Leadership

Richard H. Lawrence, Jr., Founder and Director of Proyecto Mirador.

Richard graduated from Brown University with a degree in Economics, then lived and worked in South America for 3 years. He spent 16 years in Hong Kong and is currently living in the U.S. with his family.

Richard has also worked in Honduras for 19 years, first as a volunteer with OCHO, an annual medical brigade to rural Santa Barbára Province and starting in 2004, with Proyecto Mirador Foundation. It was while working with the clinic that he discovered the health issues associated with indoor air pollution and the environmental impact of wood burning cookstoves and created Proyecto Mirador with Doña Emilia Mendoza, currently Director and Founder of Proyecto Mirador in Honduras.

Dee Lawrence, Director of Proyecto Mirador.

Dee graduated from Miami University, Ohio and has a background in marketing and advertising. Her past experience includes 16 years developing successful advertising and marketing campaigns for U.S. and multinational firms including Young & Rubicam, Wells Rich Greene, Ogilvy & Mather, Apple Computer, and S.C. Johnson. She also spent 16 years in Hong Kong where she ran a group of retail stores. Upon returning to the U.S. with her family, Dee became involved in Honduras, first as a volunteer for the OCHO medical brigade and beginning in 2004, helping to establish and build Proyecto Mirador.

Ramsay Ravenel, Executive Director of the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment.

Ramsay manages all aspects of the Grantham Foundation including grantmaking and endowment management and began working with Mirador in 2009. He has been an invaluable resource and friend to Mirador with insights into critical environmental issues and carbon markets.

He commented, "The mission of the Grantham Foundation is to protect and improve the health of the global environment. We support individuals and organizations that work to raise awareness and find solutions to urgent environmental issues. Proyecto Mirador supports our mission by substantially reducing forest degradation and CO₂ emissions." 

The Honorable Hector E Morales Jr., Baker McKenzie.

"I support the work of Proyecto Mirador for the quality and dedication of the people in the organization, its mission of sustainability, and because it has created a model for dissemination of fuel-efficient stoves in one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere."

Ambassador Morales served as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States, as U.S. Executive Director of the Inter-American Development Bank, and as a board member of the Inter-American Foundation. He currently serves on the board of the National Audubon Society, and the advisory boards of the Woodrow Wilson Latin America Program and the Inter-American Foundation. He has been a friend to Mirador since 2011 and his expert knowledge of Central America, its culture and societal landscape have provided excellent guidance to us.

Eric Swanson, Consultant

We have known Eric since 2009 when he headed the Conservation Finance department for the World Wildlife Fund and we worked together to better understand the Gold Standard methodology and documentation. At the WWF, among many other duties, his team initiated and managed six carbon finance projects, two cookstove projects in China, two biogas projects in Nepal, and forest carbon projects in Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia.

He is now working on global conservation protecting forests, water and wildlife habitats by promoting financial markets and mechanisms based on ecosystem services and channeling financing from those efforts into conservation. His knowledge and understanding of carbon offsets, project development and the carbon market have contributed substantially to our success.