Meet Our New Board Chair: Mary Lloyd Estrin

We are delighted to announce that the Ploughshares Fund Board of Directors on June 17, 2013 unanimously elected Mary Lloyd Estrin as the new chair. As a board member and president of the foundation, I am excited to work with her as we continue to build Ploughshares Fund as a smart, innovative and effective force for change.

Mary  has served on the board for many years and is an experienced philanthropist.  She has a deep appreciation of just where our targeted impact philanthropy will be able to make the greatest difference. She is personally committed to our vision of a world where a nuclear weapon could never be used again.

It’s a terrific moment to welcome Mary on board. From our former board member now-Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to the newly appointed National Security Advisor Susan Rice, the nation’s foreign policy leadership could not be more committed to our issue. Their experience and understanding will be a substantial asset as the administration moves to negotiate a new nuclear reduction treaty with Russia, curtail North Korea’s nuclear program, craft a political solution with Iran and explore finally winning Senate approval of the nuclear test ban treaty.Our allies in Congress – on both sides of the aisle – are working to cut wasteful spending on nuclear weapons programs that are helping to refocus our nation’s security spending away from Cold War rationales. And, our impact philanthropy model has proven its worth. All this means that as Mary takes the helm, we have more hope than ever that we will be able to realize the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons in our own lifetimes.

Every hello comes with a goodbye, however. Our former chair, Roger Hale, has been a phenomenal leader for Ploughshares Fund. His wisdom and focus were a major reason the foundation doubled in size, grants and impact over the past eight years. His leadership was critical in helping us manage the transition caused by the death of our founder, Sally Lilienthal, in 2005 and the founding of our Washington, DC office in 2007. A successful former executive and board member of some of the nation’s leading organizations, Roger is well-known and universally respected wherever he goes.

We are deeply grateful that Roger has agreed to remain on the development committee of our Board of Directors and expect to count him as an essential part of the Ploughshares Fund family for many years to come.

From Sally Lilienthal on, Ploughshares Fund has been blessed with extraordinary leaders who have given their time, their talents and their money to our common cause. We are very grateful to Roger, Mary and the outstanding board members they guide for patiently propelling us forward organizationally and substantively, steadily securing victories until we fully achieve our mission.