By Town Crier Report

Larson

Carol S. Larson will become the third President and CEO of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation in its 39-year history, announced Susan Packard Orr, Chairman of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees Monday.

Larson is currently vice president and director of programs at the Los Altos-based foundation, where she has worked for 14 years. She will assume her new role Jan. 1.

“Carol’s vision and integrity are unparalleled,” said Orr. “We talked to many highly qualified candidates from a wide array of backgrounds and came away even more convinced that Carol’s focused, gracious leadership will best ensure that the foundation stays our course in programs and philosophy while pushing to be even more effective.”

“I am honored to have this opportunity to lead the Foundation into its fifth decade,” said Larson.

The foundation has a $200 million grants budget for 2004 and had an endowment of more than $5 billion as of November 30. .

Larson joined the foundation in 1989 as director of research and grants, law and public policy, at the foundation’s Center for the Future of Children.

She succeeds current CEO Richard Schlosberg who announced his retirement in June. Schlosberg succeeded Colburn S. Wilbur, the Foundation’s first president.

dation for 22 years. Schlosberg, 59, said he plans to pursue his other civic interests.

During Schlosberg’s tenure, the Foundation has helped grantees have considerable impact in programs to ensure all children have access to preschool, quality health care, child care and after-school programs; to protect reproductive rights in the U.S. and stabilize world population in countries such as Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and the Philippines; to conserve and restore earth’s natural systems through supporting energy efficiency programs in China, protecting oceans, and preserving undeveloped land in the United States and abroad; and to encourage the creative pursuit of science.

The foundation has also continued its long commitment to local areas of historical importance to the Packard family, including Pueblo, Colorado; Los Altos, California; and the broader four-county area of California encompassing San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Monterey Counties through grants that advance the goals of program areas and support various local arts and community organizations which offer important cultural and social services.

Specific highlights include completion of the Conserving California Landscapes Initiative which has permanently protected more than 300,000 acres of land in California; initiation of an ambitious Preschool for All grantmaking initiative which seeks quality preschool for all three- and four-year-olds in California within the next 10 years; extensive public education efforts with grantees on reproductive rights and international family planning; and significant special opportunity grants which helped protect thousands of acres of salt ponds in San Francisco Bay and helped establish the University of California at Merced campus. For more detailed information, please visit www.packard.org.