January 9, 2011 | Read Time: 1 minute
New role: Mr. Steen, 46, assumed his post December 1 at American Forests, a 135-year-old conservation group in Washington.
Career highlights: He spent the past four years as the executive director at the American Ceramic Society, in Columbus, Ohio, an international scientific and technical group focused on engineering challenges. He also worked at the American Society for Association Executives, in Washington, helping the group plan its future after merging with the Center for Association Leadership.
Education: He holds a bachelor’s degree in politics from Gordon College, in Wenham, Mass.
Why he was hired: “We needed not an expert in trees but a businessman to improve our marketing, social communications, and public persona,” says Lynda C. Webster, the group’s board chair. “It’s completely different than what we have ever done.”
His goals: Mr. Steen wants to significantly expand the charity’s conservation and reforestation activities, develop a public education program about the benefit of trees in rural and urban settings, and build a community of supporters who will help promote the group’s cause.
Salary: He declined to disclose it.
Book he’s currently reading: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, by Edmund Morris.
Favorite trees: The corkscrew willow and Eastern redbuds he sees from his yard in West Virginia.
