The Earth League International’s team is very diverse and draws on the experience of several different skill sets, including conservation, intelligence, investigations, law enforcement, government affairs, cyber-security, business, and media production.

Team members include former U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officers from agencies such as the FBI and NGA, as well as crime analysts, researchers, and field investigators.

The identities of our field operatives and researchers are not public for security reasons.

Andrea Crosta, Founder, Executive Director and Board Member

Andrea has over 35 years of experience in conservation projects around the world and, in a parallel professional career, he has been working for almost two decades as an international consultant to companies and governmental agencies on high-end security technologies & services, homeland security, anti-piracy, investigations and risk management.
He is the founder and executive director of Earth League International (ELI), among the founding members of the Wildlife Justice Commission, a Member of the Board of  The Africa Conservancy Foundation, and the creator and project manager of WildLeaks, the world’s first environmental crime whistleblower initiative. He’s an advisor to the Nature Crime Alliance.

In 2023, Andrea’s work was featured as the cover story in The New Yorker magazine.

Andrea is among the main protagonists of the Netflix’s documentary ‘The Ivory Game‘ , about international ivory trafficking, and of the NatGeo/Disney+ documentary ‘Sea of Shadows’, about illegal fishing and the Vaquita porpoise in the Baja California, Mexico (Sundance Film Festival 2019 – Audience Award Winner), both executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio.

He collaborates with various U.S. law enforcement and governmental agencies, and with academic institutions, including the Florida International University, The John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The George Mason University/TraCCC, and the Edinburgh University.

As an entrepreneur in 1998 he founded ‘Think Italy’, among the very first e-commerce start-ups in Italy. He holds a Master’s Degree in Natural Sciences, a Master’s Degree in Business & Innovation and a BSc in Psychology.

He is a Fellow of The Explorers Club.

Scott Atkinson, Chair of the Board

Scott is a Managing Partner and Co-Head of Global Sustainability at Heidrick & Struggles Inc., an international executive search and leadership advisory firm. In his role, Scott leads executives searches for companies and organizations that focus on advancing environmental and social impact initiatives across the globe. More recently, he has helped place Chief Executives, Board of Directors and senior leaders for clients including Impossible Foods, National Geographic Society, Planet Labs and San Diego Zoo Global. As part of his practice, Scott consults on the governance and leadership implications of growing investor demand for sustainability (ESG) performance. He’s also a board member of the Jane Goodall Institute.

Additionally, Scott serves as the firm’s Global Head of Venture Capital and is a member of the Global Technology Practice. As such Scott has places C-Level executives and Board of Directors within disruptive companies experiencing growth, innovation, restructuring and global expansion. More recently, he has completed assignments for Activision Blizzard, Ancestry.com, DocuSign, Dropbox, Facebook, Softbank, Qualcomm, and Uber. Scott joined the firm from CollabNet, a leading TPG Capital backed provider of enterprise cloud development solutions. While with CollabNet, he supported the legal department and assisted with the Company’s successful acquisition of Danube Technologies. Scott began his executive search career with a boutique executive search firm, where he consulted high-growth technology companies. Scott is pursuing a Masters of Science in Environmental Science & Policy from Johns Hopkins University. He holds a B.A. in History from Middlebury College.

Julia Jackson, Board Member

Julia is the founder of Grounded, a philanthropic organization dedicated to accelerating bold solutions to the climate crisis. Grounded funds high-impact organizations and builds large-scale campaigns to advance three strategic imperatives:

1. Accelerating a just transition to 100% clean energy;
2. Drawing down existing atmospheric carbon through nature-based solutions;
3. Advancing Indigenous rights and the Rights of Nature in U.S. and international law.

In addition to Earth League International, Julia also serves on the boards of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, SeaLegacy, Arctic Base Camp Advisory Board, Global Alliance for a Sustainable Planet (GASP) Leadership Council, and the Council of the Eagle and the Condor Advisory Board.

John N. Stewart, Board Member

John is the founder and President of Talons Ventures. He works with disruptive startup companies, venture funds, consults to midsize to large businesses on government relations and cyber, and gives back in philanthropic efforts on education, equality, and anti-poaching. Stewart invested in Awake Security, Anomali, Cequence, Dedrone, Privoro, and RiskSense, is Chairman of the Board for CyVolve, is on the Board of Directors for BlackPoint Security, Code Dx, Lucideus, ReFirm Labs and SpyCloud, is a special advisor to the Board of Directors for Focal Point Security, Obsidian, and RedSeal, and sits on the Dean’s Advisory Council for Syracuse University’s School of Engineering. John and his family founded the Nicol-Stewart Scholarships aiding high school students into community college, and he actively supports Rhino 911, the Game Rangers Association of Africa, the Wildlife College, and multiple animal orphanages in South Africa. His motto is simple: make an impact.

Prior to founding Talons Ventures, John served as SVP, Chief Security & Trust Officer at Cisco Systems. During his 15+ years at Cisco, Cisco established its leadership in national security matters, the enterprise security market, privacy, and trust – leadership the company carries on to this day. Under John’s leadership, the Security & Trust organization was formed, protecting Cisco’s public and private customers, enabling and ensuring Cisco Secure Development Lifecycle and Trustworthy Systems efforts across the company’s portfolio, and establishing world leadership in data protection and privacy, trust and assurance, and cybersecurity efforts with governments globally.Prior to his time at Cisco, John was CISO for Digital Island, had his first tour at Cisco, and worked at NASA Ames Research Center. Stewart holds a Bachelor and Master of Science degree in computer and information science from Syracuse University.

Rachel Konrad, Board Member

Rachel has been the head of communications at three of the most disruptive and mission-driven companies on Earth. She served on management teams in three countries, reporting directly to visionaries Elon Musk at Tesla, Carlos Ghosn at Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi and Pat Brown at Impossible Foods. She’s now a consultant, adviser and board member for disruptive startups that are pushing entire industries to do the right thing for people and the planet.

Before her career in communications and reputation management, Rachel was a journalist for The Associated Press, CNET, Detroit Free Press and other newsrooms. With her editors, sources and many other colleagues, she helped to uncover corruption, and her reporting sparked congressional inquiries. Rachel has been passionate about wildlife preservation and concerned about our late-stage extinction crisis since kindergarten, when her parents gave her a subscription to Ranger Rick Magazine, a kids periodical published by the US National Wildlife Federation. Rachel has degrees in history and journalism from Northwestern University and was a Pew Fellow at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

Gina Brogi, Board Member

A dynamic global business leader, Gina brings 20 years of experience managing multinational operations and maximizing sustainable revenue to mission driven organizations focused on environmental and social causes. As the President of Global Distribution at Twentieth Century Fox, Gina oversaw the distribution of the studio’s vast film and television content portfolio, shepherding the division into a US$3 billion revenue stream for the company. Gina implemented the reorganization of her global sales division and established technology-based solutions to strengthen operational strategy during a time of change in the media landscape, as distribution platforms transformed. Her creation of a unified global organization resulted in substantial efficiencies, greater overall executive engagement, newfound team agility, and increased revenue opportunities.

Gina built a strong collaborative culture at Twentieth Century Fox by developing and fostering multifaceted teams of highly effective new leaders, creating an aligned vision defined by transparency and communication. Gina directed her teams in the sourcing, negotiating and execution of hundreds of cutting-edge content licensing deals with HBO, Sky, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and similar media companies worldwide.  During her tenure at Fox, Gina led consistent record-breaking financial returns and grew the division’s revenue from a multi-million-dollar business, to a billion-dollar powerhouse. Throughout her career, she has also served on the executive/advisory boards of Fox Beijing (Beijing, China 2017-2019), Rede Telecine (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2011-2019), Premium Movie Partnership (Sydney, Australia 2009-2012).

Gina holds an M.B.A. in Finance from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and B.S. in Business Administration – Finance from California State University.

Jessica Lough, Board Member

Jessica Lough has been a driving force behind sustainability initiatives at some of the world’s most impactful companies. She currently leads sustainability operations at GE Vernova as their Executive Sustainability Operations Leader, focusing on decarbonization at scale. Prior to GE, Jessica played a pivotal role at Amazon as their Head of Strategic Planning and Sustainability Operations, where she developed and executed the strategic framework for achieving their 2040 net-zero carbon goal and led the team to operationalize, execute, and scale decarbonization and other sustainability priorities. Her leadership at Meta was instrumental in establishing an 8-year Net Zero strategy, resulting in the successful execution of over 40 sustainability projects within the first year.

Jessica’s career began in technology and government, where she honed her skills in sustainability and operations while holding positions at Google, Meta, and within the U.S. Government. Throughout her career, she has followed a guiding principle that can be summed up in one word: IMPACT. Outside of her corporate roles, Jessica is passionate about environmental sustainability and has a deep commitment to creating a more sustainable future. She holds a Bachelor’s of Engineering in Atmospheric Science and Meteorology, and a Master’s degree in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Michigan.

Francesco Rocca, Honorary Board Member

Francesco is the founder of the ‘Torbiera’ Zoological Society, a member of the IUCN and among the finest private zoological foundations in Italy. Over the years Francesco made a name for himself as an expert on wildlife conservation and 35 years ago he was among the first to initiate and support the conservation program on the Amur leopard in the Russian Far East.

He is the co-founder of the NGO ‘Trust The Forest’ that contributed to establishing one of the first truly protected areas in Gabon, in the now Ivindo National Park. He also established an important private protected area in Northern Argentina, a biodiversity ‘hotspot’ of nearly 5000 ha adjacent to the Calilegua National Park.
Francesco has supported several research efforts all over the world which produced conservation studies on subjects such as the Andean Mountain Cat in Argentina, the Indochinese leopard in Southern Thailand, the leopard in Armenia and the large mammals in the Niokolo-Koba National Park, Senegal.
 From 1994 to 2000 he was member of the Italian CITES Scientific Committee.

INTELLIGENCE AND SPECIAL OPERATIONS

Mark Davis, Head of Intelligence
Mark is an internationally and nationally recognized expert in undercover operations and training. During his almost 30 years with the FBI, he conducted and led a multitude of successful undercover operations in the United States and abroad.
The FBI reports Mark as one of the most effective Undercover Operator in the history of the agency. His undercover work resulted in the largest number of successful convictions in the FBI Undercover Program. The scope of his work included Counter Intelligence, Counter Terrorism, Public Corruption, Weapons Trafficking, Human/Sex Trafficking, Child Exploitation, Organized Crime, Money Laundering, and Drug Trafficking. Mark advises and trains domestic and foreign Intelligence agencies on undercover techniques and methodologies.

“Robert”
Robert worked for 25 years as an undercover Operations Officer for the CIA. He has deep operational experience in the U.S., Europe, Central America, South America and the Middle East. He has successfully worked against foreign terrorist groups such as The Islamic State, Al-Qaida, Hezbollah, Sendero Luminoso, Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, the Japanese Red Army, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the various Sunni extremist groups that are offshoots of Al-Qaida.
He has served as a subject matter expert instructor on terrorism and countering terrorist cells inside the U.S. and overseas for a variety of classes attended by law enforcement, U.S. government federal officers, U.S. military personnel, and civilian specialist first-responders. Robert has personally developed, managed and carried out multiple operations during his career that lead to the capture of several high-profile terrorists, and the effective dismantling of terrorist networks.

CRIME ANALYSIS & RESEARCH

Chiara Talerico
Chiara is the senior crime analyst at Earth League International. She is skilled in analyzing raw intelligence coming from the field, studying crime patterns and modus operandi, geographical crimes mapping and database management.
Prior to joining ELI, Chiara had the opportunity to hone her crime analysis skills when working at the Case Analysis Unit at Eurojust. She also worked as trainee at the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Next to wildlife/environmental crime, she is specialized in counter-human trafficking. In 2015, she temporarily joined ECPAT Indonesia in Jakarta, focusing on child trafficking and sexual slavery. Chiara holds a Masters of Law with a specialization in international criminal law from the University of Pisa and a Master’s of Science in Countering Organized Crime and Terrorism from UCL.

SPECIAL PROJECTS AND GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS

Maggie McGraw 

Maggie is the Special Projects and Government Affairs Manager at Earth League International where she coordinates the synthesis of intelligence to share with the public, government officials, and other partners, and coordinates communications with government officials to promote ELI’s mission.

Previously, she served as a Legislative Aide for Senator Peter Welch (D-VT), assisting with the Foreign Affairs and National Security policy portfolios, and managing the Defense and Veterans policy portfolios. She specifically focused on U.S. policy toward Latin America and Israel. Maggie graduated from Stanford University both with a B.S. in Oceans, Atmosphere, and Climate Science in 2020, and an M.A. in Sustainability Science and Practice in 2021, and was born and raised in Nashville, TN.

DEVELOPMENT, FUNDRAISING, PARTNERSHIPS & MEDIA PROJECTS

Brigitte Canty 

Brigitte is the Operations Manager at Earth League International, where she coordinates various aspects such as Fundraising, Partnerships, Media, and Strategy to bring ELI’s mission to the public.
Her previous experience includes working as a Global Investigations Analyst at Nardello and Co., supporting the research and creation of an engagement strategy at National Geographic for their “Planet of Plastic” campaign, and most recently, she worked as a Biodiversity Researcher at the Global Institute of Sustainability, where her primary focus was on coding sustainability reports of F100 companies to identify commonalities and detect greenwashing.

Brigitte graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in Business and International Relations and studied African Politics and Sustainable Development at the University of Cape Town.

GEOSPATIAL INTELLIGENCE

Dr. Odean Serrano 

Odean worked for the US Federal Government for over 26 years. She first worked at NASA Kennedy Space Center as a space shuttle operations engineer and then at NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C. as an environmental program manager responsible for inter-agency partnership development linking common environmental mission elements. Odean joined the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) in 2005 as an Intelligence officer and designed and spearheaded an environmental security initiative that leveraged climate, water, food, and ecosystems research in alignment with national security priorities.

In 2016, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), James Clapper designated Odean as the first Intelligence Community (IC) lead for Combating Wildlife Trafficking. She brought together the IC, law enforcement, diplomats, academia, and NGOs possessing a wide range of expertise and needs to contribute to this issue. Odean also served as an intelligence liaison to academia forging partnerships through cooperative engagement programs between the IC and universities. Upon retirement in 2018, Odean founded the Countering Wildlife Trafficking Institute (CWTI) focusing on advanced locational intelligence (GEOINT) to address transnational crimes to support multi-disciplinary experts specializing in global anti-trafficking missions. Odean is joining the ELI Analytic team to provide GEOINT capabilities to our portfolio

She holds a Master of Science, Environmental Science and Policy, Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University.

ADVISORY COMMITTEE

ADVISOR FOR INTELLIGENCE AND SPECIAL OPERATIONS

“Dick”

“Dick” was a renowned and award winning executive/operations case officer for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the CIA National Clandestine Service. After serving in the United States Navy, Dick worked for the CIA for over forty years and is currently a chief consultant for the CIA and other intelligence agencies around the world. Dick brings to Earth League International (ELI)  his expertise in intelligence gathering, counterintelligence and covert operations. Dick has spent decades in foreign assignments where he oversaw and conducted many intelligence operations and investigations targeting some of the worlds most dangerous and problematic criminal organizations. Dick has worked closely with foreign governments to solve mutual problems involving security issues, including in the areas of Africa, Latin America, South Asia and the Middle East. As an executive and operations case officer for the CIA, Dick managed and directed large scale operations for the CIA National Clandestine Service involved in critical issues of National security throughout South Asia and the Middle East. As a senior leader of the CIA, Dick has spent many years working closely with senior officials of the United States Government including the Executive branch and members of Congress.

Dick was responsible for directing U. S. intelligence collection, counterintelligence, counterterrorism and special Operations in critical allied countries. He has managed, for the CIA, a large staff of professional intelligence officers responsible for the collection of critical intelligence during operations of the highest importance to the United States and other countries. Dick’s recognized expertise took him to CIA Headquarters on three different long term assignments, where under his leadership, the CIA National Clandestine Service successfully worked some of their most important intelligence/investigative operations. He has previously been the Director for a European based company involved in global security projects, including de-mining in Central America and border security in various areas of the Middle East and Africa.

Dick now is thrilled to be able to bring his expertise to the ELI Advisory Board where he can make a meaningful impact with his expertise in assisting ELIs’ mission.  ELI is proud to have Dick on Earth League Internationals’ (ELI) Advisory board.

Pauline Verheij
Pauline is an environmental lawyer specialising in the investigation and prosecution of transnational environmental and wildlife crime, particularly violations of CITES (Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora). She worked as Senior Legal Investigator at the Wildlife Justice Commission and IFAW Netherlands. She now works freelance.
From 2009 until 2012 she was based in Malaysia as TRAFFIC and WWF’s tiger trade programme manager where she coordinated the efforts to tackle tiger trade in Asia through anti-poaching and anti-trafficking work, policy and advocacy as well as interventions to reduce consumer demand in Asia. She is lead-author of Reduced to Skin and Bones, an analysis of tiger seizures from eleven tiger range countries (2000-2010). Currently she works for her own consulting business, EcoJust, which advises NGOs, governments and businesses on issues related to the implementation and enforcement of (international) biodiversity law (www.ecojust.eu).