LEAD Morris Alumni Spotlight - Frank Pinto LM'96

By Britni Orcutt
Frank Pinto's career includes 25 years working in the public sector for the County of Morris. Frank managed a variety of planning and social service programs. He was the Director of the Morris County Agriculture Development Board for over ten years and completed 100 farmland transactions totaling over 6,100 acres and $127 million in easement value. Frank oversaw the county’s Preservation Trust Fund seeing it hit the 20,000 preserved acres plateau. He has served on several non-profit boards and one term on the Chester Borough Council. He graduated from Old Dominion University with a B.S. in Geography and received his Masters in Public Administration from Fairleigh Dickinson University.  Frank is now the owner of Pinto Consulting (NJLandowner.com) and focuses on the agricultural industry, land conservation and sustainability measures. ​Please read how his participation in the LEAD Morris class of 1996(!) continues to have an impact.

How did LEAD Morris shape your perspective on leadership? 

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At the time I was a low-level County government employee, and it really showed me how I could advance my career; and how leaders do that through team building and having a broad understanding of a wide variety of subject matter.

Did you implement anything you learned during LEAD Morris?
This is going to date me, but our team project back then was to create a county website -which was cutting edge at the time, but also controversial. Local governments were asking, “Why do we need it? It’s expensive, and what info even gets put out there?” Things that today that are no brainers, but it was not the way things were handled back then, especially in County government.

We had to pitch the value of a website and meet with government officials. We used the library model (they had a website at the time) and shared how they benefited from the world wide web how that could be applied to County government. It was initially seen as a lot of work without benefit, and we had to convince County government officials otherwise.

I used that experience as I went through my county career in the planning department. I ended up running the Morris County Preservation Trust Division and overseeing all the preservation programs in the county, which involved tracking data. Some specific experiences in LEAD Morris gave me the framework to know what was important to track in data and database management.

How have the connections you made with others in your class/other alumni benefited the community and/or your career?
It gave me a nice network of individuals in private, non-profit, and government that I could call on when I had an issue or question that was related to their field of work. It opened doors to an easy ask of information and assistance.

What was your favorite day when you attended LEAD Morris?
Oh, it was definitely Environment Day. I went through the program and afterwards I ended up getting to be the presenter for LEAD Morris Environment Day for many years. I would lead a field trip to farms and open space properties, talk about land preservation and farmland preservation, and educate people about the programs.

What would you say to someone considering applying for LEAD Morris class of 2025?
I would say absolutely do it- it’s a great opportunity to get out of a zoom call, meet others in person, and learn things about your community that you may not be aware of. It is a fantastic opportunity to learn about issues that are grappled with in private, non-profit, and government sectors. And it’s not a heavy lift! Definitely do it! ​