Kathryn L. Hoenig

Starting at a young age, growing up outside of New York City, Kathryn Hoenig developed a love of nature and being outdoors. She spent her childhood eating warm tomatoes off the vine and planting corn at her grandfather’s farm and playing in the streams of local preserves, looking for speckled salamanders and frogs. Family vacations were spent hiking in the Adirondacks, visiting national historic sites in the Northeast and enjoying the beaches of the East Coast. She now shares her love of nature with her children and grandchild, with whom she hikes and fishes in parks across the country.

A graduate of Duke University and NYU Law School, Kathryn was a litigator at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft and then became General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Hoenig Group Inc., a global financial services firm. Working as part of the executive leadership team and later as a director, she helped the company navigate significant business and strategic challenges, including the sale of the company and its asset management subsidiary. Following the sale, she continued her work on corporate and marketing strategy as a Senior Vice President at Investment Technology Group, Inc. More recently, she co-founded a clean energy finance company and co-developed a 6 MW community solar project in Westchester County, NY, which also provides grazing habitat for sheep and bees.

For the past 25 years, Kathryn has focused her efforts on conservation and sustainability issues and helped launch not-for-profits and local programs to educate and connect people, especially young people, to nature and the environment. Kathryn currently serves as the Chair of the Board of Visitors at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University, as Trustee and Treasurer of the Mianus River Gorge Preserve, Director and Treasurer of W.O.M.E.N. in America, and as an Advisor to the Open Space Acquisition Committee of the Town of Bedford, NY.

“Preserving irreplaceable habitats and connecting people to our natural world are deeply held values that have motivated most of my life’s activities. Nothing is better than sharing nature with young people and watching them love and marvel in our parks, natural preserves and historic spaces, creating future protectors of these unique places. As a mother and now grandmother, this work is even more important to ensure that future generations have the opportunity to experience our parks and natural spaces.”