Marc Berejka has served as REI’s lead for government affairs and philanthropy for over a dozen years.
In the advocacy realm, Marc has guided the co-op’s engagement in federal, state and local government issues. In recent years, he has worked with teammates to expand their coverage by rolling out the co-op’s new grassroots Cooperative Action Network. Marc also has overseen the co-op’s community grants program, which over the past 50 years has reinvested more than $125m in nonprofit partners across the country. Most recently, the philanthropy program has been relaunched as the REI Cooperative Action Fund. This is a public charity that allows members, vendors and others to co-invest alongside REI in efforts to make the outdoors more equitable. Annually, the co-op’s philanthropic efforts support hundreds of organizations of various types with cumulative support exceeding $10m.
Marc relishes a number of other successes over the course of his time at REI. They include establishing the outdoor recreation sector as a bona fide, significant contributor to the U.S. economy; cultivating a nationwide network of “state recreation offices” and companion “chambers of commerce for the outdoors;” as well as pioneering REI’s commitment to research that demonstrates how time outside serves our wellbeing. He and his team have set up and maintained 100s of nonprofit and commercial partnerships.
Before joining the co-op, Marc was technology policy advisor to then-Secretary Gary Locke at the US Department of Commerce. Prior to that, he had various public policy roles at Microsoft, both in Washington D.C. and Washington State. He spent the first part of his career as a telecom attorney. He holds a J.D. from Georgetown University and a B.A. from Princeton University.
