February 19, 2014 | Read Time: 3 minutes
The president of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, one of America’s 10 biggest grant makers, abruptly resigned Tuesday to pursue other “projects,” a spokeswoman for the Palo Alto grant maker said today.
He will help with the transition as a “senior advisor in a consulting capacity,” Gordon Moore said in a statement posted on his foundation’s website.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked with Steve and appreciate the impact our foundation has had under his leadership,” Mr. Moore said in the statement. “He’s been a champion for our vision and helped us form bold ideas that will continue to make an impact.”
Steven McCormick has been president of the foundation, started by the co-founder of Intel, since 2008, three months after he abruptly resigned from the Nature Conservancy. Mr. McCormick told the board on Tuesday that he was resigning effective immediately and is announcing it to staff members today.
Mr. McCormick gave no reason why he is leaving except that he is “going to pursue high-impact projects,” said Stacey Bailey, the foundation’s spokeswoman. “He’s not shared the specifics.”
Paul Gray, vice chairman of the foundation’s board of trustees, will serve as interim president while a search for a permanent replacement is conducted.
“He will very capably lead our foundation during our search for a new president,” said Mr. Moore, who is well-known for formulating “Moore’s Law,” which accurately predicted that the power of computer chips would approximately double every year.
Mr. Gray has served on the board since March 2008, three months after Mr. McCormick started.
Mr. Moore credited Mr. McCormick for exploring “new directions for environmental conservation” and for being “an important voice for the foundation in advocating for public-private collaborations to continue innovation.”
At the Moore foundation, Mr. McCormick has overseen $1.1-billion in grants to 750 organizations, including $16-million to the Nature Conservancy, according to Foundation Center data. The grant maker had $5.6-billion in assets as of 2012, the latest available data, making it the ninth wealthiest foundation in America, according to Chronicle rankings.
Mr. McCormick, who is paid nearly $660,000 from Moore, according to tax records, left his previous job at the Arlington, Va.-based environmental group in 2007 after a six-year tenure marked by expansion and controversy.
Under his leadership, the group started new programs in Africa, Asia, Australia, and South America and invested in new efforts to protect oceans.
He directed the Nature Conservancy’s California program for 16 years before becoming president in 2001. Two years later, a series of articles in The Washington Post questioned the group’s conservation-easements program, which provided tax deductions to trustees. The articles prompted an investigation by the Senate Finance Committee, and the organization overhauled its governance, accountability, and disclosure policies.
Diana Aviv, chief executive of the Independent Sector, said Mr. McCormick’s rapid and open reform efforts have served as a stellar example for nonprofit executives.
“I was incredibly impressed by his willingness to be as public and forthright and open at the Nature Conservancy” after the scrutiny, Ms. Aviv said. “There was a lot of defensiveness at first from board members. And he said, ‘No, we need to deal with this in a public way. And we need to be transparent.’ That’s the sign of a great leader.”
She said she expects Mr. McCormick to continue to sit on Independent Sector’s board of directors.
She said she believes his departure stems from a desire to step outside the traditional foundation approaches, which often take years before generating results.
“I think with Steve there’s an urgency about now and an opportunity that he wants to seize,” she said.
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