Rhett Ayers Butler
Meet Rhett
Entrepreneur
Menlo Park, USA
Rhett Ayers Butler is the founder and CEO of Mongabay, a pioneering environmental news platform established in 1999. Driven by his passion for conservation, Rhett has grown Mongabay into a global resource on biodiversity, tropical deforestation, and environmental issues, with international bureaus across multiple languages. He also established Mongabay.org, the nonprofit arm, in 2012. As a recognized journalist and advisor, he contributes to sustainability councils worldwide and has received multiple awards for his environmental reporting.
Areas of activity:
Conservation
About:
Rhett Ayers Butler is a prominent environmental journalist, author, and entrepreneur renowned for his commitment to conservation and ecological advocacy. As the founder and CEO of Mongabay, a leading environmental news platform, he has dedicated his career to spotlighting biodiversity, tropical deforestation, and ecological issues. Since launching Mongabay in 1999, Rhett has grown it into a global organization with language-specific bureaus, including Mongabay.org, the nonprofit branch established in 2012. Under his leadership, Mongabay has expanded to reach millions of readers across over 80 countries, employing more than 800 journalists globally.
Driven by a lifelong passion for nature and wildlife, Rhett’s early reporting focused on rainforests, later broadening to cover conservation issues worldwide, from the Amazon to Madagascar. Through his role, he also collaborates with advisory boards such as the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Water and Food, Cornell University’s K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics, and XPRIZE's Biodiversity Brain Trust. Beyond journalism, he has influenced the conservation field as an advisor to philanthropists, foundations, and conservation initiatives, providing strategic guidance on ecological and social impact.
In recognition of his contributions, Rhett has received awards including the Heinz Award for the Environment and the SEAL Environmental Journalism Award, while LinkedIn has named him a "Top Voice" in his field. He is also a National Fellow of The Explorers Club. Rhett's impact extends into academia, where he has served as an adjunct faculty member at Arizona State University’s Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science, guest lecturing at institutions like UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz. Through Mongabay and his diverse advisory roles, Rhett continues to be a global voice for conservation, advancing environmental education and action in communities worldwide.
Involvement:
Mongabay
Mongabay is an independent, nonprofit environmental media organization known for its extensive reporting on global ecological issues, particularly in tropical regions. Mongabay initially focused on rainforest conservation and has since expanded its scope to cover diverse environmental topics worldwide. Today, it operates in multiple languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Indonesian, reaching millions of readers monthly.