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Mark Spalding

The Ocean Foundation, President

Washington, DC

As President, Mark brings his extensive experience with the legal and policy aspects of ocean conservation to The Ocean Foundations’ grantmaking strategy and evaluation process. He is also Executive Director of the Fundacion Bahia de Loreto and St. Kitts Foundation. Mark is an active participant in the Marine Working Group, Baja California Group, and Coral Reef Group of the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity and serves on the International Bering Sea Forum.

Mark has also consulted with numerous foundations including the San Diego Foundation, the International Community Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Fundación La Puerta, and a number of family foundations. He has also served as a member of the Environmental Grants Advisory Committee of FINCOMUN (Tijuana’s Community Foundation). Mark is the Chair of the Council of the National Whale Conservation Fund.

Previously, Mark was chair of the National Board of Directors of the Surfrider Foundation and of the Board of Directors of both Pro Peninsula and One Earth One Justice. He was the Executive Director of the San Diego Foundation’s Orca Fund. For 10 years he was a professor of international environmental law and policy at UCSD’s Muir College, Graduate School of International Relations & Pacific Studies, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Mark has been practicing law and acting as a policy consultant for 23 years, and was the chair of the environmental law section of the California State Bar Association from 1998-1999. Mark was general counsel for an executive training firm, a Vietnam venture capital firm, and two Mexican airlines. Throughout the Clinton Administration, he was a member of a Presidential and Congressional Advisory Committee on USA-Mexico environmental border relations, the Good Neighbor Environmental Board.

In addition to being a Fellow, Mark is also a SeaWeb Senior Fellow, and a research fellow at UCSD’s Center for USA-Mexican Studies. He holds a BA in History with Honors from Claremont McKenna College, a JD from Loyola Law School, and an MA in Pacific International Affairs from IR/PS.

Selected Publications
Mark wrote After the Big Storm: What Next? for National Geographic’s NewsWatch on May 2, 2013.

Mark has also written numerous posts for the Ocean Foundation’s blog, including: