Will Rogers is President and CEO of The Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national nonprofit that conserves land for people to enjoy as parks, playgrounds, community gardens, farms, historic places, and wilderness. Whether recycling brownfields for new urban parks or playgrounds or conserving remote and inspirational wildlands, TPL brings a market-based approach to its mission of protecting the places that inspire us and where people can connect with the natural world and with each other.

Based in San Francisco, TPL has 450 staff and 50 offices nationwide and since 1972, has helped protect over two million acres of land. Also under Will’s leadership, TPL’s Conservation Finance Program has helped 333 states and communities design and pass ballot measures that have created more than $25 billion in land conservation funding through bonds and sales taxes to protect air and water quality, preserve land, and create parks. TPL’s Conservation Vision program has begun or completed more than 50 GIS mapping projects nationwide to help communities and regions set their conservation priorities.

Will Rogers is a nationally recognized advocate for land conservation and has given major addresses or interviews to the Urban Land Institute, the National Smart Growth Conference, the National Brownfields Conference, and Talk of the Nation, among others.

Before joining TPL, Will Rogers managed infill urban development projects for a Chicago-based real estate development company, managing both new construction and the rehabilitation of vacant industrial buildings for commercial, office, and residential use. In addition to his real estate experience, Will founded and managed a commercial honey production company in Bogotá, Columbia. He is a graduate of Stanford University and received his MBA from Harvard University. He lives with his family in Kensington, California, and continues to keep honeybees in his back yard.

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