A native of Duluth, Minnesota, Moe graduated from Williams College in 1959 and received a law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1966. He held administrative positions in government at the city, state and federal levels and practiced law in Washington, D.C., before assuming the presidency of the National Trust in 1993.

Established in 1949, the nonprofit National Trust is the leader of America's vigorous and growing historic preservation movement. It has approximately 250,000 members, publishes the award-winning Preservation magazine, and has six regional offices and 26 historic sites from coast to coast. As president, Moe leads the organization in its mission to save the nation's diverse historic places and create more livable communities for all Americans. Under his direction, the National Trust has greatly strengthened its financial base, reaffirmed its commitment to expanding and diversifying the organized preservation movement, become an outspoken and effective advocate of controlling sprawl and encouraging smart growth, and launched innovative initiatives to demonstrate preservation's effectiveness as a tool for community revitalization.

A member of the board of the Ford Foundation, Moe was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Maryland in 1998 and was named an honorary member of The American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 2003. He is co-author of Changing Places: Rebuilding Community in the Age of Sprawl, a study of the causes of urban decline and the use of historic preservation as a tool for revitalization, published in 1997; and author of The Last Full Measure: The Life and Death of the First Minnesota Volunteers, a Civil War history published in 1993.