Lance Pierce

Lance Pierce is the CEO of Data.org, a globally recognized leader in innovation and data for social impact partnering with government, companies, and civil society around the world. He is a board member, strategic advisor, and executive with global leadership experience in nonprofit organizations, startups, philanthropy, corporate responsibility programs, and sustainable investing.

He has led two other nonprofits, including NetHope, a 25 year-old partnership between Silicon Valley tech firms and the world's leading humanitarian relief, international development, and global conservation organizations focused on the "New Digital Divides" of digital skills, innovation, resiliency, and AI. He has also been President and CEO of CDP North America, the world's largest voluntary data platform for investors, corporations, and cities to manage performance and build action programs on climate, energy, water, forests, and supply chains. Both organizations tripled in size under his leadership.

Lance's other impact roles include serving as Executive Director/Chief Operating Officer for pioneering sustainable investing organization, Ceres, and in a corporate responsibility capacity as Director Corporate Issues Management for Altria Group when it was the Fortune 11, largest consumer packaged goods company in the world. After his graduate degree, he was tapped by Harvard Business School professor and global change management expert Rosabeth Moss Kanter as Launch Director for the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative, launching Harvard's effort to catalyze new philanthropic ventures and co-authoring cases with HBS faculty on change management and executive leadership in transition.

Lance has been a consultant to global brands and UN agencies on program development, philanthropy, technology, and partnerships. His academic and board affiliations include Senior Fellow and strategic advisor to groups such as the Harvard Corporate Responsibility Initiative, Closing the Sustainable Investment Gap Initiative at the University of Maryland, Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, and the Clinton Global Initiative, among others. He has been a speaker at The White House, Capitol Hill, World Economic Forum in Davos, high level industry and investor conferences, the UN climate negotiations, SXSW, and has appeared numerous times in global media. In 2024 and in 2025 he was twice recognized with the "Power and Influence 50" award for nonprofit executives by the Non-profit Times. He began his career as a US Peace Corps Volunteer.