The Conservation Alliance membership elected Topher Gaylord, President of Mountain Hardwear, and Linda Tom, Marketing Manager at KEEN, Inc. to new three-year terms on the Alliance board of directors. The Alliance board also elected Ted Manning, VP of Merchandising at Eastern Mountain Sports, to fill a vacant seat.
Gaylord and Tom fill two new seats created when The Conservation Alliance recently moved to expand its board. Manning fills a seat created in 2008 to help the Alliance fill specific needs on the board. Each of the new directors will serve a three-year term renewable in 2013.
“This election both expands our board, and brings exciting fresh blood to The Conservation Alliance,” said John Sterling, Conservation Alliance Executive Director. “We will benefit from the broad range of experience that Topher, Linda, and Ted bring to the table.”
Gaylord served as a founding board member and Interim President of the European Outdoor Group Association for Conservation while working for The North Face in Europe. Tom manages KEEN’s Hybrid.Care program through which the company partners with social and environmental organizations, and has played an instrumental role in implementing the successful KEEN/Conservation Alliance partnership over the past five years. Manning, a lifelong conservationist, has played a key role in orchestrating Eastern Mountain Sports’ participation in The Conservation Alliance Legacy Fund, and other initiatives.
“With this election, we add three creative, passionate, and committed leaders to The Conservation Alliance board,” said Sterling. “We are now poised to take The Conservation Alliance to new heights.”
With the help of these three new directors, The Conservation Alliance board will develop a new, three-year strategic plan in November.
The new three-year board terms begin immediately after the August 2nd board meeting.
About The Conservation Alliance:
The Conservation Alliance is an organization of outdoor businesses whose collective contributions support grassroots environmental organizations and their efforts to protect wild places where outdoor enthusiasts recreate. Alliance funds have played a key role in protecting rivers, trails, wildlands and climbing areas.
Membership in the Alliance is open to companies representing all aspects of the outdoor industry, including manufacturers, retailers, publishers, mills and sales representatives. The result is a diverse group of businesses whose livelihood depends on protecting our natural environment.
Since its inception in 1989, the Alliance has contributed more than $8.3 million to grassroots environmental groups. Alliance funding has helped save over 49.5 million acres of wildlands; 27 dams have either been stopped or removed; and the group helped preserve access to more than 17,000 miles of waterways and several climbing areas.
