John Passacantando

About John

• In college, he felt like everyone around him was studying accounting because they knew they could get a job in the field.
• When people asked what he wanted to do with his life, he'd tell them he wanted to go, just so he could end the conversation.
• Became fascinated with economics, fell into selling conservative economic research to Wall Street.
• In the meantime, his friend was lending him radical environmentalist literature, which struck a chord with his outdoorsy spirit.
• Says his "avocation and vocation came crashing together"; he felt he had to make a choice, chose environmentalism.
• Joined a conservationist foundation, stayed on for three years before leaving to found his own organization, Ozone Action.
• Greenpeace hired him as executive director and he folded Ozone Action's objectives into the Greenpeace mission statement.
• Says his path-from conservative economics to radical conservatism-wasn't linear, but made sense to him because he explored all his interests.