Terry Vogt || San Franciso, California

Entrepreneur, Environmental Advocate

Good day to all of you, I’m Terry Vogt and I’m delighted to join several of my fellow travelers from the inaugural class of the Inspired Leadership Initiative in facilitating  this class. We were “co-creators” of our Notre Dame experience during the 2018-19 academic year and consequently co-creators of this class! Truth be told, I went into this class silently kicking and screaming — but I figured I’d be too conspicuous if I opted out of what was an optional course which all the rest of my cohort was attending. I’m very glad I stopped kicking and screaming. With respect to my Notre Dame experience, I figure I started out two standard deviations from the norm (no prior ND connection, not a Catholic, and not from the Midwest). I’m a Protestant Ivy League White Guy who spent most of his career in international finance working with Brazil. In 2002 I left the international finance field after 30 years to become a “faceless international bureaucrat.” I took a job in a country where I’d never been, in a field I knew nothing about, at an organization I’d never heard of, and to boot I had an unlikely title. I spent three years as Deputy Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, in Costa Rica. Essentially I went from private equity investing in Brazil to Chief Operating Officer of a mildly dysfunctional large (33 office/3,000 employee) organization. It was a dream job.  Following that I spent 3 years as Director of Sustainable Conservation Finance at one of the largest private funders of the environment, The Gordon &Betty Moore Foundation. I am retired and I live in San Francisco with my wife of 50 years, my college classmate Mary. I continue to be active in international environmental and policy non profits.

I am looking forward to getting reengaged with both Notre Dame and with Steve Reifenberg and Tom Schreier, as well as meeting the rest o you in what I’m sure will be a rewarding class!