Leigh H Perkins Jr (Perk)

Teton Region
Advisory Board

Perk’s entire professional career has been the running of the Orvis Company, founded in 1856 and owned by the Perkins family since 1965. He joined Orvis in 1977 and held positions in nearly all phases of the business until November 1992 when he was named CEO. He lead the company as CEO for 25 years from 1993 until 2018 during which time sales grew from $88 million to $375 million. He now serves on the Orvis Board of Directors. Orvis’s businesses span E-Commerce, Social Media, Catalog, Retail, Wholesale, Manufacturing, Adventure Travel, and Outdoor Education - predominately in the USA with a sizeable business in the UK and numerous international distributors.  Perk’s legacy at Orvis was the development of a renowned business culture built around clear core values.  One of those core values is “Protect what we love” driven by his mantra “If we are going to benefit from our natural resources, we must be willing to take action to protect them.”  To that end, Orvis dedicates 5% of its pre-tax profits to protecting nature through conservation projects. Throughout his career, Perk also committed his time to numerous conservation boards such as The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, Trout Unlimited, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. In recent years his conservation focus has turned to regional watershed boards in the Northern Rockies including Clark Fork Coalition, Sun River Watershed Group, Snake River Fund, Protect Our Waters Jackson Hole. His avid outdoor pursuits include fly fishing, wingshooting, canoeing, XC skiing, bird watching, diving, sailing, hiking. He is married to Laurie Andrews who is President of the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole. His two sons, Simon and Charley, live in Vermont where they have management positions with The Orvis Company.

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