarized WRI India’s recent progress, where
there are now close to 40 staff and projects moving to scale. Mr. Harmon thanked Mr.
Godrej for his vision, leadership, and generosity.
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Mr. Bapna acknowledged the important role the Board has played in helping WRI to
move from being a Washington-based organization to a global organization, which he
said has been WRI’s most defining institutional change. Mr. Bapna presented WRI’s
propositions on global presences:
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Fully establish WRI institutional presences in China, India, and Brazil and fully
develop the Sisterhood model.
 Establish light-touch institutional presences in Africa, Indonesia, and Europe.
 Invest in communications technology to ensure that our global network operates
seamlessly as one unit.
 Ensure country strategies both address local priorities and lever WRI assets.
Ms. Li, WRI’s new China Country Director, provided an update on WRI China, which
now has 20 staff at its Beijing office. She described the political context in which WRI
works and emphasized the focus of China’s new leadership on urbanization and building
an “ecological civilization.”
Ms. Biderman provided an update on WRI Brasil, which will soon have a legal presence.
She said Brazil is a strong democracy but one with big challenges. She said Rio+20 has
kept sustainability on the political agenda, and the World Cup and Olympics provide
great opportunities for sustainable transport. EMBARQ, which has operated for eight
years in Brazil, has been a great success, she said; it is well-known and well-respected.
She said WRI has a strong network of partners to draw upon in Brazil.
Mr. Godrej said WRI India is making great progress and is about to hire a country
director. He thanked Mr. Umpleby and Caterpillar for the support given in addressing
urbanization challenges in Bangalore. He also thanked members of the India Advisory
Group for visiting WRI India in January and invited Ms. Clay to reflect on her
experience as part of this group. Ms. Clay said that if the past 5-10 years has made WRI
the top think tank, the opportunity now is to define what it means to be a global think
tank. Mr. Murphy presented WRI’s plans for setting up “light touch” offices in Africa,
Indonesia, and Europe. Such offices, he explained, would allow WRI to be closer to
partners and to access local funding through on-the-ground presences.
BRIEF PRESENTATION ON TECHNOLOGY
Ms. Chase gave a brief presentation on her ideas on scaling. To address global issues
like climate change, she said, we need good ideas to be implemented quickly, affordably,
efficiently, and at scale, everywhere. Observing the rapid scaling achieved by technology
companies like Google, she said, we need to decide what we do best and focus on
platforms that are simple to use and which deliver rapid growth and economies of scale.
We can work with partners which can help to deliver diversity and innovation and thus,
together, we can unlock value.
NARRATIVE, COMMUNICATIONS, AND TEAMWORK ACROSS
GEOGRAPHIES: BREAK-OUT SESSIONS AND REPORT BACK
Designing and Communicating Our Narrative
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Ms. Babbitt, the session chair, introduced videos on WRI’s narrative from Ms. Beinecke,
Mr. Doctoroff, and Mr. Persson. Mr. Persson emphasized the importance of knowing
what you want to do and what it is possible to achieve. Ms. Beinecke said what makes
WRI unique is the “World” in its name; WRI must make clear what this means.
Mr. Dach, the rapporteur, said WRI must emphasize things that people will remember:
the big things, and the how. He said WRI needs proof points and needs to root
everything it does in deep analytics, or “big data.”
Working Effectively Across Geographies
Ms. Babbitt, the rapporteur, said Directors discussed the concern that, as WRI grows
geographically, there needs to be synergies and effective coordination across the globe.
The group discussed ingredients to help ensure a global model works, including finding
the right balance between focusing on global initiatives and responding to local needs.
Directors agreed on the importance of defining the governance lines for country offices
and giving local ownership to achieve results.
Think Tank / Do Tank: What Are Our Flagship Product Lines?
Ms. Sander, the rapporteur, said that Directors liked the concept of flagship product
lines and discussed what would constitute a flagship. Ms. Sander suggested that it could
be described as a set of tools that can be customized by local partners. She said
flagships will increasingly originate from local offices – e.g., the Sustainable Cities
initiative in China. Flagships, she said, would help with focusing our work but that a lot
of work would spill over the edges, some of which might be seeds for future flagships.
Ms. Chase said that in an electronic era large-scale work can increasingly be done
without any local office presence – e.g., offering online tools that any government or
NGO would be able to pick up and customize. Mr. Miller provided an example of a
successful flagship product line in action from Ms. Biderman, who said that Brazil, with
GBP 100,000, was able to use the Greenhouse Gas Protocol to engage 100 Brazilian
companies. Now Brazil is looking to scale the program up to 5000 companies using
funds that the companies pay in as fees.
FROM THE “FRESH THINKERS”
Ms. Clay introduced three younger staff members who had prepared short “elevator
pitches” on concepts they had developed for improving WRI. After their presentations,
Directors expressed their strong support for hearing from younger staff at future Board
meetings.
BUSINESS MEETING: COMMITTEE REPORTS
The minutes from the Board of Directors conference call on December 11, 2012, were
approved as drafted. Mr. Harmon led the Directors through a series of election
resolutions, which were approved as drafted. Of particular note, Felipe Calderón,
former President of Mexico, was elected to a three-year term as a Director. In addition,
the Board Class of 2016 was elected: Ms. Beinecke, Ms. Clay, Mr. Godrej, Mr. Miller,
Mr. Persson, and Mr. Ross; Mr. Polsky was elected to serve an exceptional one-year
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term on the Board; and the Board Chair and Vice Chair, the officers of WRI, and the
officers of the WRI Fund were re-elected for 2013.
Mr. Roosevelt gave a brief update from the Nominating Committee. He thanked Mr.
Dach and Mr. Thomson for their decade of service to WRI and said WRI would now
have the formidable task of trying to replace the irreplaceable. With his own departure,
he announced Afsaneh Beschloss as the new chair of the Nominating Committee. He
finished by requesting input from Directors on potential nominees currently before the
Committee and requesting suggestions for additional nominees.
Mr. Barker drew Directors’ attention to the Finance and Investment report in the Board
materials and led a brief discussion on the highlights. He reported that current revenue
prospects for fiscal 2013 exceed expenses. He said that funding uncertainties might
place the outlook as low as $1 million below budget but that proposed support cost rates
would ensure an adequate base for full recovery. He said that raising the additional $1
million of unrestricted funding to meet the $2.25 million target for fiscal 2013 would be
challenging but achievable. Mr. Barker also led the Board through resolutions on the
recent auditor’s report and IRS Form 990. He also reviewed WRI’s Anti-Corruption,
Bribery, and Conflict of Interest policy and circulated acknowledgement forms for
Directors to sign.
A NEW FUNDING MODEL FOR AN AGILE WRI
Mr. Vince presented the Development Committee’s propositions on a new funding
model:
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Raise more unrestricted funds through:
o Expanding WRI’s Corporate Consultative Group (CCG);
o Creating a Global Advisory Council (GAC) of high-net-worth individuals;
and
o Increasing Board giving to 100 percent participation, within Directors’
comfort zones
 Create a $3 million reserve, representing 5 percent of the $60 million budget
anticipated in five years.
Mr. Vince requested names of possible prospects for the CCG and GAC and requested
support in approaching these prospects.
NEXT STEPS
Dr. Steer summarized his takeaway messages from the retreat. He said he was gratified
to observe how much Directors want to be part of WRI and how, when referring to WRI,
they say “we.” A related message that he heard loud and clear, he said, was that
Directors want to be used more. In that spirit, he said staff would follow up with each
Director to propose ways in which they could be of great help.
Dr. Steer said the retreat provided him with a real sense of energy and a clear way
forward and he and Mr. Harmon thanked Directors for their active and substantive
participation.
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EXECUTIVE SESSION
The meeting went into Executive Session at 3:00 p.m.
The meeting adjourned at 3:15 p.m.
Steve Barker
Secretary and Treasurer
Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Administration
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