FALMOUTH — Maine Audubon recently announced the appointment of Charles Gauvin as its new executive director. Gauvin brings more than 25 years of experience in conservation leadership, much of it as the president and CEO of Trout Unlimited, the nation’s leading river and fish conservation organization, as well as a strong suite of management and fundraising skills.

During his tenure at Trout Unlimited, Gauvin increased annual revenue from $2.5 million to $28 million. The organization’s staff grew from 20 to 165, as it developed best-in-class programs in water, public lands and fisheries policy and executed watershed and landscapescale habitat restoration projects. His work at Trout Unlimited involved a number of projects in Maine, including hydropower relicensing and dam removal efforts on the Androscoggin, Kennebec and Penobscot rivers; strengthening federal and state protections for wild Atlantic salmon; and launching a multi-partner effort to protect Maine’s wild brook trout population, which now includes Maine Audubon as a lead partner through its Brook Trout Pond Survey.

In making the announcement, Andrew Beahm, president of Maine Audubon’s board of trustees, said, “I am thrilled that Charles will serve as Maine Audubon’s next executive director. As the leading wildlife conservation organization in the state, Maine Audubon is a great match for Charles’ experience as a conservation program developer and fundraiser.”

Gauvin most recently served as chief development officer at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C., where he worked with Carnegie’s management group and board of trustees to raise the funds needed to implement the organization’s strategic plan. He collaborated with Carnegie scholars worldwide to develop program strategies and support in the United States, Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Asia and South Asia. He has also been a strategic adviser to France’s ambassador to the United States in efforts to create and underwrite partnerships between U.S. and French research institutions. He began his career as an attorney in the Washington office of Beveridge & Diamond, PC, the nation’s premier environmental law firm.

“I am thrilled to be part of Maine Audubon,” said Gauvin. “I am passionate about Maine’s wildlife, and I want to make sure it is front and center in policy-making and in the process of educating the next generations of Maine people.”

Gauvin is a magna cum laude graduate of Brown University and earned his JD at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was an editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. He and his wife, the painter Gina Sawin, live on a farm in New Gloucester, Maine. Gauvin will assume his new position in late August.

About Maine Audubon

MAINE AUDUBON’S science-based approach to conservation, education and advocacy advances wildlife and wildlife habitat conservation in Maine. Our citizen science programs connect Maine people to engaging volunteer opportunities that make meaningful contributions to conservation research. The largest Maine-based wildlife conservation organization in the state, Maine Audubon has eight centers and wildlife sanctuaries and serves more than 50,000 people annually, with 15,000 members and 2,000 volunteers.