Collaborators from multiple disciplines and nations.
Gulf of Tomorrow launched in January 2026 with three founding board members who have deep experience working across a wide range of issues facing the Gulf and a shared commitment to the region’s future. Under their guidance, we have recruited Richard Cudney Bueno to serve as our founding chief executive officer and diversified our board to include representatives from Mexico, Cuba, and the United States.
With Richard’s leadership, over the next five years we will build a tri-national organization to support our partners and help address some of the Gulf of Mexico’s most pressing challenges. As we grow, our staff and board will bring together diverse expertise, cultures, and perspectives, grounded in the communities of all three Gulf nations.
What unites us is a commitment to a thriving Gulf and the generations who will call this unique region home.
CEO & Board of Directors
Dr. Richard Cudney Bueno
Chief Executive Officer
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Serves as Chief Executive Officer of Gulf of Tomorrow. Richard previously served as Program Officer for Conservation and Science at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and as Principal of Andanza Advisors LLC. A bilingual and multicultural leader with roots in Mexico, the United States, and Cuba, Richard brings three decades of deep multicultural experience connecting people, organizations, and ideas across sectors and borders to address complex environmental challenges. His leadership is grounded in science, collaboration, and a conviction that showing up, fostering strong relationships, and building trust are what create lasting change.
Read Richard's full bio here.
Donald W. Perkins, Jr.
Board President/Treasurer
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Serves as the Executive Director of the Harte Charitable Foundation, Managing Director of Merraform, and director of MMG Insurance. Don previously served as the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute and Executive Vice President of Binax, Inc. Don was the founding Chair of Texas Water Trade, a director of Vida Water LLC, and is currently a director of Maine Farmland Trust.
David L. Sinak
Board Vice President – Tax
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Serves as a Director of the Harte Charitable Foundation and a Trustee of the Harte Research Support Foundation. David previously served as a partner with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, a leading global law firm, where he worked with both non-profit and corporate clients. At Gibson Dunn, David served as CoChair of their Tax Practice Group. David has over thirty years of experience working with nonprofits that focus on the issues facing the Gulf of Mexico.
Sarah Rountree Schlessinger
Board Secretary
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Serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the Texas Water Foundation, a statewide nonprofit that works in water policy, workforce development, and public education. Sarah previously worked in groundwater policy and regulation and has experience with international nonprofits and disaster response. Sarah served as an appointed member of the Water Conservation Advisory Council for ten years and is currently a director of Open ET.
Daniel Whittle
Board Member
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Serves as Associate Vice President of the Environmental Defense Fund where he works to advance conservation of marine and coastal ecosystems in Cuba and the Gulf of Mexico. Dan previously served as Senior Policy Advisor at the North Carolina Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources. Dan was a founding member of the Research Initiative for the Sustainable Development of Cuba, a co-founder of the Tri-National Initiative on Marine Sciences and Conservation for the Gulf of Mexico and western Caribbean, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Study Group on Marine Disaster Preparedness and Prevention in the Gulf of Mexico.
Jorge A. Angulo-Valdes, Ph.D.
Board Member
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Serves as a Visiting Assistant Professor and International Student Advisor at Eckerd College. Jorge previously served as the Director of the Center for Marine Research at the University of Havana. Jorge has published over 50 papers on recreational fisheries, management effectiveness of marine protected areas, natural resources conservation and bio economics, and led several research projects funded by international agencies such as the International Development Research Institute, Sea to Shore Alliance, and Environmental Defense Fund.
Cheri Recchia
Board Member
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Serves as Director of The Summit Foundation’s Resilient Mesoamerican Reef program. Cheri previously served as Deputy Director of the Strategy, Learning and Evaluation Department at the Walton Family Foundation. A biological oceanographer with experience in marine conservation and resource management around the world, Cheri’s prior positions include directing ocean programs at the Wildlife Conservation Society, The Ocean Conservancy, and World Wildlife Fund Canada, as well as threatened species conservation and management for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.