Ploughshares Fund Welcomes New Board Chairperson: Mary Lloyd Estrin

June 18, 2013

Honors Former Chair, Roger Hale, for Expanding Organization, Focusing Vision

San Francisco – Ploughshares Fund is pleased to announce the election of Mary Lloyd Estrin of Los Angeles, CA as the new chair of the board of directors. Estrin succeeds out-going chair, Roger Hale of Minneapolis, MN. She takes the helm of a group of experts, philanthropists and leaders including Michael Douglas, Admiral Joe Sestak, Philip Taubman, Gloria Duffy and Terry Gamble Boyer.

The transition comes at a high point in the global security foundation’s 30-year history. Founded as a private foundation in 1981, the group has gained in size and influence under Hale’s leadership. Since Hale took the chairmanship in 2005, Ploughshares Fund has raised approximately $56 million from foundations and private individuals, allowing the group to increase its endowment by 30% and to award over 800 grants. Additionally, Ploughshares Fund expanded its presence with the opening of a Washington, DC office in 2008. Ploughshares Fund also championed a coalition of over 50 non-governmental groups in support of the New START treaty, approved by the Senate in 2010, providing almost $3 million to fuel the effort. The foundation is a leader of efforts to reduce global nuclear arsenals, to halt the spread of nuclear weapons and to prevent conflict in regions where nuclear weapons already exist.

“Roger Hale has been a phenomenal leader, bringing us to new heights over the last 8 years,” said Joe Cirincione, President of Ploughshares Fund. “Mary has been a leader on our board, guiding our efforts with Los Angeles philanthropists and helping direct our work nationally. We are excited to have her leadership as we continue to move Ploughshares Fund forward.”

“We are delighted to welcome Mary Lloyd Estrin as our new board chair,” said Philip Yun, Ploughshares Fund’s Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer. “While Roger’s presence will certainly be missed, and we are delighted he continues to work on our development committee, Mary brings strong leadership to our organization as we work to promote innovation and new thinking on ways to reduce the nuclear threat.”

About Lloyd Estrin

Mary Lloyd Estrin, a Los Angeles resident, has served on the Board of Directors since 1999. She is program director of the Human Rights and Economic Justice Program at the General Service Foundation, which supports efforts to reduce economic inequity by strengthening worker rights and protections, ensuring a broadly based prosperity. She also serves as vice president of the John Lloyd Foundation, which has an interest in HIV/AIDS advocacy, education and policy issues. In addition, Estrin serves on the steering committee of the Labor and Community Working Group of the Neighborhood Funders Network, as well as on the Advisory Committee of the LIFT Fund. Estrin has served as a trustee of Vassar College, as Board Chair of the Wildwood School, and on local community boards. A photographer for 15 years, she is the author of To the Manor Born.

About Hale:

Roger Hale has been member of Ploughshares Fund's Board of Directors since 1995, and chairman since 2005. A native of Minnesota, Hale was president and CEO of Tennant, an industry-leading manufacturer of industrial and commercial floor maintenance equipment, from 1976 to 1998 and was a director of five NYSE companies during his career. He retired in 1999. Hale has served on the boards of the Walker Art Center and Public Radio International. He is a graduate of Brown University and Harvard Business School, and served as an officer in the U.S. Navy from 1956-1959.

About Ploughshares Fund

Ploughshares Fund is a publicly supported foundation that funds, organizes and innovates projects to realize a world free of the threat of nuclear weapons. Maintaining stockpiles of nuclear weapons exposes us to the risk of their use by accident, miscalculation or malice. Nuclear weapons also increase the risk of conflict in some of the world’s most unstable regions, ultimately threatening our security. Since 1981, Ploughshares Fund has led and supported efforts to address this and other global security challenges. In 2010, Ploughshares Fund spearheaded the successful campaign of over 50 non-governmental organizations to win the Senate approval of the New START treaty. Ploughshares Fund is currently concentrating on efforts to bring the nuclear weapons budget in line with 21st century military needs; to continue U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons reductions in a way that benefits both nations’ national security objectives; and to promote diplomatic resolution of Iran’s nuclear program.