Terry Garcia
Founder and President of Exploration Ventures. Co-founder of UPROAR. Former Executive Vice President and Chief Science and Exploration Officer at the National Geographic Society.
About Terry
Terry Garcia is a public policy, conservation, exploration, and media leader whose career has consistently focused on ambitious ideas with the potential to create lasting impact. Across government, law, science, and storytelling, he has helped advance work connected to the environment, human knowledge, and the protection of the natural world.
Terry began his career in Washington, working on international development, foreign assistance, and environmental policy. Believing that legal training would help him become more effective in shaping policy, he attended George Washington University Law School and later became a partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. Although he built a successful legal career, he ultimately realized that professional achievement alone was not giving him the sense of contribution he wanted.
He left private practice to join the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, first as General Counsel and later as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Deputy Administrator of NOAA. In those roles, he worked on issues involving climate, oceans, endangered species, coastal protection, and environmental policy, including efforts that helped preserve California's ancient Headwaters Forest.
Terry later joined the National Geographic Society, where he spent 17 years overseeing its global science, exploration, conservation, and education work. He helped support hundreds of explorers, scientists, researchers, conservationists, and filmmakers, often backing unconventional people and ideas that more traditional institutions considered too uncertain or ambitious.
He came to view National Geographic as a form of venture capital for science and exploration. Rather than supporting only safe, incremental work, Garcia looked for persistent individuals who were consumed by a question or mission and willing to continue despite uncertainty. He also helped bring science and storytelling together, using National Geographic's global reach to turn discovery into awareness, and awareness into action.
Today, Terry leads Exploration Ventures and works across advising, writing, conservation, education, and media. He is also a co-founder of UPROAR, which explores market-based approaches to funding nature and biodiversity. His philosophy is rooted in the explorer mindset: remain curious, take thoughtful risks, pursue meaningful work, and resist pessimism by continuing to look for solutions.
Key Achievements
