January 31, 2014 | Read Time: 1 minute
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In this episode of Making Change, Sterling Speirn, who left the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in December after eight years as its chief executive, explains how he translated lessons from his work with local charities and foundations into his leadership of one of the country’s biggest grant makers. His goal, he says, was to ensure that the foundation built strong relationships with nonprofits and the communities they serve so that they had a strong say in how to achieve Kellogg’s goals.
He also details the path that lead him to become a grant maker, including formative college years in the politically and socially volatile late 1960s, a decade of trailing his first spouse when she was a medical student, and his decision to drop out of business school to work in philanthropy.
