The Presidio Trust is governed by a seven-member board of directors. Six members are appointed by the President of the United States. The seventh is the U.S. Secretary of the Interior or his designee. An executive director reports to the board and oversees a staff with expertise in resource preservation, operations and maintenance, planning, real estate development, public programs, law, and finance (
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Nancy Hellman Bechtle, chair of the Presidio Trust board, serves on the board of directors for the Charles Schwab Corporation and is the chairman of the board for the Sugar Bowl Corporation. Previously, she was chief financial officer and director for J.R. Bechtle & Company from 1979 to 1998. From 1987 to 2001, she was president and chief executive officer of the San Francisco Symphony and has served as a member of the San Francisco Symphony board of governors since 1984. She served on the board of the National Park Foundation from 2001 to 2007 and held the board’s citizen chair from 2005 to 2007. Ms. Bechtle has received several honors, including the Lifetime Achievement in the Arts from the California Arts Council and the Investment in Leadership award from the Coro Foundation. She holds a bachelor of arts from Stanford University. Ms. Bechtle was appointed to the Presidio Trust board of directors by President George W. Bush in 2008 and reappointed by President Barack Obama in 2012.
David H. Grubb, vice-chair, chaired the Presidio Trust board of directors from December of 2003 until July of 2009, and was reappointed to the Trust board by President Barack Obama in 2010. He also served on the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy board of trustees from 1990-2000, where he oversaw the effort to restore Crissy Field as chair of the projects committee. Mr. Grubb joined Swinerton, Inc., a San Francisco based general construction firm in 1964 as a project engineer. He became the company’s president in 1988 and its chairman in 1996. He currently serves on the board of directors for Immaculate Conception Academy and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. He has also served on several cultural and business community committees and has offered his support to a number of charitable organizations, serving on the boards of Saint Patrick’s Seminary, the Meadow Club, San Domenico School, and San Francisco Zoological Society. He holds a bachelor of science from Princeton University and a master of science from Stanford University.
Paula R. Collins is the chief executive officer of WDG Ventures, Inc., a real estate development company in Northern California, and president of Portfolio Real Estate Consulting. Ms. Collins is a founder and director of Presidio Bank in San Francisco, a member of the national board of the Automobile Association of America, and a director of the AAA Northern California, Nevada, Utah Insurance Exchange. She has served as a Presidential appointee to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Visiting Committee for the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. She has served on the board of directors for the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Special Olympics for Northern California, and BRIDGE Housing Corporation. Ms. Collins was awarded the Silver Spur by San Francisco Planning and Urban Research for her dedication to improving the quality of life and economic health of San Francisco; and has been honored by the National Coalition of 100 Black Women and the San Francisco Business Times. She graduated cum laude in urban studies from Mt. Holyoke College in Massachusetts and received her master’s degree in city planning from MIT. She was appointed to the Presidio Trust board by President Barack Obama in 2012.
William R. Hambrecht is the founder of the San Francisco-based financial services firm WR Hambrecht + Co. Mr. Hambrecht is widely credited with creating the OpenIPO which made the initial public offering process more equitable. Prior to WR Hambrecht + Co, he co-founded Hambrecht & Quist, which specialized in investing in Silicon Valley companies. Mr. Hambrecht has served as a director for numerous private and public companies. In October 2006, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Mr. Hambrecht graduated from Princeton University in 1957. He was appointed to the Trust board by President Barack Obama in 2010.
Charlene Harvey worked for 16 years with the Management Center of San Francisco as a staff consultant to non-profit organizations. A longtime parks champion, she has served on the board of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy since 1996. Mrs. Harvey was a driving force behind the creation of Inspiration Point Overlook at the Presidio, helping fund the project in memory of her late husband, Jim Harvey, CEO of TransAmerica and chair of the Presidio Council. Mrs. Harvey also serves on the board of the San Francisco Foundation and is involved with Conservation International and Women for Women International. She is a past chair of KQED and of the advisory committee to Grants for the Arts, and past president of the Junior League of San Francisco. She also served on the boards of the Rosenberg Foundation, the Mental Health Association of San Francisco, and the California Pacific Medical Center. She was awarded the SPUR Award in 1997 and the Outstanding Volunteer Fund Raiser Award in 1996 by the National Society of Fund Raising Executives. Mrs. Harvey was appointed to the Trust board by President Barack Obama in 2010.
John Reynolds served for 39 years in the National Park Service including as deputy director, regional director, director of the Denver Service Center, superintendent of North Cascades National Park, and assistant superintendent of Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. He was executive vice president of the National Park Foundation from 2005 to 2007. He currently serves as a board member of the Student Conservation Association; as a member of the Fort Hancock 21st Century Federal Advisory Commission; as a member of North Cascades Institute Advisory Council; as chair of the Flight 93 National Memorial Federal Advisory Commission and the Captain John Smith National Historic Trail Advisory Council; and as the Commonwealth of Virginia Citizen Representative on the Chesapeake Bay Commission. Mr. Reynolds served in the New Jersey National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve from 1966 to 1972. He holds a bachelor of sciences from Iowa State University and a master of landscape architecture from the State University of New York at Syracuse. He was appointed as the Secretary of the Interior’s designee to the Trust board in July 2009.
Alex Mehran, a San Francisco Bay Area native, is president and chief executive officer of Sunset Development Company, a diversified real estate organization that created Bishop Ranch in San Ramon, California. He has served at the firm since 1977. Previously he worked at J.P. Morgan of New York managing real estate companies and assets. Mr. Mehran serves as a trustee of the San Francisco Ballet; as chairman of the Contra Costa Economic Partnership; and is on the executive committee of the Bay Area Council. He is also a member of the Chancellor’s Associates of UCSF and is a former trustee of the Urban Land Institute and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, among others. Mr. Mehran graduated from Harvard College, and earned a law degree at Cambridge University. He was appointed to the Presidio Trust board by President Barack Obama in 2012.
Executive Director
Craig Middleton has served as executive director of the Presidio Trust since 2001. Over the last decade, the organization has transformed major areas of the Presidio into public parkland; redeveloped and preserved hundreds of historic buildings; recruited over 200 organizations to become part of the park and its programs; and raised over a billion dollars in non-federal funds for the park. The Presidio is on track to becoming financially self-sufficient in 2013. Previously, Mr. Middleton worked closely with Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi on bipartisan legislation to establish the organization and served as the Trust’s first employee. After holding several leadership positions in the organization, Mr. Middleton was named executive director. He earned a master’s degree in public administration from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and a bachelor’s degree in history, economics and political science from the University of California at Santa Barbara.