Charles Kirkwood (Williams College BA; Harvard Law School LLB) is president of Shawnee Holding LLC, a family company that owns hotels, energy interests and investments in China. He is currently on the advisory board of Columbia’s Taub Institute on Aging having served 6 years on the Advisory Board of the Columbia School of Public Health. Until reaching retirement age he was a director of Millennium and Copthorne Hotels, a London Stock exchange listed company that amongst other properties owned the New York Plaza Hotel and the Los Angeles Biltmore. He lead a US Department of Commerce delegation to China advising the Chinese Ministry of Energy on their onshore oil and gas concession contracts.
He has served on numerous environmental boards including the US National Park Services Mid-Atlantic Advisory Committee and Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Resource’ Citizens Advisory Council. He has received several environmental awards including a Wilderness Guardian designation from the Sierra Club. He was three times elected as a voting delegate to the Republican National Convention. He is a member of the US, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Supreme Court bar associations.