Every year, the American Alpine Club Board of Directors vets and votes on an incoming slate of individuals to join the Board. Board directors serve three-year terms, up to six years total. Directors have specific requirements and expectations as outlined in the AAC’s Bylaws. For 2020, we are pleased to announce the following slate of Board applicants. The current Board of Directors will vote in these individuals at the March Board Meeting, and all Club members will have an opportunity to ratify the slate at the March Member Meeting.
Candidates for Election to AAC Board of Directors (2020-2022)
Luis Benitez VP of Government Affairs and Global Impact for VF Corporation, Denver. Throughout his career, as a professional mountaineering guide, Luis has summited the top of the famed “Seven Summits” a cumulative 32 times, including being a six-time summiteer of Mt. Everest. At the start of his career, Benitez spent a decade managing the well-established leadership development school, Outward Bound Professional in Colorado. Luis has also served as the COO and Director of Operations for Adventure Consultants (AC); helped create the nonprofit Trekking For Kids, which focuses on service based expeditions allowing participants to climb and trek while teaching them about local issues like housing and healthcare for disadvantaged youth around the world; founding partner for Warriors to Summits, a nonprofit focusing on serving returning Veterans by connecting them with the outdoors. In the last 10 years, Benitez has grown to have a deeper investment in public service 1st by serving as a Town Councilman in Eagle, Colorado and serving as the 1st State Director for the Outdoor Recreation Industry office for the State of Colorado.
Rob DeConto Rob’s love for climbing began in the White Mountains of New Hampshire while he was in high school. At 17 he moved to Boulder to climb full time, and Colorado remained his “base camp” for almost two decades while he weaved together academic and professional climbing careers, with bursts of full time climbing across the US and Europe at the beginning of the sport climbing revolution. Rob is now a Professor of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts and Co-Director of the School of Earth & Sustainability. Back on the East Coast, his passion for climbing is now shared with ocean sailing. Rob’s scientific expertise spans climate physics and glaciology. His research is focused on the dynamic behavior of the ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica, the future fate of those ice sheets in a warming world, and the impacts of sea-level rise. Rob serves on a number of national and international science boards and advisory panels. He is a recent recipient of the Tinker-Muse Prize for Science and Policy in Antarctica, and a lead author for the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Rob is also a member of the AAC’s Climate Task Force.
Hilaree Nelson The first woman to climb two 8,000m peaks in 24 hours (Everest and Lhotse). She’s also skied from the Himalayan summit of Cho Oyu in Tibet and climbed and skied several high peaks in Bolivia and Argentina. Elsewhere, Hilaree has cut turns on remote volcanoes in the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Lebanon, as well as many first descents in the tight couloirs of Baffin Island. Born and raised in the Northwest, Hilaree began skiing at age 3 at Stevens Pass in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State. Eventually she moved to the Chamonix Valley of France where she learned most of what she needed to know in order to take her skiing skills to the next level- ski mountaineering. In addition to her work for The North Face, Hilaree is a mother to two young boys, and although they have changed her life dramatically, her passion for the mountains has not abated. She lives in Telluride, Colorado and finds her sanity in the beautiful San Juan Mountains.
Karsang Sherpa Senior Vice President, Tralee Capital Partners, LLC. Karsang has worked on acquisitions totaling over $600 million since joining the firm. Prior to joining Tralee, Karsang was an associate with Dividend Capital Total Realty Trust. Since working in commercial real estate, Karsang has been involved with transactions totaling more than $680 million and has asset managed more than $430 million in real estate, including 2.9 million square feet of industrial, mixed-use, lodging, and multifamily assets. Karsang has his MBA from the Wharton School of Business and graduated with a Bachelor’s in Science from Cambridge University. He sits on the Board of Directors (Treasurer) for dZi Foundation, working with people in some of the most isolated villages in Nepal. He also sits on the Board of The Juniper Fund.
We would like to open the opportunity for all AAC members to submit their suggestions for possible Board candidates for future elections. Joining the Board of Directors requires an individual’s commitment of time and energy. Board members are responsible for managing the affairs of the Club and filling specific roles relevant to the administration of an organization.
All Directors will be asked to follow The Six A’s:
· Be an Ambassador—to help tell our story
· Be an Advisor—and make effective policy and program decisions
· Be an Advocate—for climbing and for the Club
· Provide Access—to others on behalf of the Club
· Provide Affluence—in your own giving and through connections to others
· Provide Assistance—as an advisor and volunteer
If you or someone you know fits the bill for our Board, add your suggestion via this form: Board Candidate Suggestions. AAC staff and Board will review these suggestions through 2020. Please note that filling out this form does not guarantee a response or anyone’s election to the AAC Board .