David Yarnold, President & CEO of Audubon

Kim Hubbard/Audubon Magazine

David Yarnold became Audubon’s 10th president in September, 2010, with a commitment to build on the organization’s strong conservation legacy, and expand its effectiveness into the future.  He leads Audubon’s powerful network of nearly 500 local Chapters, state offices and Audubon Centers across the country. “We are all Audubon,” Yarnold said. “No other organization has our wingspan when it comes to being able to drive conservation action, whether in individual backyards or in Congress.”

Under Yarnold’s leadership, Audubon is aligning its conservation work along migratory flyways, the “superhighways in the sky” that millions of birds travel each spring and fall.  “Flyways transcend geographical and political boundaries,” he said. “They give us a literal birds-eye view of environmental issues and trends, and help direct our work.  Sometimes this leads us to hands-on restoration, like keeping Nebraska’s Platte River vital for the Sandhill Cranes and many other species that depend on it, and sometimes it leads us to critical legislation needs, like ensuring that penalties from the Gulf oil catastrophe are used to fund Gulf restoration.”  Yarnold oversees Audubon’s Important Bird Area program, which protects 370 million acres along the flyways in the US and frames our work with BirdLife International and other conservationists around the globe.

With expertise in climate and energy issues, Yarnold has made environmentally-friendly siting for renewable energy one of his highest priorities at Audubon.  A Pulitzer Prize-winning editor San Jose Mercury News, he is an outspoken and eloquent advocate for birds and the environment.

Yarnold came to Audubon from the Environmental Defense Fund, where he played a leading role in expanding partnerships with corporations and helped double revenue. He also led the organization’s political action arm and was its leading US-based advocate for the creation of environmental markets in China.

Yarnold is an avid outdoorsman, a former tri-athlete and a die-hard runner. He lives in Dobbs Ferry, NY.

Follow Yarnold's blogs on The Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-yarnold

Yarnold profiled in Westchester magazine http://bit.ly/dLcvWi

Read Yarnold’s statement on BP Blunders http://bit.ly/gw1AaD

Read his Opinion piece on CNN Why falling birds put humans on alert  http://bit.ly/ieStKv

Read Yarnold's blog “Boots on the Ground” http://bit.ly/eAX2J5

David Yarnold has appeared on CNN, NPR, MSNBC, BBC, and PBS News Hour

To request photos or an interview with David Yarnold, contact:

Delta Willis
Senior Communications Manager
National Audubon Society
dwillis@audubon.org
212 979 3197