Chris Warn is ESA’s Southeast Biological Resources Director and brings more than 27 years of experience leading coastal restoration and environmental planning efforts. He works with clients and project teams on complex watershed, habitat, and restoration projects across the Southeast and beyond, helping communities balance environmental stewardship with long-term resilience. Throughout his career, Chris has supported major initiatives ranging from Everglades restoration to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill recovery and has partnered with agencies, ports, and conservation organizations on projects that improve coastal ecosystems.
What is your favorite ESA moment/memory so far?
Hanging out in the Tampa office break room shortly after I joined ESA chatting with Leslie Moulton-Post. I have never met a CEO who is as approachable and personable in my career. It says a lot about the company culture and confirmed I made the right choice joining ESA!
What does it mean to you to be part of an employee-owned company?
Pride in ownership! It’s our company and my work is an investment not only in my career but also the firm’s future and the future of our employee-owners.
What keeps you coming to work here at ESA every day?
Our team! We have amazingly dedicated people, and I feel a personal sense of duty to support them and foster their career growth.
What is your hidden or special talent(s)?
I make an award-winning margarita. When I lived in Monterey, I won the best margarita bartending contest. Hit me up if you need one!
What’s your favorite thing to do when you are out of the office?
Anything on the water – surfing, paddleboarding, boating.
If you had one free hour each day, how would you use it?
I’d take a beach walk.
What are three skills that you bring to the ESA team? In other words, what should colleagues know to reach out to you about?
- Strategic business development
- Watershed management planning
- Coastal restoration
In a nutshell, what kind of work does your team do?
We provide services across the full project lifecycle, from planning and permitting to biological evaluations, engineering design, and construction monitoring.
Describe your role at ESA and the type of work you do.
I serve as the SE BRLM Business Group Director and as an ESA Officer. I support our teams in contracting, scope and fee development, and team management. In my PM and technical roles, I work on watershed and coastal restoration projects.
What’s been your favorite project to work on here at ESA and what impact did it have on the community and/or environment?
The Fowl River project is my favorite project of my career. ESA’s involvement with the river began in 2014, before I joined the company, when we served as a subcontractor on a watershed management plan. After I joined ESA, Bryan Flynn and I teamed up to win the Fowl River Marsh and Shoreline Stabilization Restoration Project for the engineering and design phase. That success led to ESA being sole-sourced the construction monitoring phase, which will continue through 2030. By the completion of the project, ESA will have worked on Fowl River and alongside the local community for 16 years. Opportunities to be part of a legacy project of this scale and duration are rare in a career. What makes this project especially meaningful is the close partnership we have built with the community to help restore and enhance the natural systems they are so passionate about protecting while creating lasting environmental benefits for future generations.
Have you had the opportunity to work on any career-defining projects?
I worked on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill emergency response and subsequent natural resource damage assessment (NRDA), and I continue to be actively involved in restoration projects funded from the oil spill fines. As an environmental scientist and Gulf Coast resident, that event was life changing. It steered my career in a new direction, and I got the chance to work all over the Gulf Coast with key clients and many communities. Sixteen years later we are still designing restoration projects for our clients as part of the recovery efforts.
