David M. Yarnold, Chief Executive, National Audubon Society (New York)
By Debra E. Blum
Contributor
August 8, 2010 | Read Time: 1 minute
Background: Mr. Yarnold went to work out of college for the San Jose Mercury News, in Calif., rising to become its executive editor in 1999, after a short stint as a vice president at the online media company Knight Ridder Digital. In 2005 he left journalism to become executive director of the Environmental Defense Fund, in New York. Three years later, he took on an additional role as president of the group’s lobbying arm, the Environmental Defense Action Fund.
Education: Earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from San Jose State University, in Calif.
Why he switched careers: Mr. Yarnold says that after covering the “greatest story ever told”—the rise of Silicon Valley—for the Mercury News, he was ready to explore new opportunities. At the Environmental Defense Fund, he discovered “many similarities between managing mission-focused journalists and mission-focused lawyers and scientists.”
Why he was hired: Holt Thrasher, chair of Audubon’s governing board, said in a written statement that Mr. Yarnold “is a boundary-crosser, the kind of flexible thinker and values-based executive that a complex conservation and fund-raising landscape demands right now.”
His agenda: Mr. Yarnold’s first act, after settling for a week or so into his new office, will be to buy a new pair of “bins”—bird-watcher speak for binoculars—and spend at least a month meeting with as many Audubon chapters as he can. Top priorities are to clarify Audubon’s focus and to identify ways to better connect the organization’s grass-roots strengths to its national policies. He would also like to continue to build on the momentum Audubon has captured since the BP oil spill.
Most-exotic bird-watching trip: The cliffs of Iceland.
Salary: He declined to disclose it.
