Maine Audubon announces new executive director

The Maine Audubon, the largest Maine-based wildlife conservation organization, announced today the appointment of Charles F. Gauvin as its new executive director.

Courtesy of Maine Audubon Charles Gauvin, Maine Audubon's new executive director

Courtesy of Maine Audubon
Charles Gauvin, Maine Audubon’s new executive director

Gauvin brings more than 25 years of experience in conservation leadership, much of it as the president and CEO of Trout Unlimited, the nation’s leading river and fish conservation organization, according to a press release.

“I am thrilled to be part of Maine Audubon,” stated Gauvin in a recent press release. “I am passionate about Maine’s wildlife, and I want to make sure it is front and center in policy-making and in the process of educating the next generations of Maine people.”

During his tenure at Trout Unlimited, Gauvin increased annual revenue from $2.5 million to $28 million, and the organization’s staff grew from 20 to 165. During that time, the organization developed programs in water, public lands and fisheries policy and executed watershed and landscape-scale habitat restoration projects.

Gauvin’s work at Trout Unlimited involved a number of projects in Maine, including hydropower relicensing and dam removal efforts on the Androscoggin, Kennebec and Penobscot rivers; strengthening federal and state protections for wild Atlantic salmon; and launching a multi-partner effort to protect Maine’s wild brook trout population, which now includes Maine Audubon as a lead partner through its Brook Trout Pond Survey, according to the press release.

Maine Audubon has eight centers and wildlife sanctuaries and serves more than 50,000 people annually, with 15,000 members and 2,000 volunteers.

“I am thrilled that Charles will serve as Maine Audubon’s next Executive Director,” states Andrew Beahm, President of Maine Audubon’s Board of Trustees in the press release. “As the leading wildlife conservation organization in the state, Maine Audubon is a great match for Charles’ experience as a conservation program developer and fundraiser.”

Gauvin is a magna cum laude graduate of Brown University and earned his JD at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was an editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. He began his career as an attorney in the Washington office of Beveridge & Diamond, PC, an environmental law firm.

Most recently, Gauvin served as chief development officer at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C., where he worked with Carnegie’s management group and board of trustees to raise the funds needed to implement the organization’s strategic plan.

He and his wife, the painter Gina Sawin, live on a farm in New Gloucester, Maine. Gauvin will assume his new position in late August.

To learn more about the Maine Audubon, visit www.maineaudubon.org.

 

Aislinn Sarnacki

About Aislinn Sarnacki

Aislinn is a Bangor Daily News reporter for the Outdoors pages, focusing on outdoor recreation and Maine wildlife. Visit her main blog at actoutwithaislinn.bangordailynews.com.