Ralph Wood

After retiring from a successful career in industrial R&D at GE, West Virginia University, and United Technologies, Ralph started a small business, Accelerating Excellence, for consulting in productivity, quality, product development, systems engineering and strategy. At the same time he began a career of volunteering at the Connecticut Audubon Society on its state Board and on the regional boards of its Glastonbury Center and its Roger Tory Peterson Estuary Center in Old Lyme. He is also a director of the Mentoring Corps for Community Development and is presently involved with the New London Public School system in the design of a Teachers’ Academy to promote excellence.

He was a member of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s site selection team for Connecticut’s National Estuarine Research Reserve and continues to work on the steering team that is creating its management plan and environmental impact statement. He is currently the president of Estuary Ventures, Inc., the parent of Estuary Magazine.

Ralph holds three degrees from Brown University in mechanical engineering. He and his wife have two children and four grandchildren.

Ralph credits his fundamental appreciation and concern for the environment to bird-loving and banding neighbors where he grew up, to his Boy Scout troop and summer camp, and to his uncle, who was a past president of Maine Audubon and an avid conservationist and outdoors person.