Board Members

Robin is a 21 year resident of New Canaan and a lifelong nutmegger, with the exception of a few years in both Boston and New York City. A graduate of Darien High School and Dickinson College with a career in finance before starting a family. An active volunteer, Robin is also a board member for New Canaan Beautification League, New Canaan League of Women Voters, a member of New Canaan Town Council and New Canaan Sustainable Team Leader. An avid gardener and composter who has been hard at work turning her property into a bird and pollinator paradise. On most weekends, Robin can be found hiking with her family and her dog Cookie.

Margot has been an active member in the community of New Canaan for the past 20 years. In addition to being a founding member of Planet New Canaan, she has served on the Saxe PTC Board, vestry at St. Mark’s, co-chaired the church youth group, volunteered at New Canaan Mounted Troop’s program for disabled children, and served on numerous fundraising projects for causes in New Canaan. Margot has a finance background, with a BS from The Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh. She had a career in corporate banking for 10 years and served as a treasurer in the cable and broadband business for 13 years. She is passionate about making New Canaan a sustainable town which can serve as a model for other communities.

As Executive Director of the New Canaan Nature Center, a leading not-for-profit environmental education organization, Bill Flynn serves as an advisor to Planet New Canaan. Bill’s experience, environmental expertise, and inspiration serves as a real asset to our team. A graduate of University of Colorado at Boulder with a degree in Wildlife Biology, Bill has dedicated his career to environmental education, awareness, and advocacy. His tenure at the Nature Center began in 2010 the Director of Animal Care until his appointment as the Executive Director in 2017. In his free time, Bill plays hockey, plays music and loves spending time outdoors

G. Warfield “Skip” Hobbs is a geologist, farmer and conservationist. He has been a resident of New Canaan since 1980, and is passionate about preservation of New Canaan’s open spaces and historic buildings, sustainability, and educating the public about the reality of climate change. Skip is a graduate of Yale College and the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, London. He is the founder and managing partner of Ammonite Resources, an international geological consulting company. When not working on geological projects, Skip manages a family farm in Massachusetts where he raises grass-fed beef and organically grown vegetables and bees. Hobbs served as the president of the American Geosciences Institute, an organization that represents over 250,000 earth scientists in 52 professional societies; and currently serves as the Chair of the Government Affairs Committee of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents in Washington. Locally, Skip is a past president of the New Canaan Nature Center; served on the former town Tree Commission; is a board member of the New Canaan Preservation Alliance; served on the board of the Old Faithful Fire Company; and is the immediate past-president of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station Associates.

Beth Sanford, a 23-year-resident of New Canaan, has spent her career as a marketing executive in the content media business, including HBO, AMC Networks and Lifetime Television. Beth is a partner in the New Canaan-based Hyphen3, a strategic-marketing consulting firm that she founded in 2006.​ A graduate of Princeton University and Columbia Business School, Beth raised three children in New Canaan, all of whom graduated from New Canaan High School. Beth is a long-time naturalist and environmentalist. She proudly participated as a student leader in the first Earth Day in 1970, attended NOLS as a teenager, and has been a skiing enthusiast, a sometimes birder, a perennial admirer of open space and protector of all things natural throughout her life.

Heather grew up in Arizona and found herself in various locations in California post college followed by a long stay in Illinois before moving to New Canaan in the Fall of 2016. Along the way, she noticed how each location handled waste management and approached topics such as composting, recycling, and climate change implications. She saw first hand how she could make a difference at her children’s first elementary school in Winnetka, IL. Pulling from that experience and finding other parents with similar concerns, Heather worked with a newly focused Green Team to increase awareness at South School pre-Covid. Heather hopes to continue to make a greater impact as a part of Planet New Canaan. An active volunteer, Heather has served on school boards from nursery school to her current role on the Saxe PTC and loves acting as co-leader for her daughter’s Girl Scout troop.

Lynn and her family moved to New Canaan in 2003 after 8 years in London and Surrey, England, and 3 years in Darien. A graduate of Cornell University with a Masters in Nutrition Education from Columbia University Teachers College, she is a Registered Dietitian. Growing up in Croton-on-Hudson, NY, Lynn was influenced by the environmental activism of folk-singer Pete Seeger and his Clearwater organization’s efforts to clean up the Hudson River. As a member of BYO New Canaan, Lynn worked on the Plastic Bag Ban Ordinance passed in 2019. She is a Board member of the New Canaan League of Women Voters, a member of BYO CT, Sustainable Fairfield County and the Cornell University Council. A fitness enthusiast, Lynn enjoys swimming, running, biking, hiking and contemporary modern dance.

Peter has been a New Canaan resident since 1965. Peter and his wife Karen mow with a mulching electric mower, rake their own leaves, compost, have solar panels, and often walk the 1½ miles to Main and Elm. Peter has planted almost all the trees and bushes at his house. He grew up in Wilton CT, graduated from St. Luke’s School in New Canaan, Lafayette College, and Columbia Business School. He was publisher of Money magazine at Time Inc., taught Publishing and Public Speaking at Pace University, and has volunteered at the New Canaan Nature Center, and now with the New Canaan Beautification League.

John is a 30 year resident of New Canaan. He is on the Planning and Zoning Commission, a former member of the Zoning Board of Appeals, a member of the Exchange Club, and an officer of the Cannon Grange. In addition, he has been a board member of the Connecticut Farmland Trust, a land trust focused on farmland preservation, for over a decade, and heads its Governance committee. A finance professional in the institutional asset management business, he is also an award-winning amateur winemaker, and is a beekeeper and candlemaker.

Katie has been an active member of the New Canaan community for 17 years. Since moving to New Canaan from Boston, she has served as an appointed member of the New Canaan Parks and Recreation Committee, the Head of the Girls Program for New Canaan Lacrosse, the co-President of the Saxe Middle School Parent Teacher Committee, and a Board Member at St. Luke’s School. Prior to leaving the workforce to stay home with her three daughters, Katie served as the Budget Director for two Boston area nonprofits, managing grants from the U.S. Departments of Health and Education. She graduated from Williams College with a BA in Art History.

Julie grew up in the Finger Lakes in upstate NY. She graduated from Cornell University with a degree in applied economics and business management and moved to NYC to work in banking. She later switched to the nonprofit realm and worked for PBS WNET until she and her husband decided to move to Old Greenwich, CT to start a family in 1997. They later moved to Riverside, CT, and have resided in New Canaan for the last 9 years. Julie is also a board member for the League of Women Voters of New Canaan and NAMI Southwest. She enjoys spending time with her extended family, travel, and cooking.