Direct Relief Amy Weaver New CEO

Direct Relief has a new President and CEO, Amy Weaver having taken the reins from retiring Thomas Tighe, who over his 24 years of stewardship shepherded the health nonprofit to exponential growth. The world-renowned humanitarian organization, founded in Montecito back in 1948, today delivers more than $2 billion annually in medical aid to people in need worldwide. Tighe came to Direct Relief from the Peace Corps in 2000, where he’d been Chief of Staff and COO. Under his leadership, Direct Relief enthusiastically embraced the structural efficiencies of a for-profit, with the result that the nonprofit today is considered not only one of the world’s most innovative nonprofits, but one of its most effective. 

Weaver’s path to Direct Relief is an unusual one for the nonprofit world. She began her career as an attorney, eventually working for a pair of Fortune 500 companies (Expedia, Univar) before rising to Chief Legal Officer at cloud-based software giant Salesforce. Then she made an unprecedented move to President and Chief Financial Officer — the first such transition in a Fortune 500 company – ultimately guiding Salesforce through a period of tremendous growth and transformation. 

Her start in the legal profession, however, might have presaged her new job at Direct Relief.

“Growing up with the law gave me a real sense of justice, or to be less lofty – a sense of fairness, wanting things to be fair in the world,” Weaver said. “That’s always guided many of the decisions I make.” 

Weaver comes from a multi-generational family of attorneys who not only practice law but believe strongly in nonprofits and volunteer work. 

“Some of my earliest memories are about accompanying my parents on volunteer events or political campaigns,” she said. “They were very involved civically. So it’s been part of my life forever. I’ve always been involved, including serving on the board of Habitat for Humanity for four years.”

Indeed, fresh out of law school, she eschewed the typical path to a huge Wall Street firm and moved to Hong Kong, where she worked for a year assisting the legislature on issues around the rule of law and democracy – matters of tremendous import in the runup to the U.K.’s historic handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997. 

The leap from legal department to CFO at Salesforce also had a huge influence on Weaver’s seeing the top job at Direct Relief as one she could confidently inhabit.

“When I first got a call from our CEO asking me to consider taking the CFO role – it was more than just out of the blue, because I am not a traditional finance candidate by any means,” she said. “So of course I said no, because I have common sense. But after thinking through the opportunity for two months, I decided to take it. It was risky and terrifying, but I wanted to show people they could do it, that you can take big risks, that you can do things that are hard, that you can and should make jumps like that and you can be successful. It was daunting to take on a very steep learning curve. But I’m thrilled that I did it.”

Weaver said that earlier transition was not only huge in her decision to come to Direct Relief but also in how she has approached her position since arriving in May. 

“It gave me the confidence to know I could switch to a new role and a new focus and that it is possible to learn that and to excel doing that,” she said. “[I realized that to accomplish that], the first thing to do here was listen. I am dedicating the first several months not to making sweeping changes, not to laying out a new strategy, not to critiquing anything, but really to spending the time listening to the team who has been here, hearing what’s on our board’s mind and the executive team, the employees’ mind and our partners. As I told the employees on the first day, I didn’t come in to strip things down or to make huge changes. I came to build on what [we] already have.”

To that end, Weaver has not only visited local organizations, including Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics, to meet with frontline healthcare workers and see firsthand the impact of Direct Relief’s support in the community it calls home – she has done the same internationally. Weaver traveled to Ghana and Uganda, visiting with healthcare providers and patients, seeing for herself exactly how Direct Relief’s work – expanding access to medicines and strengthening health systems – translates into saving lives. 

Notwithstanding Direct Relief’s position as the fifth largest nonprofit in the entire country, the new CEO is also drawn to the organization’s ongoing connection to the community where it was founded. 

“It’s hard to think of another major nonprofit that has such deep, deep links to the community,” she said. “Direct Relief is truly a Santa Barbara County nonprofit. That’s where the leadership tends to come from, the employees, our largest donors. I love that sense of history. There is a sign in the airport that says ‘From Santa Barbara to the World,’ and I love that Direct Relief really is Santa Barbara’s gift to the world. But when we talk about providing aid to Gaza and Ukraine and Uganda, we also want to continue providing aid right here in the community. It’s really important that we always start with that.”

It’s a particularly challenging time in history for nonprofits like Direct Relief, given the current political climate which has seen drastic cutbacks in funding for health and humanitarian efforts both at home and abroad. While Direct Relief doesn’t take any government funding and so hasn’t suffered a direct decrease in its finances, the general need only increases as other programs decline in the sea change of how America supports the world.

Indeed, USAID was defunded between the time Weaver accepted the new position and started the job.

“It was kind of a tsunami going through the development world, which actually makes it the most meaningful time to be jumping in because it’s an entirely new game now and an entirely new set of opportunities,” she said. “It’s still early in trying to figure out exactly what the impacts are going to be where we might help, because if you’re in a position like we are to do more, you really have an obligation to do so. Given the massive shift of resources and priorities at the government level, what is now being left behind may be a place where Direct Relief can step up, whether it’s medical supplies, or providing power. We want people on the ground to know that we can set up to try to fill in the gaps. But it’s always about making sure that wherever we’re going, we’re going in a way that is making the greatest possible impact.

“The need is growing exponentially, not just the last few months but for years, due to conflicts in the world and environmental changes that are clearly causing global health issues. Direct Relief is in a unique position to be able to step up and do even more. This is really the moment. It’s the moment for donors, it’s the moment for nonprofits. It’s the moment for everyone to really step up.”  

Visit www.directrelief.org for more information