Nature Conservancy of Hawai‘i Announces New Board Leadership Team

Honolulu, HI —January 28, 2005 — The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii today announced that David C. Cole, Chairman, President and CEO of Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc., has been elected as the new Chair of its Board of Trustees.

Cole is part of a new leadership team that also includes vice chairs Duncan MacNaughton, President of the MacNaughton Group, and retired Duty Free Shoppers executive Kenton Eldridge. This team will also be joined by new TNC Trustees Jamie Shennan, a well known venture capitalist, and Ron Higgins, a veteran of Hawaii’s technology industry.

Cole, who recently returned to the Islands to head up ML&P, has a long association with the Conservancy, having served on the organization's national Board of Governors for 10 years and its Asia-Pacific Council since its inception. He previously served on the Hawai`i Board from 1988 to 2000 and rejoined the Hawai`i Board in May of 2004.

He succeeds Jeff Watanabe, senior partner in the law firm Watanabe, Ing, Kawashima & Komeiji. Watanabe chaired the Hawai`i Board from 1996 to 2004 and also served on the Conservancy's national Board of Governors from 1997-2003.

“It is with great pleasure that I pass the reins of the Conservancy’s Hawai`i program to David Cole,” Watanabe said. “In the time we served together on this Board, as well as the Conservancy’s national Board of Governors, I have come to greatly respect David’s knowledge of and passion for conservation. His enthusiasm and organizational ability will ensure the success of the Conservancy’s mission for many years to come.”

“My first serious philanthropic steps began with the Nature Conservancy over 20 years ago.” said Cole. “Our native forests and reefs are spectacular treasures, and The Nature Conservancy does great work protecting them.”

Cole was raised in Kailua and attended Kailua High School and the University of Hawai`i. For the past 25 years he has served as an executive in a variety of industries, including publishing, computer software, communications, online services and organic foods. He continues to serve as board chairman of Sunnyside Farms LLC, a 500-acre organic farm in Virginia, and the Twin Farms resort in Vermont. Cole is also a director of PBS, Island Press, and Sesame Workshop. He is a past director of the World Wildlife Fund and the American Farmland Trust.

"The Conservancy has been fortunate throughout its history to have Board chairs who are deeply committed to conservation and to the overall betterment of Hawaii," said Suzanne Case, the Hawai‘i Program's Executive Director. "David Cole continues a tradition started by Sam Cooke and carried forward by Bill Mills and Jeff Watanabe. He will be a tremendous asset both for our organization and conservation statewide."

The change in Board leadership coincides with the 25^th anniversary of the Hawai‘i program. Since 1980, the Conservancy has directly helped protect almost 200,000 acres of natural lands in Hawai‘i and established a system of 12 preserves totaling 32,000 acres. The Conservancy has also played a key role in the formation of watershed partnerships, which are working to protect 850,000 acres of critical forest and conservation lands across the state.

During Watanabe's tenure, the Conservancy became a statewide organization, opening new offices on Kaua‘i and the island of Hawai‘i. Other milestones include launching a new marine program in 2002 and the acquisition in 2003 of the 116,000-acre Kahuku Ranch for addition to Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park.

“The Nature Conservancy has been instrumental to the success enjoyed by the conservation movement in Hawai`i," said Cole. "The organization is helping to protect over a million acres – an astounding quarter of our state’s total land resources. In the next 25 years we will continue to formulate and achieve pioneering conservation goals. We will be at the forefront of developing a community in which people and their activities become the sustaining force for conservation instead of a destructive force to be mitigated – a community in which economic and social development strategies drive long term conservation potential.”

The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii is an affiliate of The Nature Conservancy, an international private, non-profit organization based in Arlington, Virginia. The Conservancy’s mission is to preserve plants, animals, and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive.