Shelby Farms Park Conservancy has named Rick Masson as its executive director to manage the park property and launch the vision soon emerging from a major master-planning process.

Masson, who has served as executive director of the Memphis-based Plough Foundation since 2003, will be the park’s first permanent executive director since the Shelby County Commission assigned the property to the Shelby Farms Park Conservancy in August 2007. Masson was selected by the Conservancy Board after a search process launched last fall to explore local and national candidates.

“Rick Masson is a perfect fit for our organization – he’s an outstanding leader and executive with a passion for Shelby Farms,” said Conservancy Chairman Calvin Anderson. “Rick has all of the skill and ability to help us achieve our mission to make Shelby Farms the great new 21st Century park in North America.”

“This is an opportunity of a lifetime,” said Masson. “I’m thrilled to be involved in a project so meaningful to the community’s quality of life and the enjoyment of future generations. Shelby Farms Park is a treasure, a beautiful landscape that we need to preserve and enhance so that it can reach its full potential. Laura Adams and Larry Papasan have done a tremendous job running the Conservancy in this interim phase.”

Park Conservancy lead consultant Alex Garvin of Alex Garvin & Associates said Masson’s management and finance experience, leadership style and extensive local relationships are assets that will give him an edge in helping Shelby Farms Park most effectively make the master plan vision a reality.

"He has great knowledge of the local community and has gained an immense amount of trust among the constituencies vital to making the park a success," said Garvin. 

Masson is former chief administrative officer for the City of Memphis, a position he held from 1996-2003. He also served as the City’s Director of Finance from 1992-1996.

At the Plough Foundation, Masson managed one of the city’s oldest and most active non-profit organizations. Shelby Farms Park is one of Plough Foundation’s priorities for strategic community improvement and funding. While with Plough, Masson was involved as a Conservancy board member and chairman of a master planning committee that secured the conservation easement critical to long-term preservation of the property.

“The Foundation has a very long history with Shelby Farms dating back to the days when the founder, Abe Plough, helped defeat a proposal for commercial development on the property,” said Diane Rudner, Plough Foundation chairman. “Ever since then, the Foundation board and staff have provided human and financial resources to preserve the park for future generations. It’s bittersweet to lose Rick, but he is the right person at the right time. Our community has a tremendous opportunity to create and showcase one of the finest parks in the country.”

As executive director of Shelby Farms Park, Masson will oversee administration of the largest parkland in an urban setting in North America.

Shelby Farms Park is currently conducting a master plan that will recreate the park – preserving the pastoral splendor of the 3,000-acre property while creating features that attract new users and help the park reach its potential.

New York-based field operations (the firm’s formal style is lower-case) won an international competition to create the master plan for Shelby Farms. The firm, selected in early April, has been at work on a design based on extensive public input gathered from thousands of Shelby County residents over the past seven months. The final master plan will be submitted in August for approval by the Shelby County Commission.