pic_home_rlf
 
Strategy Button
How We Operate Button
Programs Button
Grantees Button
About Us Button

Financial Information

Home Button
 

Board and Staff

Board Members of RLF and RLFF:

Because Resources Legacy Fund (RLF) and its supporting organization, Resources Legacy Fund Foundation (RLFF) share the same mission, staff, and operational strategy, they also share distinguished members on their boards, with RLFF having one additional member. RLF and RLFF are honored to have the commitment, excellence, and expertise of these board members.

Don McGrath, Vice Chair

Mr. McGrath is Chairman of Bank of the West and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the bank’s holding company, BancWest Corporation. Mr. McGrath joined Bank of the West in 1975, and became President in 1991 and CEO in 1996. During his tenure at Bank of the West, he also held the positions of Vice President and Treasurer, Chief Financial Officer, Director, and Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer. Mr. McGrath retired as CEO of Bank of the West at the end of 2007.

Mr. McGrath serves on the MasterCard U.S. Region Advisory Board and the board of directors of Deluxe Corporation. He is active in community affairs and serves on boards as diverse as Financial Services Roundtable, The Nature Conservancy of California, Operation HOPE Inc., Dominican University of San Rafael, and Commonwealth Club of California.

W. John Schmidt (back to top)

John Schmidt is the former Executive Director of Resources Legacy Fund and Resources Legacy Fund Foundation. Beginning in 2001, Mr. Schmidt served as the organization's Executive Director and as Program Director for RLF's San Francisco Bay Wetlands Restoration project.

Prior to joining RLF, Mr. Schmidt was the Executive Director of the California Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB), California's leading conservation real estate and restoration agency, for 18 years. He is past president of the Organization of Wildlife Land and Realty Specialists, and has worked on several committees of the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. Mr. Schmidt also worked in land-related activities with the California Division of Highways and the Alaska Department of Highways.

Mr. Schmidt holds a California Community College Teaching Credential, is a certified real estate appraiser and a former member of the City of Lodi Planning Commission.

Jeanne Sedgwick (back to top)

Jeanne Sedgwick is the former director of the Conservation Program at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation in Los Altos, California. She oversaw the program's growth from an annual grants budget of $500,000 in 1989 to $100 million in 2000. Under her direction in 1998, the Conservation Program launched the 5-year, $175 million Conserving California Landscapes Initiative, which helped protect nearly 500,000 acres of California's critical habitats.

She has served in a variety of board positions, most recently including chairman of the board of the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity, the national affinity group of private foundations working on biodiversity conservation, and vice chairman of the board of trustees at Phillips Brooks School, an independent school in Menlo Park, California. She is a member of the strategic planning committee at Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve at Stanford University.

Will Shafroth, Secretary/Treasurer (back to top)

In 2001, Will Shafroth founded and became Executive Director of the Colorado Conservation Trust, a community foundation for conservation. From 1994 to 2001, Mr. Shafroth served as the first Executive Director of the Great Outdoors Colorado Trust Fund, a state program that distributed $250 million in lottery funds for parks, open space, wildlife, trails, and environmental education.

As Assistant Secretary for Land and Coastal Resources for the California Resources Agency, he was responsible for the development and implementation of policies on agricultural lands, rivers, wetlands, oceans, and the coast. He has also served as Western Regional Director of the American Farmland Trust, a nonprofit farmland conservation organization.

Gordon R. Smith (back to top)

Gordon Smith is the former President and CEO of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, one of the nation's largest investor-owned energy utilities. Mr. Smith was also Senior Vice President of the utility's parent company, PG&E Corporation. He joined Pacific Gas and Electric Company in 1970 as a financial analyst and held a number of executive financial positions in the company, serving as Treasurer, Vice President of Finance, and Senior Vice President. He was the utility's Chief Financial Officer from 1991 to 1997.

Mr. Smith is the former Director of the California Chamber of Commerce and the Bay Area Council. He serves as trustee for The Monterey Bay Aquarium, and has served as a Trustee of the University of San Francisco and The California Foundation on the Environment and Economy.

Barton H. Thompson, Jr., Chair (back to top)

Barton H. "Buzz" Thompson, Jr. is Vice-Dean of the Stanford Law School, where he also serves as Robert E. Paradise Professor of Natural Resources Law, and as Academic Director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Department. A widely published author and recognized expert in water resource issues, Mr. Thompson is Contributing Editor to Water Strategist and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Natural Heritage Institute.

Mr. Thompson has worked as a partner at the law firm of O'Melveny & Meyers, instructor at University of California at Los Angeles, and law clerk to United States Supreme Court Justice William H. Rehnquist. Today, he is a member of the California and American Bar Associations and serves as a Trustee of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Institute.

Barry Lawson Williams (back to top)

Barry Williams is the founder and President of Williams Pacific Ventures, Inc., a real estate and private equity investment and consulting firm. Previously, Mr. Williams served as general partner of WDG Ventures, Inc. and was President and majority stockholder of C. N. Flagg Power, Inc. He was a consultant with McKinsey and Company and The Bechtel Group in their investment programs.

Mr. Williams also serves on the boards of PG&E Corporation, the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, and several other publicly traded companies. In civic affairs, he is Chairman of the Board of the African American Experience Fund and a director for the American Management Association.

Mr. Williams has been President of the Harvard Alumni Association and interim CEO of the American Management Association. He recently concluded a six-year term on the board of the National Park Foundation.

Board Member of RLFF:

Jim Eaton (back to top)

Jim Eaton, serving solely on the board of Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, is a founder and former Executive Director (1981 to 1997) of the California Wilderness Coalition, a nonprofit corporation committed to protecting California's wild places and native biodiversity on a statewide level. He also is a founder of The Wildlands Project, which envisions establishing a network of protected areas and linkages to reestablish the native biodiversity of North America, and has served as the California and Hawaii Regional Representative of The Wilderness Society.

Mr. Eaton helped organize and serves as a director of Tuleyome, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the agricultural and wild heritages of the Putah Creek and Cache Creek watersheds and associated regions. He also is a fellow with The Rewilding Institute, which is providing a long-term, hopeful vision for conservation in North America.

 

RLF and RLFF Staff:

Michael R. Eaton, Executive Director (back to top)

Mike Eaton provides executive leadership and vision to RLF and RLFF. In this role, he develops and implements the organizations’ long-term objectives, develops and coordinates conservation program areas, oversees external communications, and is responsible for donor relations.

Mr. Eaton brings with him diverse experience of work in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Most recently, Mike served for more than a decade as a Senior Project Director with The Nature Conservancy, overseeing the Conservancy’s work in the Cosumnes River watershed and the North Delta. In that role, he oversaw the growth of the Cosumnes River Preserve from fewer than 5,000 acres to nearly 50,000 acres and pioneered a number of innovative conservation strategies and partnerships. Prior to joining The Nature Conservancy, Mr. Eaton headed his own private consulting practice, with clients in the renewable energy, hazardous waste processing, and real estate development industries. Early in his career he worked for the California Resources Agency, the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, and the Sierra Club. He serves on the board of Valley Vision and is an advisor to the California Institute for Public Affairs.

Sue Haderle, Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer (back to top)

Ms. Haderle joined RLF and RLFF in 2006 to provide oversight of programs and initiatives, as well as to manage finance, accounting, and investments along with the ongoing operations of both organizations.

Ms. Haderle brings over 25 years of experience in finance, accounting, and management. Most recently, she was a director in the Controller’s Office at Stanford University. Prior to that, she was regional vice president of Horn Murdock Cole, a national consulting firm providing business solutions in accounting and finance, corporate governance, and information technology. Ms. Haderle has held various finance and accounting management positions with high-tech companies. She is currently on the board of the Center for Land-Based Learning.

Ms. Haderle holds an MBA in Finance from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Meghan Moda, Conservation Program Administrator (back to top)

Meghan Moda joined the RLF and RLFF team in August 2007 as Conservation Program Administrator. Her primary role is oversight and management of the San Francisco Bay Wetlands and San Joaquin River Restoration programs at RLF. She also provides grant and contract administration for various other RLF and RLFF projects and programs, including RLF’s carbon offset program.

Meghan’s experience includes community organizing, contract administration, and research on environmental conservation and management issues. She holds an M.A. in Environmental Science and Policy from Clark University, served as an Albert Schweitzer Fellow in 2006-2007 working on environmental justice and health issues in urban Massachusetts’ neighborhoods, and has experience with various grassroots nonprofits including the Toxics Action Center. Prior to attending graduate school, she worked as a case manager for the alternative dispute resolution non-profit, American Arbitration Association.