Orange County Coastkeeper

MANAGEMENT

CEO/Executive Director

Mr. Garry Brown

CEO/Executive Director Experience

Garry Brown founded Orange County Coastkeeper in 1999 to protect and preserve local marine habitats and watersheds.  Through his work at Coastkeeper, Mr. Brown has helped to establish new wetland areas and to protect others from being threatened by pollution or development.  He has successfully negotiated solutions to runoff and pollution issues that have adversely impacted our watershed and ocean and has been widely lauded for his ability to advocate for cooperative solutions.  Under Mr. Brown's leadership, Coastkeeper has become a tried and trusted ward of our fresh- and saltwater ecosystems through education, advocacy, restoration, research and enforcement.   Mr. Brown comes from a long background of building public private partnerships.   He served for five years as an assistant city manager for the City of Redlands, ten years as an advocate and executive director for trade associations in the real estate and building industries, and served two terms as president of a chamber of commerce.  These varied experiences brought him an extensive and pragmatic understanding of both state and local government and the politics that drive them.   A native of Orange County, Mr. Brown is committed to expanding Coastkeeper's presence as a proactive, results-oriented organization that uses coalition building and partnerships to find effective solutions to the environmental problems that impact our communities and watersheds.  In addition to serving as Board President for Orange County Coastkeeper, Mr. Brown holds positions of leadership on numerous other Boards of Directors and governmental advisory committees, including the California Coastkeeper Alliance, the National Waterkeeper Alliance, the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority's One Water One Watershed, and the National Research Institute's Advisory Panel for the Groundwater Replenishment System.  Mr. Brown holds a B.A. in Government from the University of Redlands.

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