John Ernst

John L. Ernst is chairman and president of a private investment firm in New York City. He and his wife, Margot, operate Elk Lake Lodge on a 12,000-acre preserve in the Adirondack Mountains. A graduate of Harvard College, he also attended University College, Oxford University. He is currently chair of the Adirondack Park Agency, which is responsible for regional planning in the six million-acre Adirondack Park. He is a board member of the Open Space Institute and is treasurer of Lochland School in Geneva, N.Y. He is past chair of the Adirondack Foundation and the Adirondack Council and past president of the Adirondack Landowners Association. John is a former trustee of the National Museum of the American Indian and co-chair (with his spouse) of the George Gustav Heye Center/Smithsonian Institution. He is a former member of the board of managers of the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, N.M. and chair of the advisory council of the Navajo Sheep Project at Utah State University. He is the author of two books for children: Escape King: The Story of Harry Houdini and Jesse James.