Meet the Department of Natural Resources Director

Meet The Department Director

Mark N. Templeton

Mark N. Templeton is the Director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. With a background that incorporates environmental stewardship, alternative energy, and sound business practices that transcend the public, private, and non-profit sectors, he brings a unique skill-set and perspective to the Department. From 2001 to 2005, Templeton developed environmental and sustainability strategies for clients while with McKinsey & Company, a global management consultancy headquartered in New York. While there, he worked with clients to explore new “green” markets for products and services and to develop next-generation jobs in the environmental and energy sectors. While at McKinsey, Templeton advised major organizations including the United Nations Development Programme’s Commission on the Private Sector and Development. In 2005, Templeton left McKinsey to become associate dean and chief operating officer of Yale Law School, his alma mater.

Prior to joining McKinsey, Templeton was special assistant and senior advisor to the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor and an advisor to the U.S. Delegation to U.N. Commission on Human Rights. He worked as office director of the Human Rights Documentation Center in Bangkok, Thailand from 1999 to 2000 and as a research associate with the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Center in New Delhi, India in 1997.

Hailing from Olivette, Missouri, Templeton earned his bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard College in 1994 and his juris doctorate from Yale Law School in 1999. He graduated from Horton Watkins High School in Ladue.