Long-time conservation strategist to lead new nature nonprofit

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Longtime corporate environmental conservation adviser Margaret O’Gorman was named CEO of Tandem Global, a nature and biodiversity nonprofit and advisory organization created through the merger of Wildlife Habitat Council and World Environment Center.

Wildlife Habitat Council has advised corporations on water stewardship and conservation strategies since 1988. World Environment Center, founded in 1974 as part of the United Nations Environment Programme, was more broadly focused on advising companies about sustainable development strategies.

O’Gorman has been CEO of Wildlife Habitat Council since 2012. She was tapped as president and CEO of World Environment Center in January 2024 to lead development of the merger transition plan over the past year. O’Gorman published a book on corporate approaches to nature and biodiversity in 2020, “Strategic Corporate Conservation Planning: A Guide to Meaningful Engagement.”

The combined entity, Tandem Global, will launch officially at the end of February. The organization will debut with close to 100 corporate members, including a half-dozen or so companies that previously worked with both organizations such as pharmaceutical firm Bristol Myers Squibb, chemical company Chemours and building products maker CRH.

‘Voice of the corporate sector’

Tandem Global’s priority during 2025 — aside from building name recognition and its membership base — will center on helping corporations consider how to extend their strategies for water conservation, nature conservation and biodiversity across their supply chains, said O’Gorman. “We hear a lot of conversations about this,” she said.

You’ll see Tandem Global collaborate with other organizations helping companies operationalize conservation strategies such as Business for Nature, Science Based Targets Network and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures. 

The nonprofit will also position itself as the “voice of the corporate sector” on nature-related issues, although it’s not an advocacy group.

“We will help companies navigate the narrow route between doing and talking,” O’Gorman said. “I think companies will be doing, but not talking as much, because that is where they might be punished.”

Tandem Global, like its predecessor organizations, will be funded through a combination of private funds from corporations and government grants and other incentives. 

Already, it has felt the impact of the Trump administration’s freeze on foreign aid, but O’Gorman is confident that the Wildlife Habitat Council’s track record of success will help the new organization diversify its funding sources. “To be the leader of an NGO, you have to be an optimist,” she said.