Aileen Lee
Aileen S Lee is president of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. She leads the organization’s strategy, operations, and partnerships to advance its mission of creating positive outcomes for future generations. Aileen brings more than two decades of leadership experience at the foundation, with a career marked by integrity, collaboration, and measurable impact.
Since 2022, Aileen has served as chief of programs, overseeing all grantmaking activity, including program allocations and Adaptive Management and Evaluation. In that role, she guided initiatives across environmental conservation, science, and the Bay Area community, ensuring alignment between program strategy and the foundation’s core values of humility, rigor, and evidence-based philanthropy. Aileen’s previous roles at the foundation included leading the Environmental Conservation Program, as well as developing and leading the Wild Salmon Ecosystems and the Conservation and Markets Initiatives.
Before joining the foundation, Aileen was an associate principal at McKinsey & Company, where she led client engagements in strategy, operations, and organizational effectiveness across multiple sectors. She currently serves on the boards of the Climate and Land Use Alliance, iNaturalist, Legacy Landscapes Fund, and the Marin Community Foundation. Her past board service includes the Environmental Grantmakers Association (as chair), the Biodiversity Funders Group (as president), the Coral Reef Alliance, and the Western Conservation Foundation.
Aileen also volunteers with her hometown of Los Altos Hills as part of the Environmental Initiatives Committee. Born and raised on Long Island, New York, she earned her B.A. in Political Science and East Asian Studies from Yale University and her J.D. from Harvard Law School. She is a member of the California Bar.
Kai is a strategic, values-center leader with over 20 years of experience in environmental sustainability, community resilience, and social equity. As the inaugural Head of Global Programs at Waverley Street Foundation, Kai leads WSF’s team in supporting global movements, organizations, leaders, and local communities implementing climate change solutions.
Prior to joining WSF, Carter served as Director of the Global Climate Initiative at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, where she oversaw the Foundation’s investments to halt tropical deforestation and promote just and sustainable development. During this time she played a pivotal role in leading Forests, People, Climate, a collaborative of philanthropic donors and civil society with a similar purpose. She has managed teams and programs working at the intersection of people and the planet in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. She is a passionate advocate for the rights of women, girls, and communities of color and also serves as the Chair of the Board of the YMCA East Bay.
Carter earned a B.A. in International Relations from Brown University, a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Development Studies from the University of the South Pacific. Kai spends her free time trail running with her dog and soaking up sun rays while paddle boarding in the ocean.
