Barnett Baron
Barnett Baron joined The Asia Foundation in 1993 and served as Executive Vice President from 1994 to 2011. At the Foundation, he played a critical role in strategic planning and operations, serving as Interim President on two occasions. He helped establish the Foundation’s offices in Vietnam and China, and supervised and contributed to Foundation programs in China, Hong Kong, Japan, and both South and North Korea. He represented The Asia Foundation on several committees of the Council on Foundations, and was a key member of a post-911 task force set up by the Council to negotiate with the Treasury Department on appropriate anti-terrorist funding guidelines.
In 1999, Mr. Baron was the primary author of a concept to facilitate tax-privileged giving by U.S.-based individuals, families, and corporations to qualified Asian grantees, utilizing The Asia Foundation’s network of country offices throughout Asia to identify potential grantees, conduct due diligence, manage grant funds, monitor grantee performance, and report to donors. This led to the creation of Give2Asia in 2001. During the following decade, Give2Asia raised and distributed more than $200 million in grants to qualified Asian nonprofit organizations in the fields of health, education, social services, and disaster assistance. Mr. Baron served as President and CEO of Give2Asia from 2011 to 2013.
In 1991, as a Visiting Scholar at the East Asian Institute of Columbia University, Mr. Baron organized and edited Philanthropy and the Dynamics of Change in East and Southeast Asia, the first comparative study of contemporary philanthropy in Asia. In 1994, he co-founded the Asia Pacific Philanthropy Consortium and served for several years as its chairman. APPC was a network of organizations and individuals throughout Asia dedicated to improving legal and regulatory frameworks governing the nonprofit sector, conducting research, introducing the study of philanthropy in Asian universities, and providing training and networking opportunities for emerging philanthropic leaders.
Before 1991, Mr. Baron was Vice President for International Programs at Save the Children; Senior Representative for East and South Asia for the Population Council based in Bangkok; and taught political science and research methods at Columbia University. Mr. Baron earned a B.A. in government and history from New York University; an M.A. in international relations and a Ph.D. in political science from Yale University.