Welcome Molly Polidoroff!
The Staff and Board of Directors of Save the Chimps, are thrilled to welcome Molly Polidoroff as our new Executive Director. Ms. Polidoroff of San Mateo, California will lead our organization and our 60-member professional staff and dedicated volunteers in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Ms. Polidoroff, who has been the Executive Director of the Center for Excellence in Nonprofits since 2002, began her duties at Save the Chimps on November 10, 2014. “We are very pleased that Molly has joined our extraordinary team,” noted Jason North, Chair of the STC Board of Directors. “Molly has an admirable history of managing complex nonprofit organizations and working with boards of directors to plan and sustain their growth. Every organization she has touched has been strengthened by her leadership and strategic advice, and her passion for the welfare of our chimp residents and for the conservation of all species is profound,” he concluded.
Prior to her current position at the Center for Excellence, Ms. Polidoroff was the Executive Director of the Children’s Health Council, which provides services for children and families with special education and behavioral health care needs; she has also held leadership posts at several major hospitals and medical clinics in California, including the Stanford University Hospital. Ms. Polidoroff earned her bachelor of arts in human biology degree from Stanford University and a master of science in health services administration from Harvard University.
“I am enthusiastic and honored to become affiliated with Save the Chimps, its wonderful staff and volunteers, and the chimps in residence at this world-class facility,” Polidoroff stated. “I am truly grateful to the Board of Directors for their trust in my leadership and dedication to the mission of Save the Chimps. I have a life-long passion for chimpanzees that began with my work with Jane Goodall at Gombe in East Africa in the mid-1970s and has been nurtured in many ways ever since,” Polidoroff noted.
The Board of Directors selected Polidoroff following a worldwide search led by a Task Force composed of six members of the STC Board. Chip Owen, Chair of the Task Force stated, “I want to thank the members of the Task Force for their efforts and diligence over several months to find and recruit the right leader for Save the Chimps. I also want to thank Jeff Arnstein, our fellow Board and Task Force member, for his service as the Interim Executive Director for Save the Chimps during the search process,” Owen continued. The Task Force was assisted in the search by the national executive search firm of Isaacson, Miller.
We are excited about our new leadership and look forward to our shared goal of giving the chimpanzees at Save the Chimps the very best care possible for years to come.