President Obama Names Three to Presidio Trust Board
Presidio of San Francisco (August 9, 2010) — President Barack Obama has appointed two prominent Bay Area business leaders and a longtime parks advocate to the Presidio Trust Board of Directors. David H. Grubb, William R. Hambrecht, and Charlene Harvey will replace outgoing board members T. Robert Burke, Nancy Connor, and Curtis Feeny, all of whose terms have expired.
David H. Grubb chaired the Trust’s Board of Directors from December of 2003 until July of 2009. 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 after earning a Bachelor of Science degree from Princeton University and a Master of Science from Stanford University. He became the company’s President in 1988 and its Chairman in 1996. Mr. Grubb is currently serving on the Board of Directors for Immaculate Conception Academy. 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.
William R. Hambrecht is a veteran financier with a reputation as an innovative thinker. The founder of the San Francisco-based financial services firm, WR Hambrecht + Company, Mr. Hambrecht is widely credited with creating the OpenIPO® which made the initial public offering process more equitable, allowing anyone — not just investing insiders — to buy stock in an IPO. Prior to WR Hambrecht + Co, he co-founded Hambrecht Quist, a firm that specialized in investing in and taking Silicon Valley companies public.
A 1957 graduate of Princeton University, Mr. Hambrecht currently serves on the Board of Directors of Motorola Inc., AOL Inc., and Decision Economics, Inc., and on the Board of Trustees of the American University of Beirut, and serves on the Advisory Council to the J. David Gladstone Institute. In October 2006, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2007 he, along with AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, founded the United Football League, a new professional outdoor football league which premiered in October 2009.
Charlene Harvey, a longtime resident of San Francisco, worked for 16 years with the Management Center of San Francisco as a staff consultant to nonprofit organizations. She currently serves as a board member of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, the San Francisco Foundation, the Well Network, and is involved in the environmental field with Conservation International. As former board chair of the Parks Conservancy, Mrs. Harvey was a driving force behind the Inspiration Point Overlook, helping fund the project in memory of her late husband, Jim Harvey, CEO of TransAmerica, and chair of the Presidio Council. A longtime parks champion, she has served on the Parks Conservancy’s Board since 1996.
Ms. Harvey is a past chair of KQED, past chair of the advisory committee to Grants for the Arts, past president of the Junior League of San Francisco, and has 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.
“These three individuals have tremendous passion for the outdoors and the Presidio in particular,” says Craig Middleton, Presidio Trust Executive Director. “They bring experience and energy to the challenges facing the Presidio.”
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 including environmental science, historic preservation, operations and maintenance, landscape design, planning, resource management, real estate development, public affairs and programs, law, and finance.
The Presidio Trust was established by the United States Congress in 1996 to administer the Presidio of San Francisco, an urban national park that is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and is located at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. The areas overseen by the Trust include expansive open space and spectacular views, a 300-acre historic forest, and rare and endangered plants and wildlife. The National Park Service oversees the coastal areas of the Presidio. The park comprises nearly 6 million square feet of buildings, including 469 historic structures that contribute to the Presidio’s status as a National Historic Landmark District.