Michael Brune (born 24 August 1971) became the youngest

executive director Executive director is commonly the title of the chief executive officer of a non-profit organization, government agency or international organization. The title is widely used in North American and European not-for-profit organizations, though ...

of the Sierra Club at 38, an American environmental organization founded by preservationist

John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist ...

, UC professor of botany

Willis Linn Jepson Willis Linn Jepson (August 19, 1867 – November 7, 1946) was an early California botanist, conservationist, and writer. Career Born at Little Oak Ranch near Vacaville, California, Jepson became interested in botany as a boy and explor ...

, and attorney

Warren Olney Warren Olney, Sr. (March 11, 1841 – June 2, 1921) was an American lawyer, conservationist, and politician, in California. He was a founding member, alongside John Muir and the young botany professor, Willis Linn Jepson of the University o ...

in 1892. He was hired by the 15 member board of directors to his position in January 2010, after Carl Pope was fired. Prior to the Sierra Club, Brune was the executive director of the

Rainforest Action Network Rainforest Action Network (RAN) is an environmental organization based in San Francisco, California, United States. The organization was founded by Randy "Hurricane" Hayes and Mike Roselle in 1985, and first gained national prominence with a gr ...

for seven years. He also worked as an organizer for Greenpeace. In 1999, while working at the

, Brune ran a successful campaign to get

Home Depot The Home Depot, Inc., is an American multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportation rentals. Home Depot is the largest home improvement r ...

stores to stop purchasing and selling wood from old-growth forests. ''Time'' magazine listed this as its top environmental story of that year. Brune is a regular contributor to the '' Huffington Post'', a progressive website founded by

Arianna Huffington Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington (née Ariadnē-Anna Stasinopoúlou, el, Αριάδνη-Άννα Στασινοπούλου ; born July 15, 1950) is a Greek-American author, syndicated columnist and businesswoman. She is a co-founder of '' Th ...

, as well as

Daily Kos Daily Kos ( ) is a group blog and internet forum focused on the U.S. Democratic Party and liberal American politics. The site includes glossaries and other content. It is sometimes considered an example of " netroots" activism. Daily Kos was ...

. In 2008 he published a book called ''Coming Clean -- Breaking America's Addiction to Oil and Coal''. In 2014 Brune was confirmed as the Hillary Institute of International Leadership's Hillary Laureate in recognition of his work on

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

issues. He was then awarded, jointly with Amazon Watch's Atossa Soltani, the four yearly Hillary Step prize. In August 2021 the Sierra Club announced that Brune was resigning as executive director, effective as of the end of the year.

References

External links

Michael Brune's blog at Huffington PostBio of Michael Brune at the Sierra Club
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brune, Michael Sierra Club executive directors Living people American environmentalists American non-fiction environmental writers 1971 births