Biography - Barry Gaberman

Barry Gaberman was born in Shanghai, China on August 9, 1941. He left China with his family in 1949 and after living for two years in Israel emigrated to the United States with his father in 1951, settling in Madison, Wisconsin. After three years in the Army, he returned to Wisconsin in 1964, enrolling in the University of Wisconsin and completing both a B.S. (1966) and an M.A. degree (1968).

He joined the Ford Foundation in August 1971. He has held assignments in the Indonesia field office and in New York. Since April 1996 he has been the Senior Vice President of the Ford Foundation.

In addition to his duties at the Ford Foundation, he serves or has served on a number of boards such as the Council on Foundations, the Independent Sector, BoardSource, the European Foundation Centre, and the Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe. He is a past chair of the Foundation Center board and the chair emeritus of the Coordinating Committee of WINGS (Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Support).

WINGS has created a new lecture in honour of Barry Gaberman, in recognition of his deep commitment to the promotion of international philanthropy and his founding role in WINGS, of which he is Chair Emeritus. For more about the Barry Gaberman Lecture on Global Philanthropy, click here.