Tributary Fund Board

JEFF GRIFFIN runs a environmental consulting business in Billings, Montana. He has worked for the United Nations and is certified as a carbon auditor for a company based in Germany. Jeff has played a key role in developing, evaluating, providing strategic guidance to and/or implementing over 50 Biodiversity Conservation & International Waters projects worldwide. He has more than 15 years of experience working with NGOs, entrepreneurs & private business, multi-lateral and bi-lateral institutions, Government officials, and local communities. Jeff has a bachelor’s degree from St. Olaf and a MES from Yale University.
LAURA HOEHN, Secretary, is Sierra Club’s General Counsel, based in Bozeman, Montana.  She has a lifelong interest in conservation, having volunteered on the national board of Sierra Club and also worked at Earthjustice.  Following graduation from University of Oregon School of Law, she was a judicial law clerk to the Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
JEFF KELLER, Vice Chair, is a Partner in TK Capital Partners, a family owned and operated private equity firm with offices in both Chicago, IL and Lake Geneva, WI.  Prior to starting TK Capital Partners, Jeff was the President of the MacLean Vehicle Systems Fastener Group of the MacLean-Fogg Company, providing engineered fastening solutions to the global transportation, aerospace and industrial markets.  He spent time working as an international banker while based in Santiago, Chile and in the classroom teaching English in Namibia.  His many outdoors interests have fostered a deep level of commitment to conservation issues and he is active in a number of organizations.  He serves as the Chair of the Board of Deacons at the Plymouth Congregational Church in Burlington, WI, and as the Chair of the Advancement Committee on the Lake Forest Academy Board of Trustees. Jeff is a graduate of The Colorado College and holds an International MBA from the University of Chicago.  He and his wife Molly and their three children live in Burlington, Wisconsin.
The Tributary Fund PETER MATTHIESSEN, an award-winning author of At Play in the Fields of the Lord and The Snow Leopard, continues to write books and articles and is a vocal and active conservationist. Matthiessen won the 2008 National Book Award for Shadow Country.
MARTIN PALMER is a theologian, author, broadcaster and environmentalist.   He is Secretary General of the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC), which assists eleven world faiths in developing environmental and conservation projects worldwide. He has recently been appointed as a special advisor to the UN on Climate Change, the Environment and The Faiths and heads a three year program with the UN on this. Palmer is the Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture (ICOREC), which specialises in religious, educational, environmental and development issues. He is the author of over twenty books on religious topics.
Liz Gibson Richards
LIZ GIBSON RICHARDS, Board Chair, is founder of CSAM Consultancy.  CSAM advises closely held and small private companies.  They provide leadership and expertise in domestic and global property markets.  Specifically, CSAM maintains expertise in all areas of real estate portfolio management, asset management, real estate organizational development and government relations.  Liz has over 30 years of experience in economic development, design and construction, real estate development, and real estate management and operations.  Prior to founding CSAM, she managed a public real estate portfolio valued at $3B and demonstrated knowledge and commitment that leads to success.  She is a member  of Lambda Alpha, the international honor society for land economics and a certified member of CCIM, as a recognized and certified expert in commercial investment real estate.  She is a graduate of the University of Maryland Baltimore County and the Catholic University of America.  

MICHAEL SOULE is Professor Emeritus of Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz. Upon receiving his Ph.D. at Stanford, Michael went to Africa to help found the first university in Malawi.  He has also taught in Samoa, the Universities of California at both San Diego and Santa Cruz, and the University of Michigan.Michael was a founder of the Society for Conservation Biology and The Wildlands Project.  He has written and edited 9 books and published more than 170 articles on population and evolutionary biology, fluctuating asymmetry, population genetics, island biogeography, environmental studies, biodiversity policy, nature conservation, and ethics. He is a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, is the sixth recipient of the Archie Carr Medal, was named by Audubon Magazine in 1998 as one of the 100 Champions of Conservation of the 20th Century, is a recipient of the National Wildlife Federation’s National Conservation Achievement Award for science, and the recipient of the Conservation Medal for 2007 from the Zoological Society of San Diego. Now living in Colorado, Michael speaks and writes on morality, conservation, serves on the boards of several conservation organizations, including the Wildlands Project, and consults internationally on nature protection.  He is also completing a book about conservation and human nature and practical means of saving the world.  Michael has studied Buddhism for years.
 

MARGIE TAYLOR was raised on a cattle ranch in Big Horn Country, Montana.  She received her B.A. in anthropology from Stanford University and a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University.  After spending a few years as a veterinary technician and feedlot manager, she launched her professional career as an archeaologist with the Montana State Office of the Bureau of Land Management.  That public sector work led her into the field of energy and environmental policy where she ultimately spent 13 years working for Burlington Northern and Burlington Resources in state capitols throughout the west and in Washington, DC as an energy and environmental lobbyist.  In 1996 Margie returned to Montana and spent nine years managing Ted Turner’s 15 western ranches (1.95 million acres) and herd of 45,000 bison.  Margie became the Executive Director of Bozeman’s Heart of the Valley Animal Shelter in June 2005 after serving on HOV’s board for two years.  During her four years at the shelter, the money was raised and a $4 million shelter was constructed.  Margie is now retired, living in Sheridan, Wyoming, and volunteers with several non-profit organizations.  Margie traveled to Mongolia to see TTF projects in action in 2009.
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