Darren Walker, the president of the Ford Foundation, announced Monday that he will step down from his position at the end of 2025.
The move comes as a surprise to many in the philanthropic community, given Walker’s significant impact on the institution and his successful efforts to shift the foundation’s focus towards addressing inequality.
Under Walker’s guidance, the Ford Foundation has distributed $7 billion in grants and seen its assets grow to $16.8 billion.
His tenure has been marked by a number of significant accomplishments, including his role in helping the City of Detroit exit bankruptcy without compromising the welfare of retirees and preserving the Detroit Institute of Arts’ collection.
Walker, who turns 65 next month, emphasized the importance of knowing when it’s time to leave a position.
“George Washington had it right: You should leave before it’s time to go,” he said in an interview.
The president has faced some criticism during his tenure, including controversy surrounding his decision to join the board of PepsiCo, a company with a history of lobbying against public health legislation.
Last week, Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei wrote to the organisation listing 16 NGOs are said to be behind the protests as it made some demands.
“It is noteworthy that several of your Grantees below mentioned received a total of US$ 5.78 Million (approximately Kenya Shillings 752 Million) between April 2023 and May 2024 – with unexplained expedited funding amounting to US$ 1.49 M (approximately Kenya shillings 194 million) – over the last month alone,” Sing’oei said in a letter dated July 18, 2024.
Kenya wanted the Foundation to clear the air on four key issues regarding their grantees.
They include providing full details of their Grantees over the last year, the programmes approved (particularly over the last three months), budgets for each project, the amounts so far disbursed and what is pipelined for disbursement.
