Conservation International reviews

highly political, poor management skills among senior staff, human resource challanges

It feels as if CI has lost its way over the past few years. A major shift in mission/strategy happened about three years ago, and while change should be good, this has led to constantly shifting priorities, strategies, and plans - resulting in confusion, dysfunction, and stress. Lots of attrition - both staff leaving for new opportunities and some layoffs - also has contributed to an uncertain and unstable environment. Founder/CEO/Chairman of the Board Peter Seligmann is truly a rock star, but he lives and is based on the West Coast, which creates a weird dynamic since he's leading the organization remotely (about half the staff is based in Arlington and the rest in international locations). Budgets have been tight, so fewer opportunities for professional development, staff travel to visit projects in the field, etc. Hopefully things will settle down and CI will get back on track, since it has an amazing history and lots of potential. But for the time being, I found it was a challenging place to work.