“We are extremely pleased to welcome Bill Kunze as our new President and CEO,” said Heritage Conservancy Board Chair Stephen Phillips. “Bill has an exceptional background, which makes him well positioned to lead us into an even brighter future. We were fortunate to have a strong choice of candidates, largely as a result of our financial stability and talented staff. However, Bill’s personality and passion for nature, along with his education and previous leadership position at The Nature Conservancy, made him the unanimous choice of our Board.”
William (Bill) Kunze brings extensive knowledge and experience to this role and is looking forward to furthering our mission of land conservation and historic preservation throughout the region. With over 15 years of service at The Nature Conservancy (TNC), both as Executive Director of TNC’s Pennsylvania Chapter and in national roles, Bill has a deep understanding of land conservation related issues, challenges, and opportunities. As a Yale Law School graduate with time spent as a management consultant and government leader, he also brings to the table broad organizational insight and knowledge of legal matters.
Bill’s leadership and strategy background make him ideally suited to lead the Conservancy as we continue to thrive and prosper into the 21st century. “At The Nature Conservancy, I worked to advance conservation not only by accelerating the time-honored activity of directly protecting special places,” he says, “but also by exploring new directions to engage communities and the broader economy in conservation. My aspiration is for Heritage Conservancy to be an exemplar of what a successful conservation non-profit looks and acts like, not just for the region but for the country – honoring our work across the past 60 years, while also leaning forward into the future.”
As a thought leader and successful fundraiser, Bill has a proven record of helping organizations accelerate the pace and scale of land conservation and develop innovative strategies around conservation funding, community engagement, sustainable agriculture, urban conservation, and climate resilience. In addition to his broad and deep experience, Bill brings to Heritage Conservancy a passion for nature and history, the two foundations of the Conservancy’s mission: he earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in history, and as a young child, he fell in love with nature through birding excursions to Hawk Mountain in Berks County and Brigantine (now Forsythe) National Wildlife Refuge near Atlantic City.
Welcome Bill!