A New Leader for BCI
Mylea Bayless
From: Bat Conservation International [mailto:in...@batcon.org]
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2013 10:16 AM
To: Mylea Bayless
Subject: A New Leader for BCI
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A New Leader for BCI
Please join Bat Conservation International in welcoming our new Executive Director. Andrew B. Walker, a veteran conservationist with nearly three decades of experience in nonprofit organizations, will take the helm at BCI on January 30. He succeeds Nina Fascione and Founder Merlin Tuttle. “I am very pleased and excited to be joining BCI as Executive Director,” Walker said. “No other organization is so dedicated to conserving the world’s 1250-plus species of bats, many of which are threatened with extinction by habitat loss, disease and misplaced fears. I’m proud to be following in the footsteps of Merlin and Nina, and I look forward to working with the BCI Board and staff and with our partners to achieve lasting conservation for bats around the world.” Walker’s love of bats began at age five with a family vacation to Chautauqua, N.Y. He recalls with vivid clarity the thousands of bats that filled the sky each evening over the town and lake. “Bats are extraordinary creatures important to science and the natural habitats in which they live,” he noted. “They also save farmers billions of dollars annually in the United States alone by helping to control insect pests.” “Andy has demonstrated a deep commitment to, and success in, conservation over the course of his career,” said BCI Board Chairman Walter Sedgwick. “The Board has complete confidence in his ability to lead BCI into a new era for bat conservation.” Walker joined The Nature Conservancy, a leader in habitat conservation, as executive director of the group’s Long Island Chapter in 1985. There, he co-directed the Conservancy’s first state and local legislative initiatives to protect outstanding natural areas and launched one of the Conservancy’s first “bioreserves,” pilot projects in conservation on a landscape-wide scale. He also served with the Conservancy in Arizona and as state director in Tennessee, and was director of the group’s Trustee Leadership Program for 56 Conservancy boards around the world. He has worked with partner organizations throughout the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Pacific. Walker was most recently President and CEO of the New College Foundation in Sarasota, Florida. As BCI Executive Director, Walker will be based in Washington D. C. He summed up his conservation philosophy by citing poet and environmentalist Gary Snyder, who recently urged those working to address climate change “'to do this work not out of guilt, but out of love and respect for the Earth.' This holds for BCI as well,” Walker said. “Only by increasing understanding and instilling pride, respect and love for bats can we hope to secure the long-term survival of this wonderful, sensitive and beautifully adapted family of creatures.” We are all delighted to have such a proven leader as our new Executive Director. Andy brings an impressive set of skills to BCI, and through his leadership – and with the support of our dedicated members and our many partners around the world – we will realize our full potential as a global leader for bat conservation. Welcome aboard, Andy. Dave Waldien |
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