Board of Directors
Commonweal Conservancy
Commonweal Conservancy's Board of Directors is composed of four dedicated individuals. These directors bring a variety of professional skills in real estate development, public financing, corporate finance, open-space acquisition and planning, and nonprofit fundraising. In addition, President Ted Harrison serves as an ex-officio, non-voting member of the board.
Edison (Ted) Buchanan, Chairman & Vice President
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Ted Buchanan is corporate advisor for the Trust for Public Land. Before joining TPL, he served as managing director and head of real estate investment banking at Credit Suisse First Boston. Prior to that, he spent 20 years as managing director in Morgan Stanley's real estate investment banking group and as managing director and co-head of Dean Witter's real estate investment banking group. He serves on the boards of directors of Pioneer Natural Resources Company and Rio Grande School. Ted has been chairman of Commonweal Conservancy's board since November 2003.
D. Ernest Cook, Vice Chairman, Secretary & Assistant Treasurer
Boston, Massachusetts
Ernest Cook is a senior vice president and national programs director for the Trust for Public Land. He oversees the development of several national programs for TPL, including its conservation finance program. Since 1994, this program has aided in the passage of legislation and ballot measures providing more than $30 billion in park and open-space capital funding. Prior to his national service to the Trust for Public Land, he served as regional director of its Midwest and New England regions. Ernest has been vice chairman, secretary, and treasurer of Commonweal Conservancy's board since November 2003.
Stephen E. Thompson, Vice President
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Stephen Thompson is an attorney and an economist. While maintaining a law practice during the energy crisis of the 1970s, he formed renewable energy associations and utilized support from the U.S. Department of Energy and the American Banking Association to promote energy-efficient investments. He joined The Trust for Public Land in 1982 and helped lead TPL to become a major national land-conservation organization. In 2005 he concluded his career with TPL as senior vice president, overseeing and directing conservation transactions throughout 46 states across the U.S. Steve currently advises national and international nonprofits in climate-change initiatives and land conservation and restoration activities.
Robert W. McIntyre, Treasurer
Palo Alto, California
Robert McIntyre was the senior vice president of finance/CFO at The Trust for Public Land for 30 years before retiring in 2003. He currently performs key financial management roles for a variety of land-conservation and environmental nonprofit organizations including the Sempervirens Fund in Mountain View, California; the Stanford University Historical Society; the Environmental Volunteers of Palo Alto, California; the Peninsula Open Space Trust of Menlo Park, California; and the Dorothy Erskine Open Space Fund of San Francisco, California.
Commonweal Communities
Commonweal Communities' Board of Directors is composed of three committed representatives. These individuals bring professional skills that range from public financing, open-space acquisition and planning, and nonprofit fundraising to real estate development and corporate finance.
D. Ernest Cook, Secretary & Treasurer
Boston, Massachusetts
Ernest Cook is a senior vice president and national programs director for the Trust for Public Land. He oversees the development of several national programs for TPL, including its conservation finance program. Since 1994, this program has aided in the passage of legislation and ballot measures providing more than $30 billion in park and open-space capital funding. Prior to his national service to the Trust for Public Land, he served as regional director of its Midwest and New England regions. Ernest has been on Commonweal Communities' board since 2007.
Ted O. Harrison, President
Ted Harrison founded Commonweal Conservancy in 2003 and Commonweal Communities in 2007; he serves as president of the two organizations. For 17 years, Ted was a senior vice president, southwest regional director, and director of a national conservation development program for the Trust for Public Land (TPL)—one of the nation's leading land-conservation organizations. Ted holds bachelor's degrees in anthropology and political science from the University of California at Berkeley and a master's degree in city and regional planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Matthew Trifiro, Chairman
Seattle, Washington
Matthew G. Trifiro is a co-founder and CEO of 1,000 Markets, Inc., a Seattle-based technology company that builds e-commerce platforms modeled on public markets. Formerly, he was co-founder and vice president of marketing of Wink Communications, Inc., one of the first publicly-traded interactive television companies. He was vice president of Interactive Television at Geoworks and is the founder of Saxifrage Ventures, Inc., an intellectual property holding company. From 2001 to 2008, he served on the national board of directors of the Trust for Public Land and helped launch the Parks for People program in Los Angeles. He is an award-winning real estate investor and a professionally trained cook, and has been a technical writer, a magazine editor, and a video game designer. Matthew has been on Commonweal Communities' board since 2007.
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