MacArthur Foundation President Is Stepping Down

Robert Gallucci, president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, is on his way out, the board announced today in a statement saying the organization will “look for a new kind of leadership.”

Mr. Gallucci will step down from the foundation, one of the nation’s largest grant makers, at the end of his five-year term on July 1.

“Bob accomplished what he set out to do and more at MacArthur,” board chairman Marjorie Scardino said in a statement, adding that he had stepped up the organization’s efforts to assess the impact of its programs, recruited and nursed talented professionals, and maintained the foundation’s “reputation for creativity and impact.”

However, she added, “as the end of his term approaches, the board decided to look for a new kind of leadership to accelerate the pace of change in how MacArthur can use existing and new tools to tackle even bigger goals.”

Mr. Gallucci was an outsider to the foundation world when he joined MacArthur, having served as dean of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service for 13 years. Mr. Gallucci said in a statement that he found “tremendous personal and professional fulfillment” working at MacArthur on issues like preventing nuclear terrorism, strengthening American democracy, and reforming juvenile justice.

A MacArthur spokesman said neither Mr. Gallucci nor Ms. Scardino was available for interviews.

MacArthur works in areas including human rights, global conservation, and the impact of technology but is best known by the public for its “genius grants” to MacArthur Fellows.

Mr. Gallucci has led an effort to tackle the polarized political environment, declaring in a Chronicle opinion piece last October that “America’s democracy is in trouble.” He called on philanthropy to raise public awareness about the “relationship between money and specific policies and to find alternative ways to finance campaigns.”

Julia Stasch, MacArthur’s vice president for U.S. programs, will serve as interim president starting July 1 while the foundation searches for a replacement.

Mr. Gallucci’s exit follows a string of other departures by high-profile foundation leaders in the past year, including Luis Ubiñas from the Ford Foundation, Sterling Speirn from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and (as of next month) Jeff Raikes from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.