Help Us Find Our New CEO

The search for National Audubon Society’s next CEO is underway. At our search committee’s recent meeting, our top priorities were to review feedback from the Audubon community who provided their perspective on what is distinctive about the organization, what are the opportunities and challenges facing Audubon, and what we should look for in a new CEO.

Thank you to everyone who completed the survey. Even during the summer months of a very unusual year, participation was broad and balanced across staff, chapter leaders, advisory board chairs, and donors. Nearly 400 people provided insight to us through the survey, and the responses were thoughtful, sincere, and helpful in shaping the CEO position description, the document that describes our aspirations for the next leader.

Several key themes emerged in the feedback:

• Birds—the conservation of birds and their habitat—are foundational to everything that Audubon does. Through the lens of birds and grounded in science, Audubon works to impact the major environmental issue of biodiversity and climate change.
• Audubon, which has an extraordinary brand recognition and works across political lines, has an expansive grassroots network of chapters, state offices, and campuses that make the organization widely accessible. Building the next generation of Audubon members will be crucial work in the coming years.
• Audubon has been through a period of expansive growth, and the next leader will need to work to unify the Audubon community, nurturing partnership and building systems to align the field & central offices. Building trust with the staff is fundamental to this effort.

We invite you to view—and share—the position description for the next CEO of the National Audubon Society.

Thank you to everyone who nominated an individual for the role. You can continue sending nominations to AudubonCEO@spencerstuart.com.

Over the next few months, the search process will enter a quiet phase as the search committee begins to consider potential candidates. We will share a brief update later in the fall.

Sincerely,

Susan Bell, Audubon Board Chair and CEO Search Committee Chair

with search committee members,

George Golumbeski, Steffanie Munguía, Kathy Sullivan, and Stephen Tan