David Allen is new CEO of Missoula's Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
By MICHAEL MOORE of the Missoulian
After five months with an interim head honcho, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation has hired a new president and chief executive officer.
David Allen, who directed marketing for Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s NASCAR team, takes the reins left unheld when J. Dart stepped down in June. Allen, who lives in Billings with his wife and two sons, replaces interim leader Walker “Buddy” Smith, a board member who stepped in after Dart left.
Dart led the foundation, which works for the conservation of wildlife habitat and elk populations, for four years and oversaw the move to its new headquarters and museum in Grant Creek.
Allen, who is 56, said the elk foundation, which laid off 15 workers in October and didn’t replace eight other jobs, needs to focus more tightly on its underlying mission.
“As I said to the staff last week, we are a wildlife conservation group, period,” Allen said by phone Wednesday. “Our focus is on habitat and land protection, period. That can be as simple or as difficult as you want to make it, but that’s where we can have the most impact.”
Allen has been involved with the elk foundation for about 10 years, first helping with the group’s marketing effort, then as a board member for the past five years.
He’s also passionate about hunting, with a particular fondness for the Powder River area.
“But I just love this whole state,” Allen said. “I’m so excited about having a chance to make a difference in conservation, both here and elsewhere.
The elk foundation, which has about 150,000 members, has been around since 1984 and in that time has protected or enhanced more than 5 million acres of land.
And that’s what the foundation needs to stay focused on, Allen said. In a nonprofit organization that makes use of so many volunteers, he said, it’s easy for people’s personal agendas and visions to impair a group’s basic mission.
“I think you can lose your focus a little bit, and I think that’s happened to us to an extent,” Allen said. “My job will be to keep us on track.”
Allen, who went to the University of Wyoming in journalism, comes to the elk foundation with a pretty powerful pedigree. In addition to working for the Earnhardt/Richard Childress racing team, he worked in marketing for Wrangler’s, the Pro Bull Riders Tour and professional rodeo.
A press release issued by the elk foundation Wednesday had quotes from both Childress and Randy Bernard, CEO of the Pro Bulls Riders Inc.
“I believe David’s values of integrity and hard work and his get-it-done attitude will take RMEF to the next level,” said Bernard.
Allen said his experience with rodeo and NASCAR positions him well for his work at the foundation.
“I think the demographic of our membership is a lot of the same people I’ve worked with before – hardworking, middle-class people who like to support wildlife conservation,” Allen said.
Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or by e-mail at mmoore@missoulian.com.
