President Appoints Three Bay Area Leaders to Presidio Board

Presidio of San Francisco (August 29, 2003) — President Bush has announced his intention to appoint three Bay Area leaders to the Presidio Trust Board of Directors.

Joseph T. Yew, Jr., the Oakland city treasurer, Lydia I. Beebe, corporate secretary for ChevronTexaco in San Ramon, and William Wilson III, managing partner of Wilson Meany Sullivan Inc. in San Francisco, are expected be appointed by President Bush to four-year terms. The President should formally sign the commissions in September.

The new members will replace Amy Meyer and William Reilly, each of whom have served the maximum two terms, and Jennifer Hernandez, who has served one four-year term.

The seven-member Board of Directors has direct oversight of the Presidio Trust, a federal agency created by Congress in 1996 with a mandate to protect and preserve the Presidio as a national park. The Trust must also achieve financial self-sufficiency by 2013.

The Presidio was a former military post where flags of three nations flew, including Spain, Mexico, and the United States. The U.S. Army left the Presidio in 1994. The property contains the largest number of historic buildings recorded on the national register. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962 and part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the park spans 1,491 acres from the Pacific Ocean to the San Francisco Bay and offers impressive views, a diverse ecosystem, a dynamic shoreline and historic forests.

The Presidio’s natural, scenic, historic, and recreational resources must be protected for the public in perpetuity.

The three new board members each have extensive Bay Area ties and a wide range of education, business, and technical expertise.

“We are pleased to welcome these three Bay Area and community leaders to our board,” said Toby Rosenblatt, Chairman of the Presidio Trust board. “Each of them brings expertise and enthusiasm to the Presidio that will be of great benefit to our efforts to preserve and sustain the park.”

Mr. Yew, a San Francisco resident, has a master’s degree in Business Administration from Carnegie Mellon University; Ms. Beebe, who also resides in San Francisco, has a law degree from Kansas University and a master’s degree in Business from Golden Gate University. Mr. Wilson received his undergraduate degree in engineering from Stanford.

Ms. Beebe is also on the board of the Professional Business Women of California and served as its president in 2000-2001. Mr. Yew is on the board of the Chinatown YMCA and Mr. Wilson is a trustee of the California Academy of Sciences.

Six presidential appointees and the Secretary of the Interior, or her designee, sit on the Board of Directors and oversee the management of 80 percent of the Presidio lands.