Ryan Phelan Announced as Chief Executive Officer for the ALL Species Foundation

Dear ALL,

We promised to announce a new CEO for All Species before January 1st; I am happy to do that by this deadline, but even happier in our choice. The board of All Species Foundation has selected Ryan Phelan as CEO.

Ryan has played several crucial roles so far in launching this project. She co-sponsored the original meeting in September 2000; she served as part-time acting CEO last winter/spring, and she has been the prime mover in getting this organization built. In past lives, she has been a successful business woman, and a innovative leader in the non-profit sector. As a start-up artist, she has few peers. To my mind her only drawback to this new position is that she doesn't have a PhD in taxonomy and a favorite group of organisms that she has almost finished categorizing. We believe that pairing up her enormous executive abilities with a strong science board and science officers on staff will give All Species exactly the entrepreneurial speed and scientific rigor it needs to accomplish its audacious 25-year goals.

In tandem with her acceptance of the CEO position, Ryan will resign from the governing board, where she has been a major force, in order to concentrate on executing the board's strategy.

We'll be holding a board meeting in January, where the board will finalize a 5-year strategy based on the great work begun in the Mexico Megadiveristy and Harvard Summits. The results of those summits will be posted on our website. We hope to announce the beginning of at least one pilot program this year.

It's become clearer in the past year that the kind of organization All Species needs to be is the kind that Ryan is perfectly trained to lead. I am extremely delighted that Ryan has accepted this incredibly challenging job because I know from working closely with her that things will move quickly under her leadership. This is very good news.

Please welcome Ryan Phelan, now All Species' CEO.