Achelis and Bodman Foundations
John B. Krieger is the new executive director of the Achelis Foundation and the Bodman Foundation, two independent philanthropies based in New York City with combined assets of approximately $120 million. Krieger previously served as senior program officer for the foundations. He replaces Joseph S. Dolan, who is also retiring from his position on the board of directors of The Philanthropy Roundtable.
Krieger plans to continue guiding the foundation’s resources to those most in need, including disconnected youth, ex-convicts, recovering addicts, the physically and mentally disabled, children in failing public schools, those who feel trapped in poverty, and wounded veterans returning from service overseas.
“The foundations have always sought to support experts and programs dedicated to offering our most needy fellow citizens the means to improve their lives by developing their own talents and the habits of independence and self-reliance,” says Krieger. “I hope that we will retain our focus on addressing those fundamental problems which diminish each person’s potential for a full, satisfying, and virtuous life.”
Krieger holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and master’s degrees from the Wharton School and the London School of Economics.
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation recently named Steven J. McCormick its new president. McCormick replaces Edward E. Penhoet, who will continue to serve on the foundation’s board of trustees. From 2001 to 2007, McCormick served as president and CEO of the Nature Conservancy, an organization he first joined in 1976. Under McCormick’s leadership, the Conservancy’s revenues reached an all-time high of $1.2 billion in 2006.
“I am honored to join the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation,” says McCormick. “Since its inception, the foundation has made tremendous impact in its three program areas of science, environmental conservation, and the San Francisco Bay area. I look forward to working with the dynamic staff at the foundation, to catalyzing change, and to creating sustainable large-scale impact across the foundation’s three program areas.”
McCormick has served on the advisory boards of the U.C. Berkeley College of Natural Resources and the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Initiative. He earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics from the University of California at Berkeley and a law degree from the University of California Hastings College of Law.
Kern Family Foundation
James C. Rahn has been appointed president of the Kern Family Foundation. He replaces Thomas R. Hefty, the retired chief executive of Cobalt Corporation, who headed the foundation’s transition during 2007. Established in 1999 and headquartered in Waukesha, Wisconsin, the Kern Family Foundation seeks to promote “values, education, and innovation.”
In practice, the foundation funds broad-impact, long-term projects, including the Pastoral Ministry Program (an effort to help develop outstanding seminarians and pastors), the Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network (a program to encourage entrepreneurship among engineering undergraduates), and the Education Reform Program (an initiative to reform K-12 education by promoting school choice). The foundation has also partnered with Project Lead the Way, a pre-engineering program for middle and high school students.
Rahn has been the foundation’s program director for educational reform since September 2007. Before joining Kern, Rahn was on the faculty of Wisconsin Lutheran College, spending six years as the college’s director of urban teaching. His background includes service in K-12 Lutheran schools as teacher, principal, and regional school coordinator.
Rahn received his undergraduate degree from Dr. Martin Luther College in New Ulm, Minnesota, and his master’s degree from Concordia University in River Forest, Illinois.
The Philanthropy Roundtable
Jeff Sandefer was recently appointed to the board of directors of The Philanthropy Roundtable. The founder or co-founder of five successful companies, Sandefer currently manages Sandefer Capital, an energy investment firm. He is also the co-founder of the Acton School of Business, which grew out of the entrepreneurship curriculum developed by his Foundation for Entrepreneurial Excellence (FEE).
Sandefer previously taught at the University of Texas, where BusinessWeek named him one of the top entrepreneurship professors in the country. He has also served for over a decade on the visiting committee of Harvard Business School, as well as on the academic research committee. He is a director of National Review, and has served as chairman of the Acton Institute of Religion and Liberty and as a member of Texas Governor Rick Perry’s 21st Century Commission on Higher Education.
“I admire the Roundtable’s commitment to donor intent and free market principles,” says Sandefer. “I hope to learn more and more about how to accomplish principled, entrepreneurial philanthropy.”
Sandefer received his bachelor’s degree at the University of Texas and his MBA at Harvard Business School.
