Audubon Welcomes Richard H. Lawrence, Jr. to Board of Directors

NEW YORK— The National Audubon Society today announced the appointment of Richard H. Lawrence, Jr., founder of Overlook Investment Group, to its board of directors.

“Richard’s business acumen and passion around climate change will make him an exceptional board leader,” said Audubon President and CEO David Yarnold (@david_yarnold).  “He has spent much of his career building and leading carbon reduction projects, along with his wife, Dee, across the world. He understands that our local bipartisan engagement actions makes Audubon the most effective conservation network in the U.S. His insight and drive will help advance Audubon’s implementation of conservation priorities on a large scale.”

Richard Lawrence serves as chairman and executive director of Overlook Investment Group, a firm that invests in public-listed equities across Asia.  A native New Yorker, Lawrence graduated from South Kent School in 1974 and Brown University in 1978 with a degree in Economics. In 1986 he became one of the first Chartered Financial Analysts in Asia, and in 1991 established Overlook. Richard currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, Dee. They have two adult children who also live and work in the Bay Area.

Lawrence stated, “I’m honored to join the board of directors of the National Audubon Society.  Dr. Thomas Lovejoy’s quote, ‘If you take care of the birds, you take care of most of the big problems in the world,’ resonates with me and I look forward to supporting Audubon in its science-based efforts to protect bird species.  I feel there is an urgent responsibility on the part of Americans to take action on global warming, and Audubon’s Climate Initiative is a powerful program designed to mobilize bipartisan action at the state and local levels.”

Lawrence is a founding director of two environmental non-profit organizations. Proyecto Mirador Foundation, established in 2004, has built over 145,000 fuel-efficient stoves in rural communities across Honduras. A Gold Standard certified carbon project developer, Mirador has reduced carbon emissions by over a million tonnes since inception. Cool Effect, established in 2015, is a nonprofit crowdfunding platform with over 130,000 members that allows individuals to support the world’s highest quality carbon reduction projects.

About Audubon

With total revenues in 2016 of $102.6 million (25% increase since 2010), Audubon is one of the nation’s largest conservation organizations, comprising 23 state offices, 41 nature centers and 23 wildlife sanctuaries and representing 463 local chapters. Audubon – which focuses on the protection of birds and the places they need throughout the Americas – has been transformed in recent years, according to Crain’s New York Business, through cutting edge technologies, a sharpened conservation focus and operational overhaul that has increased revenue and decreased overhead expenses.

As written in The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Inside Philanthropy and GreenBiz, that strategic and operational transformation has attracted new funders and broadened the organization’s reach to younger and more diverse audiences as Audubon expands its international work and achieves conservation victories. For the first time in nearly two decades, Audubon has also earned Charity Navigator's highest ranking of four stars, twice in a row.

Audubon’s main Facebook page has more than 1,111,000 followers and reaches approximately 4.1 million people each week as the organization’s supporters share and interact with Audubon’s posts. And the organization’s 2014 birds and climate change campaign, which earned more than two billion media impressions, recently won a Diamond SABRE award from public relations industry leaders.

To learn more about Audubon and its new strategic direction, please visit here.

The National Audubon Society protects birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow, throughout the Americas using science, advocacy, education and on-the-ground conservation. Audubon's state programs, nature centers, chapters and partners have an unparalleled wingspan that reaches millions of people each year to inform, inspire and unite diverse communities in conservation action. Since 1905, Audubon's vision has been a world in which people and wildlife thrive. Audubon is a nonprofit conservation organization. Learn more and how to help at www.audubon.org and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @audubonsociety.

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Contact: media@audubon.org, 212-979-3100