Our Board of Directors and Officers ensures that we are delivering on the organization’s mission and values. To get in touch with a board member please call the ELCR office at 859-455-8383.
Rebecca Brown Thompson, Secretary
Mission, Outreach, & Public Engagement Committee
Virginia, Arkansas
Rebecca’s dedication to the cause of preserving and expanding equestrian space comes from her own belief that people of all ages who learn to ride reap the multiple benefits of being with and caring for horses.
Rebecca enjoyed a 28-year career in the Foreign Service with the Department of State which included overseas assignments. Rebecca also brings with her nearly three decades of experience in public relations that includes writing, press event planning, grant work, and networking with other interested
individuals and organizations.
In the years following her Foreign Service career, Rebecca has participated in trail riding and competed in dressage events in such diverse locations as Argentina, El Salvador, the Philippines, Mexico, Venezuela, Northern Virginia, and Northwest Arkansas. She is a co-founder and Board Member of Fairfax4Horses (https://fairfax4horses.org) an equestrian nonprofit organization in Fairfax County, Virginia. In 2002, following the closure of one of the largest area riding stables, Rebecca and a coalition of equestrians and individuals interested in maintaining open space in the county, began organizing to create opportunities for horseback riding by establishing public riding facilities on county parkland. As a
result, Fairfax4Horses was incorporated in 2004. Recognizing that many individuals in the area are not
able to enjoy the benefits of horseback riding due to the closure of many local stables as a result of expanded development, Fairfax4Horses remains dedicated to the establishment of public riding facilities
on Fairfax County parkland.
Rebecca is also an active member of Hunters Valley Riding Club in Northern Virginia and the Northwest
Arkansas Dressage Club in Northwest Arkansas.
Dale Brown
Treasurer
Chair: Finance & Administration Committee
California
Dale Brown is currently a Vice President at ServiceNow, a San Diego/San Jose-based leading provider of cloud-based services to automate enterprise IT operations. Dan previously was the Vice President of Finance at Data Domain, which was acquired by EMC Corporation in July 2009, from January 2006 to December 2011. Prior to that he worked with major companies in the Silicon Valley and other parts of the country.
Dale is a CPA and has worked with non-profits in his past life, one of which was Path, International, where he served on the Board and Finance Committee. Dale brings over 25 years of finance and accounting experience to the ELCR board. His goal is to assist and equip non-profits for the ever changing world of regulatory issues, audits and reporting to donors and government regulatory departments. He greatly appreciates the efforts of ELCR to educate others on the dangers of the loss of open land.
Rob Banner
Vice President
Chair: Resource Development Committee
Governance & Nominating Committee
Virginia
A lifelong horseman, Robert Banner grew up in Tennessee foxhunting, showing hunters and jumpers, and riding in owner/rider timber races. After graduating from Vanderbilt University in 1980, he began a career in equine publishing moving from The Horsemen’s Journal, to Equus magazine, and ending at The Chronicle of The Horse where he spent 18 years as Publisher.
Shifting from media, Banner served 11 years as President of Great Meadow Foundation in The Plains, VA, a 501(c)(3) non-profit hosting 40 equine events including steeplechasing, polo, showjumping, and eventing. He doubled the land holdings of Great Meadow, built a world-class arena there, and hosted the first FEI Eventing Nations Cup in America. When construction of the arena was complete, he placed a conservation easement on the property to protect it in perpetuity.
Today, he works for ACRE Investment Management in The Plains, VA, his first non-equine related job. His mission today is conservation, growing trees for ecological credits (carbon and nutrient credits.) With more than 84M trees growing on 140,000 acres across the southeast, his program establishes a significant nature-based solution helping reverse climate change and improve water quality. The model uniquely returns a growing financial benefit for partnering landowners. The solution often includes a conservation easement, a tool with which Banner has become well-versed with his total commitment to preserving open space for all rural activity.
Ashleigh Dane
South Carolina
Ashleigh is a partner in EDP Holdings which develops boutique residential and multifamily communities in South Carolina and Georgia. EDP’s focus is on opportunities in sought after secondary markets where they can design communities thoughtfully curated with the end user in mind. Ashleigh is active in site selection, underwriting and raising debt and equity. She also oversees development and lease-up. EDP has developed over 400 units since forming in 2016 and currently has 172 units under construction in Charleston and Savannah.
In building the development business, Ashleigh’s love of the land drew her to the perceived conflict between development and conservation ultimately leading her to question the process in which communities grow. She has spent the last several years considering how communities can grow while honoring the land and sense of place that catalyzed the growth.
Ashleigh received her undergraduate degree and her MBA in Finance from Vanderbilt. She is the former president of the Charleston Alumni Association for Vanderbilt. She lives on her farm in Charleston and competes in the jumpers while occasionally dabbling in eventing.
Oscar Gonzales
Governance & Nominating Committee
California
Oscar brings almost two decades of senior leadership experience in the public and private sectors. He oversees a consulting practice that focuses on Food, Agriculture, Renewable Energy, and Information Technology.
In 2021, Oscar Gonzales was appointed by President Biden to serve as Assistant Secretary for Administration at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), where he oversaw management and operations for the nation’s fourth largest federal department. Previously, Oscar served in the Obama Administration in several senior positions within USDA, including Deputy Assistant Secretary for Administration, Deputy Chief of Staff, and Senior Advisor on Immigration to Secretary Tom Vilsack. He also served as the California State Executive Director for USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), where he oversaw FSA programs across California. Oscar also held senior roles in state government under Governor Gray Davis, Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, and Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero.
Oscar’s private sector experience includes working for Goldman Sachs as their Vice President for Government Relations for the Western States and Vice President for Government Relations at Aura Financial. Prior to serving in government, Oscar worked with various nonprofit organizations, including the Constitutional Rights Foundation, Building Up Los Angeles, the Corporation for National Service, California Community College Foundation, National Hispanic Environmental Council, East Los Angeles Residents Association, and the UFW Foundation. In 2019, Governor Newsom appointed Oscar to the California Horse Racing Board, and he was reappointed in 2023. He lives in Davis, CA, with his wife Christine and their dogs Honey and Jetty.
Ken Haddad
President
Governance & Nominating Committee
Finance & Administration Committee
Florida
An avid fox hunter and trail rider, Ken recently retired as Executive Director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. In that role he was responsible for the management of over 5 million acres of Florida public and private lands and served on the state council that guided the purchase of $300 million worth of public lands annually. He also served as member of the state lands Acquisition and Restoration Council; Chairman of the Science Coordinating Group of the Everglades Restoration Task Force; and president of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. He is a current board member of the Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy and the Wildlife Foundation of Florida.
Ken contributes greatly to ELCR’s ability to be the horseman’s resource on recreational use issues at the state level. He has firsthand understanding of the myriad of issues surrounding equestrian access on public and private lands including public game lands.
Bill Ward
Maryland
Bill Ward is a 30-year veteran in the marketing and advertising industry where he manages TBC, a leading ad agency in Baltimore, Maryland as their Executive Vice president and Managing Director. Equally important to Bill is his passion toward the equestrian world of sport thanks to his 14-year-old daughter Taylor who took to the sport 7 years ago and hasn’t looked back—competitively riding in Hunter and Equitation divisions. While all-things-horse may not have been a part of Bill’s life until recently, the past 7 years have been nothing less than an all-encompassing, rocket-fueled experience into the sport, magic and community of everything that goes into successful partnerships of horse and rider. And despite some general allergic reactions around horses, his heart and head are ‘all-in’ to do what he can in the best interest of these amazing animals which deliver so much to their human partners and deserve much more from us. Along with his dedication to the ELRC, Bill sits on the Board of Directors with the Washington International Horse Show, and the Sport & Entertainment Corp of Maryland which operates the Maryland 5-Star where he also is a member of the 5-Star event committee.
Bill is thoughtful and intentional about what he commits himself toward so that everything can get the level of attention it needs and deserves. His priorities are focused on being a supportive husband and business partner to his wife Nichole of 18 years, an always-improving father of their child Taylor, a driver of opportunity and growth for their ad agency TBC, and a partner-owner of an independent wine & spirit retail store. He pursues opportunities which feed into these areas of interest and that offer challenges he believes he can help solve.
Phoebe Weseley
Florida
Phoebe Weseley was born and raised in New York City, where she graduated from The Brearley School. She pursued higher education at Rice University and Columbia University, graduating from Rice University with a degree in the history of art. After graduating, Phoebe embarked on a career in the publishing industry and worked for several museums as an editor and writer.
For someone who grew up in the big city, she has always preferred the country life. Embracing her love of country living, Phoebe and her husband have owned farms in Bedford, NY, Wellington, FL, Bedminster, NJ, and Esmont, VA. Phoebe and her husband call themselves the “farm doctors”; seeing themselves as caretakers and rejuvenators, they are dedicated to bringing their beloved farm in Esmont back to life.
Phoebe is an active competitor in the hunter/jumper discipline and enjoys competing in the hunter/jumper show circuit. She also enjoys grassroots activism and community organizing and most recently has been involved in fighting some development issues impacting horse lands in Wellington, FL, where she was first introduced to ELCR.
Phoebe understands firsthand the crucial need to advocate for horses within local communities and to secure access to land for equine-related activities. She is excited to give back and looks forward to working with ELCR to support efforts aimed at protecting endangered horse lands in communities across the country.
Warren Wilson
Mission, Outreach, & Public Engagement Committee
California
Warren Wilson is a resident of Escondido, CA and President and CEO of California Horsetrader, a thriving niche horse publication and an award-winning media company serving the equestrian industry since 1990. Raised on a historic San Diego County homestead and with a publishing career largely devoted to the horse industry, Wilson has a broad perspective of the equine land conservancy landscape.
Wilson studied literature and writing at the University of California San Diego. Before California Horsetrader, Wilson’s publishing career began in newspapers. He was editor of his hometown weekly, the San Marcos Courier, at age 20. He moved on to a San Diego area morning daily, the Morning Press, first as Sports Editor before being named Managing Editor at age 26. In 1990, he purchased California Horsetrader magazine.
In 1997, he founded Horsetrader.com working with architects, engineers and developers to create an enterprise-level platform for advertisers to provide concurrent online exposure in sync with printed insertion orders. This led to the development of online delivery of content as well as web-based business systems for publishers that remain a daily part of companies nationwide. Today many American Horse Publications (AHP) member magazines, websites and corporate members use technology his team developed.
Wilson is well known and respected in the equine publishing world as both an innovator and an amazing collaborator. First appointed to the AHP Board of Directors in 1995, Wilson served as AHP President from 2000-2001. In his role as AHP President, he led numerous AHP workshops and panels on wide-ranging topics including editorial management, technology and business development.
In 2014, Wilson was honored with the AHP Champion Award and recognized for his 25 years in equine publishing that have provided technical innovations bridging the transition from print to Internet and for his collaboration in the industry. Today’s collaborations extend outside the print realm, as Wilson and the Horsetrader team also now work with non-publishing AHP members including trade shows and associations to engage their audiences with online and mobile marketplaces and video contests.
His childhood home, the Borden Homestead in San Marcos, CA, remains an active equestrian and agricultural enterprise. The 14-acre ranch is the home to his mother, Carolyn Read, a well known equine land use advocate and preservationist.