New Chief Operating Officer for The Trust For Public Land

Chris K. Kay has been appointed Chief Operating Officer of The Trust for Public Land, a national conservation organization, TPL President Will Rogers announced today.

“We are extremely please to have Chris as our COO and in that position, he will be overseeing the day-to-day operations of TPL and making sure that our people have the tools they need to deliver our mission of protecting land for people and creating parks and open space in cities and communities across the country,” said Rogers.

Kay is the former COO of Toys “R” Us, a global Fortune 200 company, where he joined the management team in 2000 and played a major leadership role in the operational turnaround of that company, by reducing costs and enhancing productivity.

“I am very much looking forward to helping the TPL team,” said Kay. “TPL’s mission to create and protect parks and open spaces from the inner cities to the wilderness has never been more important than it is now. TPL is one of the nation’s most effective conservation organizations, and at a time when we face financial challenges in our personal lives and at all levels of government, the value and efficiency which are a hallmark of TPL’s work can help create parks in cities and across the nation.”

Earlier, Kay practiced law for more than two decades, ranging from complex business litigation to corporate mergers and large real estate transactions. As a trial lawyer, he won the largest judgment ($188 million) against the state of Florida (and the second largest judgment against a state in the history of this country at that time) in a class action case, and won several antitrust and intellectual property cases that created new legal precedents. He also negotiated two of the largest real estate transactions in the history of Central Florida.

Kay is a graduate of the University of Missouri and the Duke University School of Law. He has been a board member of a number of organizations, including the American Medical Association. He is the only non-physician on the board and also serves on the board’s Business Development, Finance, and Audit committees.

The Trust for Public Land is a national nonprofit land conservation organization which conserves land for people to enjoy as parks, gardens, and natural areas, ensuring livable communities for generations to come. Since it was founded in 1972, TPL has helped protect almost 3 million acres nationwide.