Jim Moriarty

CEO, Surfrider Foundation

Jim Moriarty is the CEO of Surfrider Foundation. He is an avid surfer, entrepreneur and innovator. Moriarty has more than 15 years management experience in corporate start-ups, specializing in e-learning, e-commerce, infrastructure software, and business-to-business ventures. He holds a B.S. in Information Systems from The Ohio State University, and has had speaking engagements in the US, Europe, Australia and Latin America. He lives with his wife and two children in Solana Beach, CA, where he is also active leading and mentoring high school students on surfing and home-building trips to the Baja Peninsula. He brings to the position a wealth of international, fundraising and team-building experience that translate to leading the Surfrider Foundation.

Everything Videos

Which products are environmentally friendly?

Buy products produced by companies with a vision, says Moriarty

Jim Moriarty and the Future of Green Business

Surfrider CEO Jim Moriarty explains the green business revolution.

How will this age be remembered?

Jim Moriarty cites Australia as the shape of things to come.

How scared should we be?

We’re not past a tipping point, but the threat is certainly there.

Is it fair to ask developing countries to go green?

Every the countries that didn’t have a part in creating the mess, have to be going green.

Are development and environmentalism compatible?

They certainly make strange bedfellows, Moriarty says.

Can technology fix climate change?

Jim Moriarty talks about the greening of Silicon Valley.

Should the government be doing more to help the environment?

The government hast to take the long view, Moriarty says.

Who is responsible for the environment?

If you want to be in the picture, if you want to have a voice, then use your voice, act and stop complaining, says Moriarty.

The Environmentalists of Yore

Surfrider’s Jim Moriarty talks about the legacies of the first American environmentalists: Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt.

Jim Moriarty on the Everyday Activist

Jim Moriarty meets a six-year-old environmentalist.

What is the biggest hurdle facing the environmental movement?

As it stands, the consumption equation doesn’t add up, Moriarty says.

What is the environmental movement’s biggest mistake?

The environmental movement sells itself short by catering to an exclusive audience, Moriarty says.

What is the environmental movement’s biggest accomplishment?

The environmental movement has created a massive culture shift, Moriarty says.

Surfrider International

Jim Moriarty discusses tailoring the Surfrider Foundation’s message to countries like Japan, Australia and Brazil.

How does Surfrider influence people who don’t live by the coast?

Surfrider has a influence via many on ramps.

What is a reasonable way to live green?

Start with getting rid of plastic water bottles, Moriarty says.

Have businesses been too slow to go green?

In the past year, lots of businesses have started going green, Moriarty says.

Has the environmental movement’s expansion diluted its mission?

Businesses have finally caught on and realized the old ways of going things is unsustainable.

The Surfrider Foundation

Moriarty sees himself as the bottom of a giant grass-roots pyramid.

Learn from the world's biggest thinkers.

© Copyright 2007-2026 & BIG THINK, BIG THINK PLUS, SMARTER FASTER trademarks owned by Freethink Media, Inc. All rights reserved.