New JRS Trustees J.P Rodriguez, B. Rader and L. Krishtalka

JRS Welcomes Three New Trustees

Posted on Jan 9, 2014

The JRS Biodiversity Foundation is pleased to announce the election of three new members to the foundation’s Board of Trustees.  “We are delighted to welcome Leonard Krishtalka, Benjamin Rader, and Jon Paul Rodríguez to JRS,” said foundation president Robert Guralnick. “I look forward to the expertise and insights they will contribute to the foundation as a members of our board.”

Leonard Krishtalka

Leonard Krishtalka is the current Director of the Biodiversity Institute and Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Kansas. He received his Ph.D. in Systematics and Ecology, and Biology and Paleontology from the University of Kansas and Texas Tech University respectively. Krishtalka has previously served as Program Director in the Division of Environmental Biology for the National Science Foundation as well as serving on several advisory panels and committees for the NSF.

Benjamin Rader

Benjamin Rader has served as a Vice President of Goldman Sachs since 2005 and currently serves as the General Counsel for The Goldman Sachs Foundation.   Rader received an LL.M. in International Law from Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.

Jon Paul Rodríguez

Jon Paul Rodríguez is Professor of Ecology at the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Investigation (Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas ― IVIC), and a founder, member of the Board of Directors (2008-2013, 1987-1993), and President of Provita (2001-2008, 2013-present), a Venezuelan conservation NGO established in 1987. Rodríguez received a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in 1999, as well as a Certificate on Science, Technology and Environmental Policy in 2000, from Princeton University. Since 2009 he also serves as Deputy Chair of the Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and as co-lead of the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management’s Red List of Ecosystems Thematic Group.

JRS also bids farewell to departing Trustees Jorge Soberón, Bryan Heidorn and Rebecca Schrader and thanks them for their dedication and service to the foundation from 2007-2013.