Barnett Baron became President & CEO of Give2Asia in April 2011. Give2Asia helps make the philanthropy of individuals, corporations, and foundations more secure and effective by assisting in project design, conducting due diligence, managing funds, and monitoring program impact. Since it was launched in 2001, Give2Asia has facilitated more than $150 million in grants in education, health, job creation, social services, and disaster relief to more than 1000 Asian grantees in 22 countries.
Prior to joining Give2Asia, Mr. Baron served as Executive Vice President of the San Francisco-based Asia Foundation from 1994 to 2011. He supervised the Foundation’s administrative, financial, human resources, and communications departments, and participated in programming in Northeast Asia (China, Korea, Japan). He was founding chairman of the Asia Pacific Philanthropy Consortium (APPC) in 1994 and served on its board until 2005. Prior to joining The Asia Foundation he was vice president for international programs at Save the Children (1991-93) and served for 16 years with the Population Council, initially in Africa and later in Asia. As the Council’s Senior Representative for East and South Asia, based in Bangkok, Thailand, Dr. Baron was responsible for supervising the Council’s demographic, economic, and contraceptive research and assistance programs in 15 Asian countries. He was assistant professor of political science at Columbia University from 1970 to 1972 and returned to Columbia as a Visiting Scholar at the East Asian Institute for the 1988 – 91 academic years, where he organized and directed the first comparative study of contemporary philanthropy in East Asia (Philanthropy and the Dynamics of Change in East and Southeast Asia, East Asian Institute, 1991).
Dr. Baron is widely published in the fields of Asian and international philanthropy. He received his BA in Government and History from New York University (1963), and his MA (1964) and PhD degrees (1969) in Political Science from Yale University.