Jennifer C. Simpson to Join NFWF as Executive Vice President of Finance and Operations

​Washington, D.C., June 17, 2015 – The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) today announced the appointment of Jennifer C. Simpson as executive vice president of finance and operations.

Simpson will be based in Washington, D.C., and will lead the effort within the Foundation to establish long-range financial goals, growth strategies, plans and policies. She will be responsible for ensuring that the Foundation maintains its financial strength and has the proper operational controls and procedures in place to support this planned growth in an efficient way.

“Jennifer Simpson is a proven leader who has focused on financial, strategic and operational excellence throughout her career,” said Jeff Trandahl, executive director and CEO of NFWF. “She has operated in a diverse set of organizations that includes private equity, lending, military, start-up and nonprofit settings. Her record of success gives me great confidence that she will help NFWF advance its conservation mission.”

Recently, Simpson was a managing director at The Gladstone Companies, a family of debt and equity funds focused on investing in private middle-market companies. She led the process and teams for evaluating, structuring, documenting and managing investments, which fed into the strategic direction these companies followed. Simpson also helped establish a securities business under the Gladstone umbrella as a member of the Board of Managers, where she was a managing principal. At private equity firm Morgenthaler Partners, she structured and negotiated debt financing for the firm’s buyouts.

Simpson began her post-MBA career in National City Bank’s corporate banking training program, designed to develop future leaders of the company. She was part of a team that redefined the strategic direction for the International Banking line of business, assembling and facilitating a cross-functional group of over 25 senior leaders. As the chief credit officer of the $4.7 billion small business portfolio, she chaired the large credit approval committee as well as policy and product approvals. She served as part of the executive team that established simpler, best-in-class methodologies for growing the small business banking business. She also managed a portfolio of leveraged commercial and industrial loans.

Simpson earned her B.S. in economics at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania funded by an Army ROTC scholarship. While in the U.S. Army’s Medical Services Corps, she served as a field platoon leader, company executive officer, and protocol expert for the group’s Colonel.

For the past four years, Simpson has served on the Board of the Thomas Jefferson Partnership Fund, a grant-making organization focused on raising and granting money in support of STEM education. She also serves on the national board of Women in Venture and Equity as well as co-founding the Washington, D.C. chapter. The Wharton Club of DC recently honored her for her accomplishments as a senior woman in finance, where she spoke about the merits of impact investing.

About the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) protects and restores our nation’s wildlife and habitats. Chartered by Congress in 1984, NFWF directs public conservation dollars to the most pressing environmental needs and matches those investments with private contributions. NFWF works with government, nonprofit and corporate partners to find solutions for the most complex conservation challenges. Over the last three decades, NFWF has funded more than 4,000 organizations and committed more than $2.9 billion to conservation projects. Learn more at www.nfwf.org.