Jim Bohlen

Who was Jim Bohlen?

Jim Bohlen was an American engineer who worked on the Atlas ICBM missile program, later emigrated to Canada after becoming disillusioned with the US government's nuclear policy during the Cold War. He became one of the founders of Greenpeace.

Bohlen, one of the approximately half-dozen founders of Greenpeace, arguably made the most lasting impression with his brilliant backroom dealings. He effectively out-manoeuvered more high profile members of the group such as Paul Watson within the organization's inner workings and can be primarily credited with transforming the organization from a small, vociferous Canadian pressure group into the highly efficient international movement it is today. Although a British Columbian himself, Bohlen was a strong supporter of the creation of Greenpeace International and the move of the group's headquarters from Vancouver to New York, essentially giving birth to Greenpeace as we know it today. He was also instrumental in developing the group's hierarchical military-style command structure.

He made a similar and even less-acknowledged contribution to Green politics in Canada by negotiating a deal that ended the party's 10-year prohibition against Green Parties having leaders at a meeting of the Green Party of BC in 1992. Within four years of Bohlen's breakthrough agreement, all Canadian Green parties had moved to adopt conventional political structures in which their leaders functioned as primary spokespeople.