Kris Tompkins

American conservationist (born 1950)

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Kris Tompkins

Tompkins in 2015

Born|

Kristine McDivitt

June 1950 (1950-06) (age 75)

Santa Paula, California, U.S.

Occupation(s)| Conservationist, businesswoman
Organization(s)| Patagonia, Tompkins Conservation
Spouse|

Doug Tompkins

(m. 1993; died 2015)​

Website| tompkinsconservation.org

Kristine "Kris" Tompkins (born June 1950) is an American conservationist. Tompkins is the president and co-founder of Tompkins Conservation and was CEO of Patagonia for 20 years, leaving the company in 1993.[1]

## Early life

[edit]

Born Kristine McDivitt in Southern California, Tompkins spent much of her childhood on her great-grandfather’s ranch. She lived in Venezuela during her early years while her father worked for an oil company.[2] She later studied at the College of Idaho in Caldwell,[3] where she competed in ski-racing.

## At Patagonia, Inc.

[edit]

In 1973, Tompkins returned to California and began working for Yvon Chouinard, assisting him in transforming his small piton business into Patagonia, Inc.,[4] eventually becoming the company's first CEO, a position she held until her retirement in 1993.[1]

## Conservation work

[edit]

In 1993, Tompkins retired from Patagonia and married Doug Tompkins, founder of The North Face clothing company and co-founder of Esprit. The Tompkinses moved to Chile and focused on preserving national parks, establishing several nonprofit organizations, including the Conservation Land Trust, The Foundation For Deep Ecology, and Conservación Patagónica, which have now consolidated under Tompkins Conservation.[3] In 1991, Doug Tompkins began acquiring private land for conservation in Chile’s Los Lagos, managing it as a public-access park within the threatened Valdivian temperate rainforest. Pumalín Park received official nature sanctuary status in 2005 and became a national park in 2018. This designation followed Tompkins Conservation's donation of nearly 725,000 acres to help establish the new park, Pumalin Douglas Tompkins National Park, covering approximately 1 million acres and named in honor of its founder.[5][6][7]

The Tompkinses' conservation efforts expanded to Argentina, starting with the Iberá Wetlands of the Corrientes. In the wetland ecosystem, they launched projects to reintroduce extirpated species, such as the giant anteater, jaguar, red-and-green macaw, and giant river otter.[8][9] The rewilding work in Ibera, and many other projects in the country, is now carried out by Rewilding Argentina, the team assembled by Kris and Doug, led by Sofia Heinonen.

In January 2018, Tompkins and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet signed decrees on behalf of Tompkins Conservation to create five new national parks in Chile and expand three others, adding a total of 10.3 million acres of new national parklands to Chile. One million acres of land came from Tompkins Conservation, with the Chilean government providing the rest in federally controlled land. At the time, it was reported as the largest donation of land from a private entity to a country in South America.[10][11]

## Recognition

[edit]

### Awards

[edit]

* 2018 Luis Oyarzún Award granted by the Universidad Austral de Chile[12]
* 2017 Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship granted by the Woodrow Wilson Center[13]
* 2017 Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy[14]
* 2017 Cynthia Pratt Laughlin Medal granted by the Garden Club of America[15]
* 2017 David R. Brower Award granted by the American Alpine Club[16]

## See also

[edit]

* Wild Life – 2023 film by Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin
* Conservación Patagónica

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Team, EcoCamp. "Kris Tompkins, Patagonia's Fiercest creating national parks". www.ecocamp.travel. Retrieved 2025-03-02.
2. ^ Edward Humes, Eco Barons (New York: Harper Collins, 2009)
3. ^ a b "Leadership, Patagonia-style: Changing the Criteria for Success". Knowledge@Wharton. 31 October 2007. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
4. ^ XX Factor: Visionaries Archived 2010-09-24 at the Wayback Machine
5. ^ Haas, Michaela (2021-10-26). "How One Woman Protected Millions of Acres – RTBC". Reasons to be Cheerful. Retrieved 2023-01-24.
6. ^ "Pumalín National Park To Carry Name Of Founder, Douglas Tompkins | SGB Media Online". sgbonline.com. 2018-02-28. Retrieved 2023-01-24.
7. ^ "The Fashion Executives Who Saved a Patagonian Paradise". www.sierraclub.org. Retrieved 2023-01-24.
8. ^ "The philanthropists 'paying rent' to planet Earth in Argentina – CNN.com". www.cnn.com. Retrieved 2023-01-24.
9. ^ "Rewilding Argentina's Ibera Wetlands". Geographical. 2023-01-05. Retrieved 2023-01-24.
10. ^ "This Woman Is Helping Create Some of the World's Greatest National Parks". Condé Nast Traveler. 2018-02-02. Retrieved 2023-01-24.
11. ^ "Chile creates five national parks over 10m acres in historic act of conservation". the Guardian. 2018-01-29. Retrieved 2023-01-24.
12. ^ "Kristine Tompkins recibió Premio "Luis Oyarzún" entregado por la UACh". El Heraldo Austral (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-07-26.
13. ^ "Latin American Program Gala". www.wilsoncenter.org. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
14. ^ "Medalists: 2017". Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
15. ^ Media, Colophon New. "GCA Medal Recipients: Cynthia Pratt Laughlin Medal". www.gcamerica.org. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
16. ^ "David R. Brower Award". The American Alpine Club. Retrieved 2021-07-26.

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* United States
* Poland

*[m.]: married