Michael Zilkha

Michael joined the Turtle Conservancy’s Board in 2012. He is a member of the nominating and governance committee. Michael also sits on the board of The Menil Foundation in Houston, TX, Inprint, a literary organization in Houston, and co-chairs the film committee at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. He has a BA from Oxford University where he studied French literature.

Michael founded Ze Records in New York in 1977 and built it into a popular and admired record label. In 1985, realizing that if he stayed in that business, he would one day be twice the age of his artists, he decided on a career change. He spent one year in publishing as an editor at Atlantic Monthly Press, and in 1986 he moved to Houston TX and went into the energy business with his father. They developed Zilkha Energy Company, which explored for oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico, into the largest acreage holder there, with 1.5 million acres under lease. After selling Zilkha Energy in 1998 they built Zilkha Renewable Energy into a major developer of wind projects from New York to Washington State. They sold it, along with partner Goldman Sachs, to Energias de Portugal in 2007. A third energy venture, Zilkha Biomass Energy, was more of a challenge, and wound down in 2017. Retiring from that business in 2018, Michael has started a literary publishing company, Ze Books, based out of Houston.

Although Michael had not had any past experience with herpetology, after many years on the board he has extended his love of the natural world to include an appreciation of turtles and tortoises.