Leadership and Staff

Christopher G. Oechsli President & Chief Executive Officer

Christopher G. Oechsli is President and CEO of The Atlantic Philanthropies. In keeping with Chuck Feeney’s philosophy of Giving While Living, he led Atlantic’s four program areas and Founding Chairman grantmaking to completion and concluded foundation operations and closure of its offices in 2020.  He currently serves as Chair of the Atlantic Institute, which supports the work of the seven global Atlantic Fellows programs that were established as the foundation’s culminating work.  He is a Trustee of the Rhodes Trust, the host of the Atlantic Institute in Oxford, England.

Mr. Oechsli has over 40 years of experience in international business, law, philanthropy and policy development in the United States, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. He previously served as Counsel to U.S. Senator Russ Feingold, whom he advised on legislation and a range of domestic and international issues.  Since 1990, Mr. Oechsli has served in various senior program roles at The Atlantic Philanthropies and as director, counsel, or chief executive of operating companies within the General Atlantic Group, an international investment subsidiary of the Atlantic Foundation.  Earlier in his career, Mr. Oechsli worked with private law firms in Seattle, Shanghai, San Francisco, and Taipei. In 1985, he became the first resident visiting law professor from the United States in the People’s Republic of China, where he taught constitutional and commercial law at the East China Law School in Shanghai.  He currently serves as a director of the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Mr. Oechsli is a graduate of Occidental College in Los Angeles. Following studies in Chinese language at Georgetown University and graduate studies at Columbia University, he received an M.A. in Foreign Affairs and a J.D. from the University of Virginia.

 

Recommended

• “We’re not telling people what to do. We just want to show what’s possible.”
• ‘There’s No Substitute for Clarity’: Atlantic’s CEO Shares Lessons Learned Managing a Global Foundation
• Making and Living History
• My Syrian Refugee Grandparents’ Lost America
• Giving While Living Featured on ‘Top of Mind’
• Finished, But Not Done
• Atlantic Fellows: Advancing Fairer, Healthier, More Inclusive Societies
• Betting Big on New Leaders in Health Equity
• Atlantic’s Focus on Dementia Goes Global
• Ending Well: Maximizing Lasting Impact
• 20 Years On, South Africa’s Remarkable Constitution Remains Unfulfilled
• 30 Years of Giving While Living: Our Final Chapter