Hoolihan Elected to Endowment’s Board of Directors

U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Greenville, SC

For IMMEDIATE RELEASE (May 16, 2014)

The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) announced today that James “Jim”Hoolihan of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, has been elected to its Board of Directors. “As an institution approaching its eighth anniversary and a near 100% rotation from our inaugural Board, it is vitally important that we attract people with relevant skills and experience,” said Endowment President Carlton Owen. “To gain someone with Jim’s passion for of our mission and at the same time with deep experience in the rural philanthropic world is indeed a double blessing,” he continued.

“From my former position with the Blandin Foundation I have had the opportunity to watch the Endowment emerge and grow into an impactful player in the working forest conservation and rural economic development space and I am humbled to now play an active role in its continued evolution,”Hoolihan said. “This role will allow me to continue to engage in my passion for aiding rural, forest-rich places while reaching beyond my roots in the Lake States.”

A native of Grand Rapids, businessman and civic leader, Jim was Grand Rapids’ three-term mayor from 1990-1995. He served as a member of the Grand Rapids-based Blandin Foundation from 1992 through 2003 including Foundation Chair from 1996 through 1999. In 2004 he became CEO, a position he held until he retired in 2012. From 1981 until joining Blandin, he was president of Industrial Lubricant Company and Can-Jer, a Grand Rapids-based company that provides industrial supplies to the logging, railroad, taconite and coal-mining industries. Upon leaving the Blandin Foundation in 2012 he rejoined the company that the Hoolihan family has owned for more than 70 years.

In 2002 Hoolihan was named Citizen of the Year by the Grand Rapids Herald Review. He has served on several civic boards and commissions including the Ready for K, the Governor’s Task Force on Mining andMinerals, and United Way of Grand Rapids as campaign chair. He is a trustee of Saint Joseph’s CatholicChurch and a past trustee of the College of Saint Scholastica, and serves on the board of directors for the Duluth-based ALLETE Company. Jim holds a law degree from William Mitchell College of Law, masters of business from University of Minnesota and a bachelor’s in economics from University of Notre Dame.

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For more information contact:
Carlton N. Owen, President & CEO, 864-233-7646, carlton@usendowment.org The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) is a not-for-profit public charity working collaboratively with partners in the public and private sectors to advance systemic, transformative, and sustainable change for the health and vitality ofthe nation’s working forests and forest-reliant communities – www.usendowment.org;