New Leaders Take Charge at America’s Biggest Foundations
January 13, 2014 | Read Time: 8 minutes
James Canales, Barr Foundation
Boston
Assets: $1.4-billion
Starts: May 2014
Age: 47
What to expect: An expansion of the fund’s grants to international, national, and regional programs.
His background: The intensely private founders of the Barr Foundation—cable-TV billionaire Amos Barr Hostetter Jr. and his wife, Barbara—decided to hire James Canales as the organization’s first president to expand its focus beyond the Boston area. They added him to their two-member board of trustees. The California native is leaving the James Irvine Foundation, where he has worked for two decades, most recently as its leader for the past 10 years. He will help devise a strategic plan to expand giving at Barr, which has made combating climate change a priority. The geographic transition from West Coast to the Northeast will be eased, he said, by the native roots that his partner, Jim McCann, has to Massachusetts.
Susan Desmond-Hellmann, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Seattle
Assets: $40-billion
Starts: May 2014
Age: 56
What to expect: Continuing efforts to beat polio in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria, and now Syria as well after the disease reemerged during the nation’s civil war. Also: improvements in training for program officers and relations with frustrated grantees.
Her background: Bill and Melinda Gates looked outside the ranks of Microsoft for the first time to hire the next chief executive of the world’s largest philanthropy. But they didn’t look beyond its own operations in hiring Susan Desmond-Hellmann, chancellor of the University of California at San Francisco; the accomplished oncologist and scientist who was once Genentech’s president of product development serves on the foundation’s scientific advisory board. And since she became chancellor, the foundation has awarded $68.9-million in grants to her university. The foundation’s leadership briefs Mr. Gates monthly on polio-eradication efforts, and Dr. Desmond-Hellmann will have to continue showing progress in that area as well as in programs that reflect Melinda Gates’s passion for empowering women and girls.
Photo by Elizabeth Hall
John Ettinger, Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust
New York
Assets: $4-billion
Started: January 2012
Age: 62
What to expect: Greatly expanding resources will mean more and bigger grants: The Helmsley Charitable Trust could double in size once it sells off its sizable real-estate holdings. Its focus increasingly includes health issues, such as the $40-million in grants it awarded to combating Type I diabetes last year. Mr. Ettinger told The Chronicle last year: “The foundation’s size allows us to seek out new opportunities. We have a good idea of what we are—a grant maker that tries to spot neglected areas and look for innovative ways to make an impact.”
His background: Previously a corporate lawyer, Mr. Ettinger is the first leader of the foundation, which was created in 1999 and had to quickly build a staff to give away money after legal disputes cleared the way for a $2-billion infusion of funds in 2009. While pursuing a 32-year career in international law at a firm specializing in mergers and acquisitions, the Harvard Law School graduate served on boards of several nonprofits, including Communities in Schools, which encourages students to stay in school. He had no formal philanthropy experience before he took over at Helmsley, but he had been a trustee for Harvard, Yale, the Phillips Exeter Academy, and the Martha’s Vineyard Museum.
Photo by Arnold Adler
Patricia Harris, Bloomberg Philanthropies
New York
Assets: $4-billion
Started: Full time, January 2014
Age: 58
What to expect: Now that Michael Bloomberg has left New York City’s mayor’s office, Patricia Harris has turned her attention full time to his philanthropic endeavors, as more of the billionaire’s fortune is expected to flow to charitable causes. Mr. Bloomberg has said he plans to give away most of his money before he dies.
Her background: When Mr. Bloomberg was mayor, Ms. Harris held the title of “first deputy mayor,” the highest appointed position in City Hall. The Manhattan native first gained political experience working for the former mayor, Ed Koch, and was executive director of the city’s art commission. She went to work at Bloomberg LP in 1994, overseeing its philanthropic work, and quickly became one of Mr. Bloomberg’s closest advisers. In 2009 she established NYC Service, which coordinates volunteer efforts for city agencies. She also served as chair of the nonprofit organization called the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, which enlists companies to support public causes. She was placed in charge of Bloomberg Philanthropies in 2010 while she was still deputy mayor. The arrangement was questioned by ethics officials, who worried about the blurred lines between Mr. Bloomberg’s government and philanthropic pursuits. Mr. Bloomberg also made a gift to Ms. Harris’s alma mater, Franklin & Marshall College, in Lancaster, Pa., to name the school’s new center for business, government, and public policy for her.
Larry Kramer, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Menlo Park, Calif.
Assets: $8-billion
Started: September 2012
Age: 54
What to expect: New grants designed to reverse the polarized U.S. political environment, which Larry Kramer has said may lead the foundation into areas of advocacy it hasn’t pursued before. Such a move could alter the organization’s traditional giving to environmental, education, and other causes. “When the policy-making process is broken, we need to focus on that,” he told The Chronicle soon after his appointment in 2012.
His background: Mr. Kramer, who grew up near Chicago in a working-class family, is a former Stanford Law School dean who succeeded Paul Brest, also a former Stanford Law School dean, as Hewlett’s president. The two men have something else in common: a dedication to transparency. Mr. Kramer has carried on the tradition at an organization that provides more information on its website than most foundations do. He started a blog in November to highlight issues of interest to the foundation.
Photo By Norbert Von Der Groeben
Earl Lewis, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
New York
Assets: $5.8-billion
Started: March 2013
Age: 58
What to expect: The unveiling of new “strategic directions” no later than second quarter of 2014. Earl Lewis has not yet publicly revealed possible directions, other than reassuring existing grantees of the organization’s continuing commitment. “You don’t want to walk in and say, ‘I’m going to make a 360-degree change.’ That doesn’t advance the common good,” he tells The Chronicle.
His background: In a national search for a new president of the Mellon Foundation, the board of the 44-year-old organization came full circle in selecting one of its own, Mr. Lewis, formerly a provost at Emory University. The diversity he brings to the position encompasses more than his race, Mr. Lewis says. “The fact that I’m black and grew up in segregated housing influences and informs who I am,” he said. But so, too, he adds, does his training as a historian and his experience as a professor and a provost, rather than as a university president, which he believes gives him a different perspective on the foundation’s support to colleges, the performing arts, and environmental conservation.
Photo by Kay Hinton/Emory University
Bruce Reed, Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation
Los Angeles
Assets: $1.6-billion
Started: December 2013
Age: 53
What to expect: With a direct line to the White House, Bruce Reed is likely to give the foundation even more influence in affecting policies on public schools.
His background: At 80, the billionaire Eli Broad knew he needed help running his foundation, best known for its efforts to reform public schools. After six months he found the answer at the White House: Bruce Reed, chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden. Although Mr. Reed does not have formal experience in managing a philanthropy, he was the chief domestic-policy adviser for President Bill Clinton and chief speechwriter for Sen. Al Gore.
La June Montgomery Tabron, W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Battle Creek, Mich.
Assets: $8-billion
Started: January 2014
Age: 51
What to expect: A comprehensive effort to put in place priorities the foundation adopted in 2008 to focus its grant making more on helping needy children, as well as greater attention to the concerns of grantees.
Her background: La June Montgomery Tabron is the first woman and the first African-American chief executive at the foundation, where the Detroit native has worked for 26 years. While serving as treasurer and executive vice president of operations at the fund, Ms. Tabron once decided to get a better understanding of how the foundation dealt with grantees by assuming the role of a human grant proposal and walking through all the processes involved in making a pitch.
Darren Walker, Ford Foundation
New York
Assets: $11-billion
Started: September 2013
Age: 54
What to expect: Mr. Walker has said he wants to focus the foundation’s work heavily on reducing inequality in the United States and elsewhere.
His background: The Ford Foundation board turned to an insider when it appointed Darren Walker as president of the 75-year-old organization. He is part of one of the most diverse new classes of foundation leaders. The gay African-American man from modest roots in small town Texas now oversees the nation’s second-largest philanthropy, which has 10 international offices and more than $500-million in grants. A former vice president of the Rockefeller Foundation, Mr. Walker has worked at Ford since 2010, overseeing grants on culture, health, education, and the media.
Photo courtesy of the Ford Foundation
