OFFICERS

Lynda Webster, Chair
Ann Nichols, Vice Chair
Rod DeArment, Treasurer
Scott Steen, CEO (ex officio)

BOARD

Zim Boulos, Jacksonville, Florida
Michael Chenard, Mooresville, North Carolina
Rod DeArment, Washington, DC
Steve Marshall, Kent, Ohio
Boyd Matson, McLean, Virginia
Ann Nichols, Chevy Chase, Maryland
Susan Sarfati, Washington, DC
Lynda Webster, Chair

BOARD BIOS

Lynda C. Webster
Lynda C. Webster is the founder and chairman of The Webster Group. She is a sales and marketing professional who specializes in board development, strategic planning, fund-raising, and special events. Prior to starting her own consulting firm, she was an executive in the luxury hotel business. Lynda has been active in more than twenty community groups, including service on boards for the Salvation Army, Friends of the National Arboretum, the National Symphony Cadence organization, the Ronald Reagan Institute for Emergency Medicine, and the National Center for Leadership at the National Presbyterian Church.

Lynda holds a Masters of Business degree from Southern Methodist University and a Masters of International Management degree from the American Graduate School of International Management. She graduated with honors from Stephens College with a BA in history and foreign languages. Lynda resides in Washington, DC, with her husband, Judge William H. Webster, former director of both the FBI and CIA.

 

F. Zimmerman (Zim) Boulos
Zim Boulos is the owner of Office Environments and Services, Inc. (OES), a family office products supplier since 1981. OES is a $15 million business with 40 employees, based in Jacksonville, Florida. Zim is also currently the Chairman of the City of Jacksonville Economic Development Council. Over 20 years ago, he started Greenscape Jacksonville, a not-for-profit tree planting initiative, as well as the annual Flowering Tree Sale, a spring event that sells thousands of small trees at huge discounts to the public.

He was the force behind the renovation of San Marco Square, a neighborhood business district near downtown Jacksonville that has become a crown jewel in the rebirth of an aging neighborhood. He is a retired soccer official, having refereed in the ’94 and ’98 World Cup, as well as the ’96 Olympics. He graduated from Jacksonville University with a B.S. in marketing. Zim is married and has one daughter.

 

Michael Chenard
Michael Chenard is the Director of Environmental Affairs for Lowe’s Companies, based in Mooresville, North Carolina. Michael was the Senior Corporate Environmental Engineer at Pitney Bowes, Inc., and the Environmental Programs Administrator at Champion International Corporation. He also served as a Naval Officer in the US Navy. Michael received a B.S. from the University of Virginia, and a MEM in Corporate Environmental Management at Duke University. His expertise and experience is in conservation, with a general application in natural resources, energy, water, forests, and wetlands. His goal is to help corporate America to a more sustainable existence that considers the environment as an important aspect of operations.

 

 

Roderick (Rod) DeArment
Rod DeArment is a partner in Covington & Burling LLP, an international law firm based in Washington, DC. Among Rod’s long-time clients is the Land Trust Alliance and he has considerable experience with tax legislation dealing with conservation easements. Rod has served in government as the Deputy Secretary of Labor in the Bush-Quayle Administration, as Chief of Staff to Senate Majority Leader and Chief Counsel and Staff Director of the Senate Finance Committee. Rod received a BA degree with honors from Trinity College and a law degree from the University of Virginia Law School where he served on the Editorial Board of the Virginia Law Review.

 

 

 

 

Steve Marshall
Steve Marshall is executive vice president/operations for The Davey Tree Expert Company and is responsible for eastern utility operations, The Davey Tree Surgery Company, The Davey Tree Expert Company of Canada, LTD., Wolf Tree and the operations support group. He began his Davey career in 1977 as a sales and service technician in residential services at the Akron, Ohio office. In 1978 he was named a sales representative and he was promoted to district manager in 1979. In 1989 he was named area manager for residential/commercial operations. In 1991 he was promoted to regional manager, western operations and in 1999 to operations manager. In 1997 Steve joined the eastern utility operations as vice president/ southern operations. In 2003 he was appointed to vice president and general manager for eastern utility operations and a Davey corporate officer. He was named to his current position in 2007. Steve also serves on the Board of Directors of The Davey Tree Surgery Company, The Davey Tree Expert Company of Canada, LTD and Wolf Tree.

He has served on the ANSI A300 Committee and the Utility Arborist Association Board. A graduate of Kent State University with a bachelor of fine arts degree, Marshall is a member of the International Society of Arboriculture, the Utility Arborist Association, and the Tree Care Industry Association. He is a past member of Davey’s President’s Council.

 

Boyd Matson
Boyd Matson is the former anchor of National Geographic Explorer and a former co-anchor of NBC’s Weekend Today program. He was also an NBC News correspondent in the 1980s, working mostly on news features. He now hosts the show Wild Chronicles on PBS and the nation-wide radio program NG Weekend. Boyd also writes a monthly column for NG Traveler magazine. He lives in Virginia with his wife, Betty Hudson, and his two children.

 

 

 

 

Ann Nichols
Ann Nichols is a fundraising executive and consultant who has worked in global conservation since 1993, first at World Wildlife Fund, and then at the National Wildlife Federation. From 2000 until her retirement in 2008, she was vice president of development at Conservation International (CI). She played a key role in designing and launching CI’s Chairman’s Council, as well as the Women’s Conservation Forum in Washington, DC. Her work has taken her to numerous conservation sites in Africa and Central/Latin America. Ann is a member of a community-based foundation which supports needy families in the Bethesda area, and is also an avid reader, golfer, gardener, and cook. A graduate of Vassar College and Columbia University, Ann is married to Wes Nichols and they have one son. The Nichols live in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

 

Susan Sarfati
Susan Sarfati is CEO of High Performance Strategies, LLC, a consulting and speaking firm focusing on growing leaders and organizations that stand tall. She was president and CEO of the Greater Washington Society of Association Executives, the founding president and CEO of The Center for Association Leadership, and executive vice president of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) until September 2008. Susan is an expert in creating high performance organizations. She has delivered hundreds of speeches and authored articles on leadership, visionary thinking, customer service, organizational strategies, and more. Recently appointed to the board of directors of the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award Foundation which honors organizations of excellence, she was also honored by becoming a lifetime member of the International Women’s Forum, an organization that includes world leaders such as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Ms. Sarfati holds a B.A. in philosophy and sociology from the City University of New York and a M. Ed. from Coppin State College.

 

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Scott Steen, CAE
Scott Steen, CAE, became chief executive officer on December 1, 2010. Prior to joining American Forests in December 2010, Steen had been executive director of the American Ceramic Society, a technical society whose members work at the frontiers of science in environmental technologies, alternative energy, space exploration, and biomaterials. Founded in 1898, ACerS advances the study, understanding, and use of ceramic materials and technologies.

Previously, Steen served in Washington, DC, as chief knowledge and strategy officer at the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), an international, voluntary organization with 22,000 association and nonprofit leader members. He played a pivotal role in the creation of the Center for Association Leadership, the premier learning center and think tank for the association profession, and served as the Center’s first chief operating officer until the organization merged with ASAE in 2004. Steen is a certified association executive, a fellow of ASAE, and is the founding editor of the Journal of Association Leadership.