Ray Hartwell

Ray Hartwell is the founding director of Summit Conservation Strategies and has twenty years of experience in conservation program design and implementation, energy efficiency, water rights and water markets, economic and policy analysis, and conservation finance. Ray’s current projects include analysis of the financial returns to watershed stewardship in Southern Colorado, design of a water transactions program in New Mexico, assessment of the economic availability of water in Oregon, and energy conservation program design and strategy in the Pacific Northwest. Ray brings training in policy analysis, finance, and economics to his work and has conducted water rights valuation, developed strategies for cost-efficient acquisition of environmental water, and evaluated the financial costs of alternative program design options.

From 2007 to 2016, Mr. Hartwell was a founding director of Ecosystem Economics LLC, where he successfully developed, managed, and completed dozens of individual consulting projects for diverse clients. Ray worked for four years at the Bonneville Power Administration overseeing the agencies portfolio of energy efficiency programs for the commercial sector. He began his career with stints at the Deschutes River Conservancy and the Environmental Defense Fund. He also has prior consulting experience in financial and economic analysis at Cornerstone Research in New York City.

Ray is active in the conservation community and served on the Board of Directors for the Oregon Natural Desert Association from 2007 to 2020. He also teaches Environmental Economics and Policy at Oregon State University’s Cascades Campus. Ray has a MPA in public administration from New York University and a BA from Williams College, summa cum laude.

 Ray enjoys outdoor sports and is an avid skier, climber, and trail runner. He is an enthusiastic fly fisher, aspiring surfer, and a fan of literature. He resides in Bend, Oregon with his family.