Photo by John Robinson/University of Virginia.
6 Things to Know About Ian Solomon, Rockefeller Brothers Fund's New Leader
Ian Solomon, incoming president and CEO of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
The following first appeared in Inside Philanthropy. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund is far from the biggest foundation with the Rockefeller name (that would be the $6.4 billion Rockefeller Foundation), but it has long been punching above its weight class.
Take fossil fuels. The $1.4 billion philanthropy was the first major foundation to announce it would divest, it has been a key funder of carbon infrastructure resistance, and has lobbied banks to change their policies. It has also led in areas like impact investing, democracy funding and resolving conflict in key global hot spots.
Much of that work took place under Stephen Heintz, who has been president of the New York-based foundation since 2001, and whose work on Iran is credited with helping lay the groundwork for the 2015 nuclear deal. But after Heintz announced his retirement last summer, it has been an open question who would succeed him at the reins of the $60-million-a-year grantmaker.
Today came the answer: Ian H. Solomon, the dean of the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia, will become RBF’s eighth president and CEO this September.
Read more in Inside Philanthropy.