Patrick F. Noonan is founder and chairman emeritus of The Conservation Fund (the Fund), a nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving America’s natural and historic heritage. The Fund has worked with public and private partners to protect more than 7 million acres of America’s special places, over 250,000 acres in the Chesapeake Bay watershed alone, since its founding in 1985.
Noonan was president of The Nature Conservancy from 1973 to 1980 and was a founder of the American Farmland Trust (1980) where he remains active, serving on its President’s Council. He is vice chairman of the National Geographic Education Foundation and served on three Presidential Commissions.
Noonan has received numerous awards, including receiving a five-year “genius” fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 1985 for his pioneering work in fostering partnerships between business and the environmental community.
The National Audubon Society recently recognized him as 1 of 100 conservation leaders whose lives and work shaped the growth of the American conservation movement in the 20th century. Noonan is a former member of the Board of Advisors of Duke University Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy.
