Executive Director Vaughn Maatman Announces His Retirement
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ter four years of faithful service and leadership at the Land Conservancy of West Michigan, Executive Director, Vaughn Maatman has announced his intention to retire in the summer of 2016, once his successor is in place.
“My years at the Land Conservancy stand out in my 39-year professional life as among the most fulfilling of my career. We established a dependable financial base, engaged our friends in new ways in our work, completed great projects including the recent Barrier Dunes project along Lake Michigan and our first nature preserve with a handicapped accessible trail, and put a strategic plan in place that is daring some new initiatives. What we accomplished is important to the health of this organization and makes a lasting difference in the lives of people who will follow us and live in this region. It has been fun and meaningful work. What more can anyone ask?” says Maatman
Maatman is looking forward to some time to enjoy first-hand some of the natural lands that he and the staff have worked so hard to protect.
“Under the skillful leadership of Vaughn Maatman, the Land Conservancy of West Michigan has developed as a mature organization of broad scope and significance,” said Dwight Baker, president of the Board of Directors for the Land Conservancy. ‘Vaughn and his professional team have provided the citizens of West Michigan with a gift of natural land that will endure in perpetuity, and we anticipate that Vaughn will continually enjoy visiting the areas that he protected and cared for with great determination. Vaughn has fully earned some recreation – outdoors and still nearby.”
The Land Conservancy of West Michigan has been fortunate for Vaughn’s leadership and influence and while we will miss his presence in the office we are excited for him as he moves into retirement and hopeful for the next steps for the organization under new leadership.
The Board of Directors is preparing for a candidate search, to be announced shortly.