Ledgerwood was born and raised on Prince Edward Island and has been salmon angling his entire life.

“My father is an avid fisherman, so I grew up fishing for trout and salmon – whenever he had time off from work, he’d take me somewhere,” said Ledgerwood. “Then in my teens, I worked in stream enhancements, so I got to see a bit of that side of it as well.”

Following high school, he earned a Master of Arts in political science from Acadia University and a Master of Arts in Industrial Relations and Human Resources from the University of Toronto. In 2016, he moved back home to PEI for a human resources position with Holland College.

“They’re actually responsible for doing a lot of the training of a lot of the wildlife conservation techs that do stream enhancement work in the province,” noted Ledgerwood. “I worked there in a few different roles, first as a consultant and eventually as a strategic enrollment officer. That was interesting work. A lot of data and planning, trying to figure out what size programs should be based on demand and employment opportunities.”

In 2021, he became a Health Human Resource Advisor with PEI’s Department of Health and Wellness. While that sounds like a massive shift, Ledgerwood sees significant parallels – he was still using data to make projections, but now they were about the demand for health occupations and how to best fill vacancies. He served in that role for three years before moving to his current position, as Program Manager for Community Specialty Services for Health PEI.

“It’s more operations-based,” said Ledgerwood of his new role. “But I was interested in it because it was a chance to do some more program and project work and work more closely with people. It was a good move. I’ve always enjoyed working as part of a team more than I enjoyed individual work.”

Ledgerwood became aware of the Foundation for Conservation of Atlantic Salmon early in the organization’s development – Henry Hicks, a friend of his father, was a member of the board of directors in the early days. Ledgerwood was excited to see Atlantic salmon given the type of conservation support that he had previously seen for Pacific salmon. He joined the FCAS PEI Advisory Committee in 2021, helping to determine which projects are recommended for funding. Also, as a member of the Foundation, he serves on the Policy and Program Committee. Having conducted some stream enhancement work himself in his youth, he was very interested in supporting such efforts from the other side.

“I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to put my support behind projects that look like they have the opportunity to benefit anglers,” said Ledgerwood. “One of the things that appealed to me about getting involved with the Foundation was to provide that angling perspective. When we talk about salmon and funding salmon-related projects, there’s a lot of great reasons to fund them – they’re a wonderful species, they’ve got historical and cultural significance to Indigenous peoples. But they’ve also got a very special place in the hearts and minds of anglers. I always thought it was nice to be able to bring that to the funding discussion as well.”

Ledgerwood lives in Charlottetown with his fiancé Mónica Alonso Martinez.