Hugh Hogan, long-time executive director of the North Star Fund, will bring his leadership skills and innovative thinking to the van Ameringen Foundation as their new executive director on September 7, 2016. Since 1950, the van Ameringen Foundation has supported prevention, education, and direct care in the mental health field, with a particular focus on low-income communities.
For 13 years, Hugh has demonstrated visionary leadership as he led North Star Fund through a sustained, unprecedented period of tremendous growth and impact on many fronts. Under Hugh's direction, North Star Fund increased its grants and programming budget from $300,000 to over $3 million annually. Hugh led efforts to deepen North Star Fund’s support for grassroots groups by significantly increasing our grants size, broadening the variety of grants offered and providing multi-year support. During his tenure, North Star Fund grantees won the Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights, settlements on wage theft, free lunch for New York City public middle school students, the launch of IDNYC, the appointment of a special prosecutor handling all civilian deaths at the hands of police, and so much more.
The North Star Fund board had a solid succession plan in place prior to the news of Hugh's departure. We will shortly announce the members of our executive leadership transition team, which will include members of our board and stakeholder communities. This committee will oversee the transition process with Hugh as he wraps up his work at North Star Fund, and spearhead the selection process for North Star Fund’s next executive leader in the weeks and months to come.
Hugh says, "I felt incredibly lucky and a tremendous sense of responsibility when I became North Star Fund's executive director following the tragic death of my beloved predecessor Betty Kapetanakis. It's been an incredible journey and I am so proud of and thankful for the donor activists, grantee partners, and North Star Fund’s staff team and board members who have made it all possible."