Bradford Smith is president of the Foundation Center, the leading source of information about philanthropy worldwide. The Center maintains the most comprehensive database on U.S. and, increasingly, global grantmakers—a robust, accessible knowledge bank for the sector, together with research, education and training programs designed to advance knowledge of philanthropy at every level. Before joining the Foundation Center in 2008, Mr. Smith was president of the Oak Foundation in Geneva, Switzerland, a major family foundation with programs and grant activities in 41 countries in North America, Europe, Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. With the Ford Foundation, he worked as representative in Brazil before becoming vice president in the New York headquarters, responsible for the global Peace and Social Justice Program. During his 10-year tenure as vice president, the program provided hundreds of millions of dollars to organizations working on issues of human rights, international cooperation, governance, and civil society in the U.S. and around the world, while supervising field operations on three continents and overseeing the creation of TrustAfrica.
Mr. Smith holds an M.A. in Economics from the New School for Social Research in New York and a B.A. in Anthropology and Ethnomusicology from the University of Michigan.