Mike Korchinsky

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Biographical Information

"Born Michael Korchinsky, September 21, 1961, in Brookville, Ontario, Canada; son of Walter (a chemical engineering professor) and Gloria Korchinsky; married Linda Hanson (an insurance–firm owner), 1993. Education: Birmingham University, Birmingham, England, B.S.E. (chemical engineering), 1982.

"Worked for Shell Oil; consultant, Anderson Consulting, London, England, 1982–85, Chicago office, 1985; consulting manager, Myers Holum, San Francisco, CA, 1986–88; co–founder and president, Axiom Consulting, San Francisco, 1988–95; senior vice president, Cambridge Technology Partners, 1995–97; founder and chief executive officer, Wildlife Works, San Francisco (moved to Sausalito, CA), 1997—.

"Talk show host Oprah Winfrey and actresses Helen Hunt, Catherine Zeta–Jones, and Charlize Theron, among others, have been spotted wearing the Wildlife Works brand. The clothes also showed up in the on–set closet of actress Debra Messing, star of the hit television sitcom Will & Grace. Non–famous customers across the country are scooping up sporty Wildlife Works apparel at department stores like Nordstrom and local boutiques. Korchinsky started the company after a trip to Africa in 1996 left him assessing his goals. "I wondered whether I really wanted to spend the rest of my life helping big companies become more successful or trying to help wildlife find a way in this world," he remarked in an article in People...

"The company got started with help from private investors and in 1999, Wildlife Works bought a failing cattle ranch in Tsavo National Park in Kenya to convert into a garment factory and wildlife sanctuary. The 80,000–acre Rukinga Wildlife Sanctuary is home to 47 mammal species and several endangered species. As of late 2003, the factory in Kenya employed 56 locals who earn $50 a week with health benefits (the average annual salary in Kenya is $300 a year). Korchinsky gives back 20 percent of the company's proceeds to fund community projects like schools and libraries in addition to the sanctuary, and hopes to increase that amount to 25 percent, according to Brenner. Estimated sales for 2003 were $2 million.

"Korchinsky is married to Linda Hanson, who owns an insurance firm, and they have two dogs, Joey and Tess, and one cat, Ben. A self–confessed "nature channel addict," as he said in the telephone interview with Newsmakers, he is also a vegetarian. Korchinsky plans to continue to grow his business in order to expand conservation efforts to more places in the world such as India and South America, he noted in the telephone interview. "I would like to measure success in ten years based on how many species we save," he said in People."

Articles

• Alexander Cockburn, "Don't They Know It's Christmas? Yup, It’s Moral Outrage Time; Animals Don’t Vote: Conservation and Mike Korchinsky", Counterpunch, November 27-29, 2004. (positive article)