Brian Schmidt is new Executive Director of Menlo Spark

Brian Schmidt is Menlo Spark’s new Executive Director. He most recently served as Policy and Advocacy Director at Green Foothills and led during the multi-decade effort resulting in permanent protection of Coyote Valley from development.

Brian is an environmental lawyer and advocate, and a long-time resident of the South Bay and Peninsula. He moved to California in 1996 to study environmental law at Stanford Law School. Brian first worked at the environmental law firm Shute Mihaly to represent nonprofits and government agencies, and then worked at Earthjustice.

In 2003 he shifted his focus from litigation to policy advocacy to work for Green Foothills on environmental issues in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties and then as Senior Program Director for Greenbelt Alliance directing policy in the Bay Area. He has been elected to two water district boards — Santa Clara Valley Water District, when he lived in Mountain View, and Mid-Peninsula Water District at his current residence in Belmont.

Climate change has been both a professional and personal focus for him, as he has worked on the model Vehicle Miles Traveled Policy for San Jose, on the climate mitigation and adaptation value of protecting local open space, and to establish Silicon Valley Clean Energy through Carbon-Free Mountain View.