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Stanford Business magazine

 

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The Great Turtle Race

TurtleLast spring, 11 female leatherback turtles, each weighing about 2,000 pounds and carrying a special “satellite backpack,” buried their eggs on a beach in Costa Rica and headed back to their feeding grounds off the Galapagos Islands, some 500 miles away. The speediest of the grande dames took 11 days for the trip as they detoured, devoured jellyfish, and dove to depths of nearly 3,000 feet. Watching graphs of their progress online and on cable were marine scientists, conservationists, school children, internet browsers, and fans of the faux television newscaster Stephen Colbert, whose namesake Stephanie Colburtle the Turtle was second to arrive in the protected waters.

The audience was there thanks in part to marketing veteran Mark Breier, MBA ’85, who came up with the idea of a leatherback turtle race to bring attention to the plight of the endangered animal and raise interest in its conservation. Breier’s “aha” moment came as he was looking at Stanford scientist George Shillinger’s graph of turtle migration paths a few years back. It looks like a race! Breier thought. He prevailed upon Yahoo to host the event at greatturtlerace.com and lined up corporate and educational sponsors for each of the pelagic contestants. He also helped develop the website. Mixing Shillinger’s expertise in “tagging” turtles with Breier’s creativity and marketing connections, the 2007 Great Turtle Race was born.