Since 2012, Cristián Samper has served as President & CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which manages wildlife parks in New York and conservation programs in more than 60 countries. Previously, was Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and founding director of Colombia’s Alexander von Humboldt Institute. Board positions include Carnegie Institution for Science, CIAT-Bioversity Alliance, the Joyce Foundation and the Summit Foundation. Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Raised in Colombia, Samper studied biology at the Universidad de Los Andes and earned his MA and PhD from Harvard University.