Jim Bildner
Jim Bildner is the CEO of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation. Jim joined Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government where he is an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership and Hauser Center Institute for Nonprofit Organizations. Jim brings to DRK more than thirty years of experience in the public, private and non-profit sector and will be splitting his time between our Menlo and Boston offices. At Harvard and his board service, Jim focuses on strategies that can increase the capacity of foundations, non-profits and social enterprises to solve complex societal problems such as systemic poverty, access to healthcare, social justice and community development; as well as expanding the range of existing investment opportunities for private and philanthropic capital to help address these issues. At DRK, Jim will be working with the team to expand our portfolio, pipeline, outreach, donor and talent base. He currently sits on the boards of DRK grantees SIRUM, The Empowerment Plan, IDEO.org, The Earth Genome, and CAST.
Among his other board affiliations, he is a trustee of The Kresge Foundation, a director of The Non Profit Finance Fund, Case Western Reserve University, The Public Citizen Foundation, Fox Islands Wind, LLC, TurboVote/Democracy Works Inc. and the Chief Executives Organization. In his board service, Mr. Bildner serves on the Investment Committees of boards with aggregate endowments in excess of $5.5B and serves as a member of ten finance, investment and/or audit committees of these boards.
His prior experience includes 22 years in the private sector including serving as the CEO of two public companies while his government service includes serving as a legislative aide and speechwriter in the United States Senate, a run for the NJ State Assembly, election to two terms as a Selectman in Manchester by the Sea and an appointment by the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services to the Advisory Panel on Medicare Education of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Jim earned his AB from Dartmouth College, his MPA from Harvard, his J.D. from Case Western Reserve School of Law and a M.F.A. from Lesley University. He is a member of the Bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
