Concern Appoints Colleen Kelly As CEO
NEW YORK – Today, the Board of Directors of the non-profit international humanitarian organization Concern Worldwide U.S. announced that Colleen A. Kelly, most recently Managing Director at brand experience agency SET Creative, will succeed Jack Haire as Chief Executive Officer.
Mr. Haire will return to the Board of Directors, where he served for 18 years before joining as CEO one year ago. He stated, “I could not be more confident in a successor than I am in Colleen. She’s a singularly talented leader, but more importantly she shares with our team of 50 people in the U.S. and 3,000 around the world the humanitarian spirit and character that have come to define Concern Worldwide.”
"I look forward to listening, learning, and leveraging my experience as a communicator to help bring Concern's story, and the stories of the millions of people we work with, to engaged and compassionate Americans."
Ms. Kelly commented, “I am as excited as I am grateful to join this remarkable team. I look forward to listening, learning, and ultimately leveraging my experience as a communicator to help bring Concern’s story, and most importantly the stories of the millions of people we work with to engaged and compassionate Americans to forge greater awareness, support, and impact. I also look forward to adding value to our innovation efforts, as most of my career has been about pushing traditional boundaries and finding new solutions to achieve growth and greater impact.”
Established in New York City in 1993, with offices in New York City and Chicago, Concern Worldwide U.S. is an independent affiliate of Concern Worldwide, founded in 1968, and headquartered in Dublin. Their shared mission is to work with people living in extreme poverty to achieve major improvements in their lives that will last and spread, ultimately without ongoing support from the organization.
Today, Concern Worldwide works in 24 countries in both emergency response and long-term development programming, including health, nutrition, climate resilience, livelihoods, economic empowerment, water and sanitation, and primary education. Last year, the organization directly reached more than nine million people.
Concern Worldwide U.S. has established itself as a leader especially in the areas of maternal and child health, and nutrition, with an increasing focus on developing innovative solutions across the spectrum of programming, as well as training the next generation of humanitarians. Ms. Kelly will be responsible for driving the organization toward ambitious strategic goals aimed at continued growth, leadership, and strong support for Concern Worldwide’s work with some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people.
