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Board of Directors

Dedicated business, science, and civic leaders that guide our strategic direction.

Our Board of Directors provides expertise and financial support for our mission as part of their commitment to protecting the Amazon Rainforest.

Board Members

  • Jim Brumm

    Board Chair
  • Eduardo Forno

    Board Vice-Chair
  • Steve Voorhees

    Board Treasurer
  • Bruce Babbitt

    Board Member
  • Alfredo Cahuas

    Board Member
  • Carolyn Hendricks

    Board Member
  • Manuel Pulgar-Vidal

    Board Member
  • Amy Rosenthal

    Board Member
  • Doug Sarno

    Board Member
  • Miles Silman

    Board Member

Jim Brumm

Jim Brumm served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Mitsubishi Corporation’s US subsidiary and on the board of Mitsubishi Corporation in Japan. He has served and continues to serve on a number of boards involved in bird conservation, indigenous peoples rights, animal welfare, and conservation science. Jim has a deep interest in and commitment to conservation and to indigenous peoples and community rights and development. He is also a birder but claims he is nowhere near as good as his good friend and Amazon Conservation Board Member Jeff Woodman. He currently serves as Chair for Amazon Conservation's Board of Directors.

Eduardo Forno

Eduardo Forno serves as Executive Director of Conservation International Bolivia’s office since 1992, supporting conservation and poverty reduction efforts, protected areas, and sustainable development for both indigenous people as well as municipalities. He has also worked for the World Bank, UNDP, IUCN, and The Nature Conservancy, among others. In addition, he currently serves as Board President for Amazon Conservation sister organization in Bolivia, Conservación Amazónica-ACEAA. A field ecologist, he graduated in biology from the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, La Paz, Bolivia, where he studied the high Andes and Bolivian savanna butterflies. He currently serves as Vice-Chair for Amazon Conservation's Board of Directors.

Steve Voorhees

Steve Voorhees is a renewable energy entrepreneur. He is currently the CEO and founder of Teichos Energy, a utility-scale solar development company. Prior to starting Teichos Voorhees founded and served as CEO of Ridgeline Energy (an early wind power development company). Before entering the wind and solar energy business, Voorhees invented the patented BikeLid Systems. Voorhees worked as a field engineer for the University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory and has a bachelor’s degree in geography from Middlebury College. He currently serves as Treasurer for Amazon Conservation's Board of Directors.

Bruce Babbitt

Bruce Babbitt Served as Governor of Arizona from 1978 to 1987 and as Secretary of the Interior from 1993 to 2001. He received a BA in geology from the University of Notre Dame, a MSc in geophysics from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne which he attended as a Marshall Scholar and a JD from Harvard Law School. He is the Chairman of the Board of the World Wildlife Fund and a fellow of the Blue Moon Fund where he is presently researching infrastructure development issues in the Amazon Basin.

Alfredo Cahuas

Alfredo Cahuas has dedicated the better part of his career to the sustainable infrastructure sector. He is Vice President of Investments & Investor Relations at an investment management firm in San Francisco specializing in renewable energy tax equity investments. His commitment to sustainability was nurtured early on in his native Peru while exploring its arid coastline and rugged Andes with his family. Alfredo came to the United States to study electrical engineering at Lafayette College and later received his MBA in finance and international business from New York University’s Stern School of Business. He is a founding member of the Latino Community Foundation’s Latino Giving Circle, a philanthropic organization supporting youth development in the Bay Area.

Carolyn Hendricks

Carolyn Hendricks., M.D., is a breast cancer medical oncologist in private practice in Bethesda, Maryland. She trained at Johns Hopkins and maintains close ties to the Suburban Cancer Program/Johns Hopkins Medicine, including serving on the hospital board for nine years. She is a former member of the Maryland Commission on Cancer and former chair of the FDA’s National Mammography Quality Assurance Advisory Committee. Carolyn is deeply interested in conservation. She developed a love of hawks and owls after attending a raptor workshop in Missoula, Montana in 2005. She is a former member of the board of the American Bird Conservancy and its nominating and audit committees, and a director for NatureServe. She has travelled to Barrow, Alaska for nesting snowy owl monitoring and participated in barn owl box monitoring with Southern Maryland Audubon. She and her husband purchased their property in Bedford County, PA from the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy in 2012 and built a sustainable home on the property. The property is protected by a conservation easement. Carolyn blogs about their green home at hufhausinus.blogspot.com.

Manuel Pulgar-Vidal

Manuel Pulgar-Vidal is a lawyer specializing in environmental issues, currently the Leader of the Climate & Energy Global Practice of World Wild Fund for Nature International. As the former Minister of Enviroment of Peru, he has a long history of supporting conservation in the Amazon. He is an expert in the area of environmental law and policy with special emphasis on issues related to environmental policy and management, at national, regional and local levels. Before his appointment as Minister, he had been the Executive Director of the Peruvian Society for Environmental Law (Sociedad Peruana de Derecho Ambiental SPDA), where is currently a board member. In 2014 and 2015, he was president of the UN Climate Convention’s twentieth conference of the parties (COP 20). Manuel received a Master’s Degree in Business Law from Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC), Peru. He is based in the WWF offices in Peru.

Amy Rosenthal

Amy Rosenthal is the Rowe Family Director of the Keller Science Action Center at the Field Museum, an interdisciplinary team of conservation ecologists, geographers, anthropologists, and outdoor educators steeped in the Museum's science and collections. In this role, Amy helps lead the Museum's efforts to develop solutions for advancing environmental conservation and quality of life, particularly in the Andes Amazon and the Chicago region. Previously, she has worked with universities, non-profits, and philanthropies to catalyze conservation and sustainable development, particularly in Latin America. Amy holds a BA from Amherst College and a MA from Stanford University. Amy also worked for Amazon Conservation as its former Deputy Director for Projects, where she designed and managed major conservation initiatives and established the organization’s REDD program, before joining the Board. She has contributed to policy and research across Latin America and in Indonesia. Amy holds a Master’s degree from Stanford University and a bachelor’s from Amherst College.

Doug Sarno

Doug Sarno serves as the President of Forum Facilitation Group and Principal at The Participation Company (TPC). Doug is recognized throughout the world as an expert in stakeholder participation and group decision-making with over 30 years of experience as a facilitator, strategist, and trainer on a wide range of issues. He regularly supports government agencies, non-profit organizations and stakeholder groups in conducting effective communication, decision-making, dispute resolution, stakeholder participation, collaboration, strategic planning and visioning, leadership, governance, and organizational effectiveness. His extensive work and numerous trainings, articles, reports, and presentations on these topics have resulted in positive changes in the way participatory decision-making is approached worldwide. He was an original designer and a Master Trainer for the week-long International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) Certificate Training in Public Participation, which he has taught to thousands of students worldwide. Doug received his MBA from the University of Maryland and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Virginia. He is also a Master Certified Public Participation Professional (MCP3).

Miles Silman

Miles Silman is a professor of Biology and director of the Wake Forest University Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability, has performed research in the western Amazon and the Andes for over 20 years. His research is focused on biodiversity and the responses of ecosystems to climate change, particularly the effects of climate on setting species ranges, as well as fundamental ecosystem processes such as carbon storage and nutrient cycling. Dr. Silman’s current projects include the Andes Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Group, a consortium studying the effects of climate change on biodiversity and ecosystem function in the Peruvian Andes. Previous work includes the study of the role of life history and plant-animal interactions in the structure and diversity of tropical tree communities in Manu National Park, Peru, and a paleoecological investigation into the composition and stability of tropical tree communities over time. Many of his research studies have been conducted at Amazon Conservation's own Conservation Hubs in Peru. Dr. Silman received a PhD in zoology from Duke University and graduated with a BA in biology from the University of Missouri.

Emeritus Board Members

  • Adrian Forsyth

    Co-Founder, Director Emeritus
  • Enrique Ortiz

    Co-Founder, Director Emeritus

Adrian Forsyth

In special recognition of distinguished service to Amazon Conservation as a Co-Founder, with 21 years on the Board of Directors, including 18 as Chair, the Amazon Conservation Board of Directors acknowledges Adrian by granting him the honorific title of of Director Emeritus of Amazon Conservation Association. Adrian Forsyth is currently a strategic advisor for the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Andes Amazon Fund. He also serves as President of the Board of Friends of the Osa, a nonprofit he founded in Costa Rica. Adrian has supported his fieldwork by serving as a university professor, professional conservationist, and consultant. He is also one of North America’s finest writers on the subject of natural history and has authored nine books.

Enrique Ortiz

Enrique, the Co-Founder of the Amazon Conservation, is one of Peru’s most respected conservationists, having established one of the first environmental groups in Peru (APECO). A Peruvian native, he has excellent scientific credentials as an authority on rainforest management and has worked with major groups such as Conservation International, the Wildlife Conservation Society, Blue Moon Fund, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. He is currently the Senior Program Director for the Andes Amazon Fund. In addition, he currently serves as Board President for Amazon Conservation's sister organization in Peru, Conservación Amazónica-ACCA. He was featured in the documentary film Amazon Gold that bears witness to the destruction of the rainforest due to illegal gold mining along the Madre de Dios River in Peru.

Honorary Board Members

  • Sarah DuPont

    Honorary Board Member
  • Kathy Ruttenberg

    Honorary Board Member

Sarah DuPont

Sarah DuPont is pursuing her lifelong dedication to education and to the protection of the planet. She has been the recipient of the Charlottesville Village Award, the Dorothy Corwin Spirit of Life Award, the Global Syndicate Humanitarian Award and Worldwide Children’s Foundation of New York’s Humanitarian Award. Sarah is President and Founder of the Amazon Aid Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes greater awareness and increased scientific knowledge of the Amazon to people and cultures worldwide, and is the producer of the documentary film Amazon Gold, a journey that bears witness to the destruction of the rainforest due to illegal gold mining along the Madre de Dios River in Peru.

Kathy Ruttenberg

Kathy Ruttenberg is a ceramic sculptor and lifelong animal lover and conservationist, she received her BFA with Honors from the School of Visual Arts in New York, after which she continued with graduate courses overseas focused on painting. She exhibited her work widely and won an honorable mention in 1980 for her animated film in the Varna International Film Festival. Since 1998, after a course at Greenwich House Pottery, Kathy has focused on the ceramic medium. She soon moved her studio to upstate New York, where she could draw from her greatest sources of inspiration: nature and wildlife. Kathy’s sculptures, which play on the exchange between the human and animal kingdom, have been exhibited in prestigious galleries and museums throughout the world. Kathy’s work is part of the collections of The Tisch Children’s Zoo in Central Park, N.Y., the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve, Brazil, as well as the WOCEF in Icheon, Korea. Her work has been featured in a variety of major ceramics publications. At present, Kathy works and resides, with her family of animals in upstate New York. At this critical moment, her intention is that her relationship with conservation deepens with time.

In Memoriam: Thomas Lovejoy

Since 2009, Dr. Thomas Lovejoy had been a member of Amazon Conservation’s Board of Directors, helping guide the strategic vision and direction of our organization.

Tom was a long-time advocate of conservation playing a prominent part in ensuring that the Amazon is a global priority for conservation since the 1970s. Among his numerous and profound contributions to the field, Tom coined the term “biological diversity”, helped develop the game-changing “debt-for-nature swap” model, and most recently, along with his colleague Carlos Nobre defined the Amazon’s tipping point. His many achievements have helped move conservation forward both in policy and on the ground.

In one of his last writings for the New York Times, Tom spoke on the links between climate change and the loss of biodiversity, and the importance of protecting intact forests: “We’re losing a battle we can win, but only by keeping trees on our side…. We must let the big forests stand.”

His legacy of championing nature will not be forgotten and we will carry on the fight to keep the Amazon standing in his honor. As he wisely said, “As long as something still exists in the world it can be saved.”

Read our full tribute here.

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