President & CEO, The Humane Society of the United States

As President and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), Wayne Pacelle leads the largest animal protection organization in the United States, with 11 million members and constituents. During his tenure, Pacelle has more than doubled the size of the organization and, through corporate combinations with groups, built unity and greater efficiency within the animal protection cause. He has led successful efforts to pass hundreds of new state and federal laws to protect animals (more than 600 state laws since 2005, and more than 25 federal statutes over the last decade), expanded The HSUS’s animal care operations, and worked with dozens of corporations to enact operational changes that benefit animals. Pacelle is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Bond: Our Kinship with Animals, Our Call to Defend Them. His work on animal issues has been featured in thousands of newspapers and magazines across the country. He received his B.A. in history and studies in the environment from Yale University in 1987.