Executive Vice President of the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation
Marilu Hastings is executive vice president (EVP) of the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation in Austin. She is the former chief innovation and strategy officer at CGMF.
As EVP, Marilu leads and is a catalyst for enhancing the programmatic direction of the foundation. She guides the conception and implementation of programs and initiatives with the program teams to ensure that the foundation’s priorities align with the mission and values of benefactors George and Cynthia Mitchell. In addition, Marilu directs CGMF’s Mitchell Innovation Lab, a varied portfolio of breakthrough sustainability ideas and opportunities that the foundation develops and incubates.
Marilu convenes high-profile, collaborative efforts to promote Texas’s transition to sustainability, including initiatives to protect habitat and species from energy sprawl, address ongoing drought and water management challenges, foster sustainability education curriculum and practices, and adopt clean energy policies. She is also a sought-after strategic and organizational-development advisor to non-profit organizations, foundations, and academic organizations.
Prior to CGMF, Marilu held leadership positions from 1996 to 2008 at the Houston Advanced Research Center, a non-profit research organization founded by Mr. Mitchell. Her work focused on enhancing the integration of social sciences into environmental decision-making. She analyzed the dynamics of environmental decision-making within the oil & gas industry, especially in sensitive and remote environments.
Marilu serves as a member of the National Petroleum Council at the U.S. Department of Energy. She is chair of the University of Texas’s Energy Institute Advisory Board; chair of Environmental Defense Fund’s Texas Advisory Board; a member of the Advisory Board of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin; and a trustee of the Regional Endowment for Sustainability Science. Marilu is a fellow of the Houston Advanced Research Center. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability.
Marilu earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics and political science from Duke University, an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin.