WILLIAM K. REILLY
ADMINISTRATOR
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
William Kane Reilly was sworn in as the seventh Administrator of the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency by President Bush on February 8, 1989. The President
announced his appointment on December 22, 1988, and officially nominated him on
January 20, 1989, The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed his nomination on February 2,
1989. With 17,000 employees and a $5.5 billion budget, EPA is an independent federal
regulatory agency charged with improving and protecting public health and the
environment.
Prior to becoming EPA Administrator, Reilly held five environment-related positions
over two decades. He was President of World Wildlife Fund-U.S. (1985-1989) and
President of The Conservation Foundation (1973-1989). Those two organizations joined
formally in 1985 and Reilly became president of both. He was Executive Director of the
Task Force on Land Use and Urban Growth from 1972 to 1973. From 1970 to 1972, he
served as a senior staff member of the President's Council on Environmental Quality and,
from 1968 to 1970, as Associate Director of the Urban Policy Center and the National
Urban Coalition. He also served as chairman of the Natural Resources Council of America,
an association of all major conservation groups, from 1981 to 1983.
During his presidency of World Wildlife Fund, Reilly expanded and intensified its
mission, the protection of the diversity of life on earth. Between its founding in 1961 and
1989, the organization supported almost 1,400 projects to protect endangered wildlife and
habitat in more than 100 countries. At The Conservation Foundation, he continued its
long-standing interest in land programs and started new programs in environmental dispute
resolution, water resources, toxic substances control, urban conservation, and energy. In
1976, Reilly began a program advocating direct cooperation between business leaders and
conservationists in resolving polarizing issues in resource and environmental policy; this
program resulted in several major consensus-building policy dialogues, including the
National Groundwater Policy Forum and the National Wetlands Policy Forum.
Reilly has written and lectured extensively on environmental issues. He has served on
the boards of numerous public and private sector organizations and received the Horace
Albright Medal for his contributions to national parks, the Alfred B. LaGasse Medal for his
contributions to environmental progress, and the Frederick Law Olmsted Medal for his
dedication to environmental stewardship.
An alumnus of Yale University, Reilly holds a law degree from Harvard University and
a master's degree in urban planning from Columbia University. He was born in Decatur,
Illinois on January 26, 1940, and attended high school in Fall River, Massachusetts. He
served as a U.S. Army Captain from 1966 to 1967.
He Is married to Elizabeth Tibbie" Bennet Buxton Reilly. They have two daughters,
Katherine Buxton Reilly, age 19, and Margaret Mahalah Reilly, age 15. The family resides
in Alexandria, Virginia.
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