2024 Town Council Member Candidate: Peter Stockman

Peter StockmanI want to make a difference for Kiawah. I have spent my entire working life working with clients to create policies, solve problems and conserve what is best.

It is rewarding to serve communities and organizations which do good things. Kiawah Island is such a community. It has created a place of great natural beauty, habitat conservation and quality of life. The Town Council is a critical steward of these things. 

Many things drew my wife Terry and I to Kiawah: dear friends on the island; an interest in Charleston born of my lifelong involvement in historic preservation; two winters experiencing the Island first-hand; and Kiawah’s appreciation of nature. Such an appreciation was an important part of the life Terry and I had divided between Manhattan and rural Connecticut.

Education:  I have a B.A. from Reed College in Portland, Oregon and a M.B.A in finance and policy from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

Collaboration:  Prior to retirement, I was a management consultant my entire working life. I was a Partner in Accenture’s Strategy practice and advised capital markets and energy sector clients. Subsequently, I founded Deep River Group, a small consultancy which worked with alternative asset managers and commodity trading businesses.  Most of my work involved financial innovation and bringing otherwise competitive interests together around change that strengthened their sectors as a whole.

Giving Back:  I have served on the Board of Trustees of Reed College for 15 years. I chair the Board’s Budget Policy Committee which oversees a budget of $97 million. I serve on the Board’s Admissions and Financial Aid Committee and its Audit Committee. I have served on the Board’s Investment Committee. This committee overseas an $800 million endowment, portions of which are invested in real assets similar to South Street Partners.

Habitat Conservation:  In 2019 I led a community group in Killingworth, Connecticut which successfully prevented the clear cutting and disruption of 25 acres of vernal pools supporting endangered plant and animal species.

Land Use and Architecture:   I served on the Board of Trustees of the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation (now Preservation CT) starting in 2016. During that time, I worked to ensure the sustainability of the Trust’s mission in a period of declining State support. I directed the establishment of the Trust’s endowment fund. I stepped off the Board as Treasurer when my wife Terry and I moved to Kiawah Island two years ago.

Good Government:  For the past 18 months I have worked with the non-partisan organization Better Ballot SC to pass H.4022: a bill permitting municipalities to choose instant runoff voting as their voting method.  Working directly with legislators, we have secured multiple bi-partisan sponsors. The House Judiciary Committee began hearing testimony on H.4022 at the beginning of  this year’s legislative session.