Business Conservation Coalition Hails Designation of Three New National Monuments

Busi­ness Con­ser­va­tion Coali­tion Hails Des­ig­na­tion of Three New Nation­al Monuments

Wash­ing­ton, D.C. – The Con­ser­va­tion for Eco­nom­ic Growth Coali­tion, a new advo­ca­cy group made up of high-pro­file CEOs and investors today con­grat­u­lat­ed Pres­i­dent Oba­ma on the upcom­ing des­ig­na­tion of three new nation­al mon­u­ments at Browns Canyon in Col­orado, Hon­ouli­uli in Hawaii, and the Pull­man his­toric site in Illinois.

Coali­tion co-chair Nan­cy Pfund, founder of DBL Investors, a ven­ture fund that invest­ed ear­ly in Tes­la and Solar City, said: “These new mon­u­ments are prime exam­ples of the expan­sion of recre­ation­al oppor­tu­ni­ties so impor­tant to the growth and cul­ture of entre­pre­neur­ial, job-cre­at­ing com­pa­nies in the Unit­ed States.”

Ven­ture cap­i­tal­ist and co-chair Tom Baruch, founder of CMEA Ven­tures, a fund that invest­ed in com­pa­nies like Flex­tron­ics and Inter­Mol­e­c­u­lar, said: “When ven­ture cap­i­tal­ists ana­lyze an invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ty, the prob­a­bil­i­ty that the com­pa­ny will be able to recruit the best and bright­est to help the com­pa­ny grow is crit­i­cal to our deci­sion. We have found that access to first-class out­door recre­ation­al oppor­tu­ni­ties is extreme­ly impor­tant to these tar­get employees.”

Baruch and Pfund point­ed out by way of exam­ple that Browns Canyon is the most pop­u­lar white­wa­ter raft­ing des­ti­na­tion in the entire coun­try. It’s also a great place for hik­ing, back­pack­ing, hunt­ing, fish­ing, snow­shoe­ing, bird­ing, climb­ing and horse­back riding.

The des­ig­na­tion of Browns Canyon alone will mean that Col­orado entre­pre­neur­ial com­pa­nies can more eas­i­ly attract the financ­ing they need and hire the employ­ees who will help them grow. “That means that the des­ig­na­tion will actu­al­ly fuel more inno­va­tion,” they said.

The Con­ser­va­tion for Eco­nom­ic Growth Coali­tion launched in Decem­ber 2014 because of the new dynam­ic in Wash­ing­ton: both the Pres­i­dent and Repub­li­can Con­gress are moti­vat­ed to sup­port eco­nom­ic growth before the pres­i­den­tial elec­tions in 2016. This coali­tion believes that con­ser­va­tion of America’s nation­al pub­lic lands is crit­i­cal to the bot­tom line of Amer­i­can businesses.

A full list of cur­rent Coali­tion mem­bers is below. As the Con­gress and the Pres­i­dent are con­sid­er­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties to pro­tect pub­lic lands over the next two years, the Coali­tion will work close­ly with investors and entre­pre­neurs nation­wide to build a voice for the Coalition’s message.

CURRENT COALITION MEMBERS

Wendy Abrams of Cool Globes, in Chicago;

Tom Baruch, founder and Emer­i­tus Part­ner of ven­ture cap­i­tal firms CMEA Cap­i­tal and Formation8 in San Fran­cis­co, CA;

Tom Din­wood­ie, for­mer CEO of Pow­erLight (sold to Sun­pow­er), of San Fran­cis­co, CA; and

Michael Eynon of Red­Seal Networks;

Robert Kei­th of Beartooth Capital;

Alex Laskey, founder of Opower;

Jiong Ma of Brae­mar Ener­gy Part­ners in NYC;

Susan Mason of Aligned Partners;

Lau­ra Math­er of Uni­tive, Inc. and Co-Founder of Sil­ver­tail Systems;

Mark Mendel for­mer­ly of Intel­lec­tu­al Ven­tures in Seattle;

Nan­cy Pfund of DBL Investors;

Pete Rive, Founder of Solar City;

Jason Scott of Eko Asset Man­age­ment Partners;

Paul Smith of Los Altos, CA, angel investor and founder and CEO of three entre­pre­neur­ial com­pa­nies, each of which has been acquired or gone public.

Mark Wan of Walden Ven­tures in San Francisco;