The Climate Trust Welcomes 3 New Members to Its Board of Directors

We’re proud to welcome three distinguished leaders to The Climate Trust’s Board of Directors: Sarah Leith Bahn, Cherie Kearney, and Mike Wallace.

Together, they bring a powerful blend of expertise in sustainability strategy, conservation finance, and public-sector leadership. Their collective insight will strengthen our efforts to advance innovative carbon market solutions and foster impactful cross-sector collaboration within climate impact.

With their guidance and vision, The Climate Trust is poised to scale transformative initiatives that generate enduring environmental and community benefits. Get to know these inspiring leaders below!

Mike Wallace 

Mike Wallace builds and scales sustainability programs, coalitions, and strategic partnerships that strengthen credibility and accelerate adoption. He advises corporations, nonprofits, and technology startups, partnering with C-suite teams on internal and market-facing strategy. He led North America expansion for Trucost (now part of S&P Global) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). At GRI, he forged partnerships with Nasdaq, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), along with industry and professional associations, to elevate sustainability reporting and governance. He later applied this partnership strategy at BrownFlynn, convening the WBCSD’s first ESG Ratings Working Group and establishing the BrownFlynn–Nasdaq relationship – work that increased visibility and helped position BrownFlynn for acquisition by ERM. At ERM, he served as a Partner, built stock exchange–linked initiatives across Asia-Pacific, led the ESG Ratings Working Group, and served as Interim Executive Director of the Social & Human Capital Coalition (a WBCSD project). At Persefoni, he created strategic partnerships with leading C-suite associations and developed executive training and co-branded research. He was among the world’s first Chief Decarbonization Officers and serves as a Strategic Advisor to Persefoni. 

Sarah Leith Bahn 

Sarah Leith Bahn is an accomplished strategic leader with experience managing billion-dollar public-sector budgets and leading diverse, cross-functional teams through uncertainty and change.  Sarah brings expertise in connecting financial stewardship to mission-drive outcomes, building alignment across stakeholder groups, and leading complex operations at scale. Sarah most recently served as Deputy Director of Budget and Finance for the U.S. Forest Service’s Oregon and Washington Region, where she provided strategic oversight for a $1 billion annual budget supporting 17 National Forests across nearly 25 million acres. Her previous roles include SEC staff accountant and investigator and co-founder and CFO of Bahn Composites, LLC. 

Cherie Kearney 

Cherie Kearney brings more than two decades of experience in forest conservation, land acquisition, and collaborative natural resource management to The Climate Trust. She currently serves as Chair of the Washington Conservation Commission and as a Steering Committee Member for Conservation Finance Northwest. Kearney spent over 25 years at Columbia Land Trust, including 18 years as Forest Conservation Director, where she developed and executed large-scale forest conservation projects using innovative financing strategies and complex, multi-stakeholder negotiations. Her work has included multi-million-dollar fundraising initiatives and partnerships spanning counties, tribes, timber industry leaders, agencies, and policymakers.