Robert Ramsey will take the reins of the Georgia Conservancy starting July 1, replacing former Lt. Gov Pierre Howard.

Ramsey, currently the organization’s vice president of development, spent years as one of the world’s top professional fly fishing guides before entering the policy side of natural resource conservation and environmental advocacy. He has been with the Conservancy since 2011.

Howard, a lawyer and legal scholar who became the group’s president in 2009, announced earlier this year that he planned to step down. He left state office in 1998.