Christian Brown

Christy Brown is the managing director of NOLA Holdings, LLC; the chairman of McIlhenny Company, the 150-year-old maker of Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce; and the vice-president, treasurer, and a director of Avery Island, Inc., a family land-management company. He serves as vice-chairman of the Greater New Orleans Foundation, chairman of the Selley Foundation, and a trustee of the James Beard Foundation. Christy is also the former inaugural chairman and a current board member of Audubon Louisiana and a member of the National Audubon Society’s Leadership Council. Christy became interested in birds as a child visiting his grandmother’s aviary and bird hunting with his father. But his family’s relationship with Audubon began much earlier, with his great-grandfather E.A. McIlhenny, who was the founding president of a state office in Louisiana, and who is credited for helping to save the snowy egret from extinction and to lobby Congress to enact laws that protect migratory birds. Today, that work continues with the Rainey Conservation Alliance, a consortium of private landowners that includes Audubon and McIlhenny lands, whose mission is to protect 185,000 acres of coastal wetlands.