The Center for Disaster Philanthropy Board Welcomed Sara Pantuliano and Greg Chan as New Members

The board also thanked outgoing director, Anita Whitehead, for her years of service

Washington, D.C. (June 6, 2024) – The Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP) board of directors welcomed Sara Pantuliano, chief executive of ODI, and Greg Chan, chief technology officer of Akoya, as newly elected members during the quarterly meeting held today.

The board of directors also said goodbye to Anita Whitehead, president and chair at KPMG US Foundation, thanking her for her years of service as her second term came to an end.

“We are thrilled to welcome Sara Pantuliano and Greg Chan to our board,” said Tiffany Benjamin, CEO of Humana Foundation and CDP board chair. “Sara and Greg’s expertise and experiences promise to bring fresh perspectives and strengthen CDP’s efforts to support communities in times of crisis.”

Sector leaders bring deep expertise to CDP board

  • Sara Pantuliano, CEO, ODI
    Pantuliano heads ODI as its chief executive, after serving as its managing director and director of humanitarian programs. She is the chair of the Seventh Advisory Group of the UN Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund, having previously served on the Sixth Advisory Group, and is a member of the High-Level Group on Humanitarian and Resilience Investing initiative of the World Economic Forum. Sara is the editor-in-chief of Disasters journal and trustee of the board of Muslim Aid. She has been recognized for her leadership on peacebuilding, humanitarian assistance and international development, and was made a Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 2024 New Year Honours. She has previously served on a range of executive and advisory boards, including The New Humanitarian, SOS Sahel, Oxford University’s Refugee Studies Centre, the UN Association of the UK and UNFPA’s ICPD25 High-Level Commission.
  • Greg Chan, Chief Technology Officer, Akoya
    Greg Chan has more than 20 years of industry experience at Microsoft, Amazon, as well as fintech and B2B startups. He started his career at Microsoft where he held various software engineering and product management positions to deliver core Office products. He also spent 10 years at Amazon where he served in multiple leadership positions. As an engineering leader at Amazon Payments, he was responsible for launching physical and digital gift card products in the global market and building a new gift card payment platform with greater performance and scale. More recently, he was the head of engineering at Amazon Prime Delivery Experience where he was responsible for Prime customers’ shopping experience across Amazon’s website. After Amazon, Greg spent a few years as the vice president of engineering for a fintech and B2B startup, helping them to scale their product, technologies and organization.

With gratitude

Anita Whitehead served on the CDP board of directors since 2018. She was the founding chair of the board’s Governance and Nominations Committee. Anita played a critical role in seeing the organization through tremendous growth and impact worldwide.

“We are profoundly grateful to Anita for her invaluable contributions to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy,” said Patricia McIlreavy, president and CEO of CDP. “Her leadership and insights have been instrumental in our board’s development, organizational positioning and expanding our reach.”

To learn more about CDP, please visit disasterphilanthropy.org.

 

Updated 6/6/2024


CDP mobilizes philanthropy to strengthen communities’ ability to withstand disasters and recover equitably when they occur. It provides expert advice and educational resources, supports diverse coalitions and manages domestic and international disaster funds on behalf of corporations, foundations and individuals through targeted, holistic and localized grantmaking. Find out more at disasterphilanthropy.org and on X and LinkedIn.