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Grand Canyon and Colorado Plateau conservation advocates : Grand Canyon Trust

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Grand Canyon Trust Board Members

Louis H. Callister: Chair, Salt Lake City, Utah

Lou Callister is a founder, former chair, and currently of counsel to the law firm of Callister, Nebeker & McCullough in Salt Lake City and is listed in “The Best Lawyers in America” in banking law. He is a leader in Utah higher education, having served as co-chair of the University of Utah Board of Trustees, and as a lifetime member of the University of Utah National Advisory Council. He was instrumental in establishing the Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative (USTAR) for Utah universities. He and his wife, Ellen, have a great love for the Colorado Plateau and its Native American culture. Lou has served and is serving on many corporate and public boards. He and his wife founded the Edward G. Callister Foundation, dedicated to increasing knowledge about the biological, personal and social factors that underlie substance misuse. Lou received his J.D. degree from the University of Utah College of Law. Both he and Ellen were awarded honorary degrees by the University of Utah in 2002 in recognition of their public service. [back to top]

Pam Hait: Vice-Chair, Phoenix, Arizona

Pam Hait is a writer and author and principal with STRATEGIES, a marketing firm specializing in tourism, development, Native American issues, and community relations. A former deputy director of the Arizona Office of Tourism, she conceptualized a statewide ecotourism program and developed international and domestic promotions. A member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Arizona Town Hall, International Women’s Forum and Charter 100, Pam serves on the Investment Board for the College of Public Programs for Arizona State University (ASU) and is on the ASU West Recreation and Tourism board. Pam is a graduate of Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism and lives in Paradise Valley, Arizona, with her husband, Glen. [back to top]

Ty Cobb: Secretary-Treasurer, Washington D.C.

Mr. Cobb is a partner at Hogan & Hartson LLP, where he is a Litigation Practice Group Director and the Chair of the firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations Practice Group and also Chair of the Securities Enforcement Practice Group. He is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and is profiled in Best Lawyers in America, Who’s Who in the World and an International Who’s Who of Business Crime Lawyers. He represented the Grand Canyon Trust and others pro bono in litigation that led to the Glen Canyon EIS and the subsequent passage of the Grand Canyon Protection Act. Ty will tell anyone who will listen that his happiest experience was a dory trip on the Colorado River from Phantom Ranch through the Canyon with his oldest son in 1993. [back to top]

Kevin K. Albert: Malden Bridge, New York

Kevin is a Managing Director of Elevation Partners, a private equity firm that makes large-scale investments in media, entertainment and consumer related businesses. For 24 years prior to joining Elevation in 2005, Kevin was a Managing Director and the Global Head of the Equity Private Placement Group at Merrill Lynch & Co where he led a market leading private equity fund placement business. Kevin serves as an independent director on the board of Merrill Lynch Ventures, LLC, a series of private equity partnerships offered to key Merrill Lynch employees aggregating over $1.8 billion of original committed capital and on the Advisory Board of Altamar Private Equity a Spanish private equity fund-of-funds manager. Kevin has a B.A. and an M.B.A from the University of California, Los Angeles. In addition to his “for profit” endeavors Kevin has been active over the years in supporting education and conservation related causes. Currently, he is underwriting the cost of and actively participating in the rollout of DonorsChoose in New York State, as well as serving on its New York board. DonorsChoose seeks to improve public education by engaging “citizen philanthropists” in an on-line marketplace where teachers describe and individuals can fund teacher-proposed student projects. Kevin is also a Trustee of The Wetlands America Trust, Inc. In addition, Kevin is a charter member and the current Chair of the UCLA School of Economics Board of Visitors and a Foundation Governor of the UCLA Foundation. Kevin is married with two teenage children all of whom reside in the Hudson Valley of New York. In addition, due to a long-standing love of the West, the Albert family is the proud owner of a beautiful high desert ranch in Lincoln County, New Mexico. [back to top]

James E. Babbitt: Flagstaff, Arizona

Jim Babbitt is a leader in Northern Arizona's business, arts, and environmental communities. He is Chairman of the Western National Parks Association and has served as the president of the Board of Directors of the Museum of Northern Arizona and of the Main Street Flagstaff Foundation, and has served on the boards of the Grand Canyon Music Festival, the Yellowstone Association, and the Grand Canyon Association. He is past Chairman of the Flagstaff Planning and Zoning Commission and has served as a member of the Flagstaff City Council. He hikes in and writes about the Grand Canyon and the Colorado Plateau. [back to top]

Carter F. Bales: New York, New York

Carter Bales is Chairman and a Founding Partner of NewWorld Capital Group. Before NewWorld, he was Managing Partner Emeritus of The Wicks Group of Companies, a private equity firm focused on the information industries. He co-founded Wicks in 1989 and was a Managing Partner until his Emeritus role in late 2006. Mr. Bales was a Director of McKinsey & Co. from 1978 to 1998, including founding the Firm’s practices in environmental management, information and media, and state and local government. He left McKinsey in 1998 but continues as an Emeritus Director and Senior Advisor to the Firm. Mr. Bales has been active in environmental matters for more than 25 years. Recently he has focused on climate change and how greenhouse gas emissions can be abated in cost-effective ways. In 2007, he worked with McKinsey to produce the report entitled Reducing U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions: How Much at What Cost? He has also served on the boards of several leading organizations, including The Nature Conservancy and Center for Market Innovation at NRDC. Mr. Bales graduated from Princeton University with a BA in Economics and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. He received an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Skidmore College. [back to top]

Anne Bingaman: Washington, District of Columbia

Anne Bingaman practiced law for 28 years in New Mexico and Washington, D.C., ending her legal career as Assistant Attorney General for Anti-trust in the U.S. Department of Justice, where she served under Attorney General Janet Reno. In 1999, she founded Valor Telecom (now Windstream Communications [WIN: NYSE.], serving as the company’s first CEO and Chairman of the Board. In 2002, she founded her current business, Soundpath Conferencing, an audio and conferencing service customized for large law and business clients. Anne attended Stanford University and Stanford Law School, is a member of four State Bars and was an Assistant and Associate Professor of Law, with tenure, at the University of New Mexico School of Law from 1972–1976. She has served on several corporate and nonprofit boards. Anne was born in 1943 in Jerome, Arizona, just a few miles from the southern rim of the Colorado Plateau, where her Swiss great-grandfather and Croatian grandfather immigrated in the late 19th century. [back to top]

David Bonderman: Fort Worth, Texas

David Bonderman, Partner in TPG, Fort Worth, Texas, is a private investor with holdings in banking, airlines, media, and other areas. He has a longstanding interest in the Colorado Plateau. While in college, he worked on archaeological surveys in Glen Canyon before the gates of the dam closed and Lake Powell flooded the canyon. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Mr. Bonderman was previously special assistant to the U.S. Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division, an assistant professor of law at Tulane University, and a partner in the law firm of Arnold & Porter. He serves on the Governing Council of The Wilderness Society. [back to top]

William D. Budinger: Aspen, Colorado

Bill Budinger, inventor, holder of over three dozen patents, founded and served for 33 years as Chairman and CEO of Rodel, Inc., a privately held manufacturer of products for the semiconductor industry. Bill drafted much of the 1998 patent reform legislation and has testified before numerous committees of the House and Senate on Labor Law and Intellectual Property protection. Bill is founding director of the Rodel Foundations and has served on numerous corporate and nonprofit boards. He currently serves on the boards of the Aspen Institute, the Grand Canyon Trust, The Democratic Leadership Council, PPI, the Rodel Foundation, the Henry Crown Fellowships, and the Aspen-Rodel Fellowships in Public Leadership. A lifetime member of the Sierra Club, he has an active interest in preserving the natural environment and a deep love of the Colorado Plateau. [back to top]

Ty Burrell: New York, New York

Ty Burrell is an actor in movies, television, and theater. His films include Morning Glory, Fur, Friends with Money, In Good Company, The Incredible Hulk, National Treasure 2, Black Hawk Down, Dawn of the Dead and others. Television includes; Modern Family, Out of Practice, Back to You, West Wing, Law and Order, Law and Order SVU, Damages, and others. He is currently working on two plays: Middletown and The Realistic Jones’s with Will Eno. Other theater work includes the Signature Theater off-Broadway revival of Burn This, Lord Buckingham in the Public Theater production of Richard III. Paul Weitz’s world premiere of Show People at Second Stage, the world premiere of Caryl Churchill's Drunk Enough to Say I Love You at the Royal Court Theater in London and others. Ty is a dilettante playwright and wrote and produced Babble in NY with his brother Duncan. He teaches occasionally and is a graduate of the MFA program in Theater Arts at Penn State University. Ty lives in NY and Salt Lake City with his wife Holly. [back to top]

Rob Elliott: Flagstaff, Arizona

Rob Elliott is a second-generation river runner, has guided in the Grand Canyon since 1965, and is the owner and President of Arizona Raft Adventures. He is the founder and former Chairman of the Grand Canyon Conservation Fund administered by Grand Canyon River Outfitters Association, Inc. Rob is civically active, having served on the Climate Change Advisory Group to Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, as past President of Friends of Flagstaff’s Future, and past Chairman of Grand Canyon Youth as well as the Flagstaff Planning and Zoning Commission. Rob has three adult children and splits his time between Flagstaff and Santa Fe, New Mexico. [back to top]

Jim Enote: Zuni, New Mexico

Jim Enote — Zuni farmer and interrupted artist — has explored to a large degree such varied subjects as sacredness as a means to conservation and development, ancient Puebloan farming techniques, pattern languages, Japanese art after 1945, and from 1999 to 2004, indigenous community-based mapping. Past projects include establishing the Zuni Conservation Project, Zuni Organic Farmers Cooperative, A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center and Zuni/A:shiwi Publishing Company. Jim’s writing and art has appeared in People and Plants, People and Tourism in Fragile Environments, Conservation Development Forum, The Mountain Forum, and Mapping Our Places, to name a few. Besides currently serving as the Executive Director of the A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center, he is also a Senior Advisor for Mountain Cultures with the Mountain Institute. [back to top]

Mathew Garver: Atlanta, Georgia

Mathew Garver, Partner in Arcadia Capital Group, based in Atlanta, GA is a private middle market investment company. He also serves as a consultant to DLA Piper on large infrastructure development projects in the US and Europe. He is an advocate for environmental conversation programs and has spent years investing in early stage water and environmental technologies. He also serves on several boards for privately held companies in the US. He works with his family's real estate holdings of Brandywine Island and Septima Ranch based outside of Chama, Northern New Mexico. He actively spends his personal time hiking throughout the canyons of the Colorado Plateau exploring the region. He is married and has two young children, Jonathan and Sydney. Mathew attended Michigan State University and Harvard Business School's executive program. [back to top]

Kevin Gover: Phoenix, Arizona

Kevin Gover is a Professor of Law at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. Prior to joining the faculty, Kevin practiced law in Washington, D.C., and Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he represented Indian tribes and tribal agencies in matters including water rights, housing, gaming, environmental regulation, taxation, and commercial transactions. From 1997 to 2001, he served as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, the senior Indian policy position in the federal government. He received his A.B. in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University and his J.D. from the University of New Mexico School of Law. In 2001, he was awarded an honorary J.D. from Princeton University. [back to top]

John Leshy: San Francisco, California

Leshy is the Harry D. Sunderland Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. He was Solicitor (General Counsel) of the U.S. Department of the Interior throughout the Clinton Administration, where he played a key role in the creation of National Monuments. He had previous experience as Professor of Law at Arizona State University, with the U.S. Departments of Justice and the Interior, with the Resources Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, and with the Natural Resource Defense Council. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, he was on the board of the Trust from 1987–1992. [back to top]

Bud Marx: Laguna Beach, California

Oscar (Bud) Marx is a retired Ford Motor Company executive. After 32 years with Ford, in 1995 he became CEO of TMW Enterprises, a private equity partnership with diversified investments in electronics, plastics, metal-forming, technology, and real estate. He has also been Chairman of the Board of Amerigon Inc., a high-tech developer of heating and cooling products based on Thermo-Electric technology, since 1999. Bud is a graduate of Princeton University with an MBA from Northwestern. He and his wife Nancy now live in Laguna Beach, California after living in Michigan, London, and Mexico City while working for Ford. A long-time enthusiast of the Grand Canyon and its environs, Bud has rafted the Colorado River with his family eight times. [back to top]

John W. Milliken: Salt Lake City, Utah

John Milliken is the owner of Milcom, Inc., which was founded in 1993 to own and manage real estate investments in Utah, all of which have since been sold. Raised in the east, John spent 10 years working for W. R. Grace & Co. in New York City before moving to Utah. John has been active in the non-profit community in Salt Lake City serving in various capacities on several local boards including The Nature Conservancy of Utah (conservation), Artspace (housing and community development with a focus on providing affordable space for artists and nonprofits), the United Way of Salt Lake (social services funder and community change agent), the Salt Lake City Film Center (community film screenings), the Downtown Alliance of Salt Lake City (economic development) and the Coalition for Utah’s Future (long-range thinking / planning). John also is active in family governance as a fourth-generation member of the Milliken family and in corporate governance of various family controlled enterprises with interests in textiles, specialty chemicals, real estate, forestry, hydroelectric power generation and distribution, and other investments. [back to top]

Owen Olpin: Teasdale, Utah

Owen is a retired partner of O’Melveny & Myers, a large international law firm headquartered in Los Angeles, where he specialized in natural resources and environmental law. During the 1970s he took a leave from practice and taught law at the University of Texas and then at the University of Utah, where he held the Farr Presidential Chair in Environmental Law. He has also taught at UCLA, American University in Washington, D.C. and Loyola University in Los Angeles. In retirement he has remained engaged in western water law matters serving as U.S. Supreme Court Special Master in Nebraska v. Wyoming involving state and federal claims to the waters of the North Platte River, and as mediator in other western water controversies. [back to top]

Eva Patten: Bozeman, Montana

Eva and her husband Duncan have lived in Bozeman, Montana, for the past 14 years but still hace a deep love for Arizona and the Colorado Plateau. Ties with the board, staff and issues of the Grand Canyon Trust help maintain this relationship. During her 30 years in Arizona Eva served on many boards and commissions dealing with land use and water issues. While working for the Arizona Nature Conservancy, she directed the successful Arizona Heritage Fund Initiative, which continues to allocate $20 million of lottery proceeds each year for conservation and recreation. She was inducted into the Arizona Hall Outdoor Hall of Fame in 1998 and was a recipient of the Ben Avery Award for environmental leadership. Her community involvements in Bozeman include work with the Montana Outdoor Science School, the Gallatin Valley Land Trust and several other conservation groups. She is Bozeman’s 2009 “Woman of the Year.” [back to top]

Amy Redford: New York, New York

Amy has the good fortune of being born and raised in both Manhattan and the North Fork of the Provo Utah Canyon at Sundance. She is an actress, director, producer, and activist. Recently she completed a short film for a Bloomingdale’s competition called Tea for 3, and her first feature film called “The Guitar.” She will also be directing the television series Law and Order. She has starred in various films large and small, and appeared in various television shows and plays both good and bad. Other production ventures include three television shows, including One with Aperture Magazine for HDTV. She is still thankfully splitting her time between the east and west, and feels inspired and humbled by the esteemed company she is keeping with her fellow board members and staff of the Grand Canyon Trust. Amy and her husband, Matt, recently had a daughter, Eden. [back to top]

Garry Snook: Aspen, Colorado

Garry Snook is Chairman / CEO of Performance Inc. He and his wife, Sharon, founded Performance Inc. in 1982 in the basement of their home. The company has grown to be the largest specialty retailer of bicycle products, plus the largest direct merchant of cycling products through their three unique catalog and internet companies. In 1968 he and Sharon spent their honeymoon at the Grand Canyon, which inspired Garry’s long-term love affair for both Sharon and the Canyon. He serves on the Grand Canyon Association Board and The Duke Fuqua Board of Visitors. He spends his available time hiking and backpacking. [back to top]

Jennifer Speers: Salt Lake City, Utah

Jennifer Speers grew up in the Hudson Valley of New York with farming and conservation in her blood. She has carried her values of land stewardship into the management of her own ranching properties along the Colorado River and in Moab, Utah. She raises mostly alfalfa and, equally important, she raises specific crops and provides habitat for migratory birds and other wildlife utilizing the river corridor. Prior to becoming a full-time farmer, Jennifer worked for 18 years as a surgical technician at Holy Cross Hospital in Salt Lake City. In addition to her service on the Grand Canyon Trust board, Jennifer is a current board member of The Nature Conservancy of Utah, Artspace, Wave Hill, Glynnwood Center and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. She is a former board member of HawkWatch International. She splits her time between Salt Lake City and Moab, Utah. [back to top]

Rebecca Tsosie: Phoenix, Arizona

Professor Rebecca Tsosie, J.D., has served as Executive Director of the top ranked Indian Legal Program in the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University since 1996. Professor Tsosie has written and published widely on doctrinal and theoretical issues related to tribal sovereignty, environmental policy, and cultural rights. Tsosie is the author of many prominent articles dealing with cultural resources and cultural pluralism. She has used this work as a foundation for her newest research, which deals with Native rights to genetic resources. Tsosie, who is of Yaqui descent, has also worked extensively with tribal governments and organizations. She serves as a Supreme Court Justice for the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation. Professor Tsosie speaks at several national conferences each year on topics related to tribal sovereignty, self-determination, and tribal rights to environmental and cultural resources. She was appointed as a Willard H. Pedrick Distinguished Research Scholar in 2005. Prior to this, she held the title of Lincoln Professor of Native American Law and Ethics. She is a Faculty Fellow of the Center for the Study of Law, Science, and Technology and an Affiliate Professor for the American Indian Studies Program. She joined the faculty of the College of Law in 1993 and teaches in the areas of Indian law, Property, Bioethics, and Critical Race Theory. She is the co-author with Robert Clinton and Carole Goldberg of a federal Indian law casebook entitled American Indian Law: Native Nations and the Federal System. Tsosie was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship and received the American Bar Association’s 2002 Spirit of Excellence Award. She is the 2006 recipient of the Judge Learned Hand Award for Public Service. [back to top]

Patrick Von Bargen

Patrick Von Bargen joined the government relations and public affairs firm of Quinn Gillespie & Associates in October of 2008 and focuses on clean technology, renewable energy, and natural resources issues. He joined the firm after having served in major public policy roles over 17 years in Washington, including as Chief of Staff to Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) from 1987 to 1999. During his tenure with Senator Bingaman, he explored a host of environmental, natural resource, and public lands issues. He is most proud of having helped protect the Valles Caldera (“Baca Ranch”) in New Mexico and hopes one day it will be a national park. Patrick also served as Managing Executive for Policy & Staff for Chairman William H. Donaldson (R-NY) at the Securities & Exchange Commission from 2003 to 2005. He headed the National Commission on Entrepreneurship and served as Vice President of the Council on Competitiveness, the only national organization whose membershipconsits of CEOs, university presidents, and labor leaders. Patrick’s private-sector law career has given him extraordinary insights into the innovation and clean energy economy. He represented startup technology companies and venture capital firms and served 3 years as CEO of the Center for Venture Education’s Kauffman Fellows Program in Silicon Valley. A member of the bar in California and Colorado, Patrick has a J.D. from Stanford Law School and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.

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Charles Wilkinson: Boulder, Colorado

Charles Wilkinson is the Moses Lasky Professor of Law at the University of Colorado and has been named Distinguished University Professor. Charles is also a former staff attorney with the Native American Rights Fund. His thirteen books include the standard law texts on federal public land law and Indian law The Eagle Bird: Mapping A New West and Crossing the Next Meridian: Land, Water, and the Future of the West. He has served on the boards of The Wilderness Society, Northern Lights Institute, and the Western Environmental Law Center. Wilkinson has long had a special interest in the Colorado Plateau, as evidenced by Fire on the Plateau: Conflict and Endurance in the American Southwest and his service as special counsel to Interior Solicitor John Leshy for the drafting of President Clinton’s 1996 proclamation establishing the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. His most recent book entitled Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations was published by W.W. Norton of New York and released in March 2005. [back to top]

Hansjörg Wyss: West Chester, Pennsylvania

Hansjörg Wyss is Chairman of Synthes, Inc., an international company that manufactures and distributes surgical implants and instruments. His success as an entrepreneur has afforded him the time and the resources to develop his skills as a true explorer. He has flown, hiked, skied, and climbed throughout the entire world. He has developed a deep love and respect for the natural and traditional resources of the Colorado Plateau and has conducted numerous excursions into the spectacular and unique backcountry of the region. Wyss is a member of the governing council of The Wilderness Society and serves on the Board of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. [back to top]

Honorary Trustees

N. Scott Momaday: Poet Laureate, Jemez Springs, New Mexico

The recipient of a Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and numerous other literary distinctions, Scott Momaday is an accomplished writer and artist whose work reflects his personal vision of life in the West. Dr. Momaday has taught English literature at universities across the West, in the Soviet Union, and in Germany. Currently, he is a regents professor of English at the University of Arizona. He continues to use fiction, poetry, drawing, and painting as a means for exploring and expressing Native American culture and tradition. [back to top]

Stewart Udall: Counselor, Sante Fe, New Mexico

Stewart Udall served in the House of Representatives for three terms and as the Secretary of the Interior under President Kennedy and President Johnson. During his tenure as secretary, the Wilderness Act, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, and the National Trails Act became law. He also led the effort to create four national parks (including Canyonlands National Park), 56 national wildlife refuges, eight national seashores and lakeshores, six national monuments, nine national recreation areas, and 29 national historic sites. He is the author of The Quiet Crisis, a best seller published in 1963 concerning the human relationship with the environment. His most recent book (1994) is The Myths of August: A Personal Exploration of Our Tragic Cold War with the Atom. [back to top]

Trustees on Leave of Absence

Edward M. Norton, Jr.

Ed Norton, a Harvard law school graduate and widely regarded environmental advocate, was the Founding President of the Grand Canyon Trust between 1986 and 1993. Ed served as Vice President for Membership and Development of The Wilderness Society for 5 years, and recently was Vice President for Public Policy with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He served in the Yunnan Province of China as the senior policy advisor for the Asian Pacific Division of The Nature Conservancy. He is now Senior Advisor-Environment for the Texas Pacific Group. [back to top]

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