Steve Mahfood has a 40-year track record as an innovator and leader in the environmental, energy and natural resource fields. Steve has a deep appreciation for the environment and has broad and diverse experience that spans several continents. After working in North Africa and the Middle East in environmental programs for Project Hope and CARE/UN, he came back to the United States, where he has held a number of environmental leadership roles, including leading environmental health and environmental finance agencies and managing key research in natural resource, energy and climate issues. Steve was appointed for eight years by successive governors as Cabinet Secretary to lead the Missouri Department of Natural Resources’ 2,200 employees and $330 million budget. In that role, he was responsible for managing the environmental, state parks, energy, geological, cultural and historic resources of the state.
During his tenure, Steve added more than 60,000 acres and four new state parks to the state park system and led the development and construction of the first LEED Platinum Missouri state office building, the Lewis and Clark State Office Building. He also represented Missouri and the United States in a number of prominent roles, including chairing the NAFTA-US Governmental Environmental Advisory Commission, serving on the EPA’s Environmental Financial Advisory Board for 13 years, developing programs on environmental issues for the Marshall Fund and receiving the “United States Presidential Environmental Achievement Award” in 1989. His work was also the subject of a “60 Minutes” episode because of his leadership in negotiating the first agreement in U.S. history for a corporate buyout of the houses of Missouri citizens whose children were being exposed to lead contamination and smelter emissions. Currently, as principal of Mahfood Associates, he is advising the Nature Conservancy and many influential organizations on environmental, energy, natural resource and climate change issues. Steve holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental science from Rutgers University and is a graduate of the Yale University Environmental and Management Leadership Program.