Carol Larson, Packard CEO Who Took Vigorous Action on Climate Change, Plans to Leave
By Alex Daniels
Senior Reporter
February 12, 2019 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Carol Larson announced Monday she will step down as the leader of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation after a 30-year career with the grant maker, half of which she served as president.
Larson plans to leave at the end of the year.
During her tenure, the Packard Foundation became a leader in climate philanthropy. In 2009, with the Hewlett and McKnight foundations, Packard joined forces in one of the first “big bets” in the current wave of massive philanthropic investments. They gave ClimateWorks, the separate organization they created, a $1 billion mission: work to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030.
Nine years later, more foundations had joined in the broader effort to address global warming. In September, Packard was one of 29 organizations that made a total of $3 billion in new climate-change pledges at the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco.
Following President Trump’s arrival in the White House, Larson became alarmed about the administration’s intention to bolt from the Paris Climate Accord and by its attempts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.
In response, Packard increased its grant making budget by $22 million. Grant making that year for the $7.8 billion foundation was about $372 million.
“This is a time of great concern,” Larson wrote in a statement explaining the increase. “Commitments to halt dangerous climate change and increase the productivity of our oceans are being abandoned; and the fundamental right to health care is being undermined.”
Fixing a Disconnect
In 2016, the Council on Foundations presented Larson with its Distinguished Service Award.
Upon receiving the award at the organization’s annual conference in Washington, Larson told the assembled crowd that she came late to philanthropy. As a law school student, she wanted to work on children’s issues. But after getting her degree, she found herself working on corporate litigation.
“Ten years out of law school I felt a disconnect,” she recalled. “How do I make a change?”
Larson continued, explaining that she was inspired by philanthropies that had teamed up in California to respond to the HIV/AIDS crisis. Foundations were a little late in that fight, she said, urging grant makers to get more involved in climate change.
The foundation’s Board of Directors has hired Russell Reynolds Associates to conduct a search for Larson’s successor.
