Posted on September 15, 2008

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New Red Cross CEO Faces 'Trial by Hurricane'

For Gail J. McGovern, who became president and CEO of the American Red Cross this past spring, the challenges ahead of her were clear from the beginning of her tenure, the Washington Post reports.

A longtime corporate executive, McGovern took the helm of the nation's biggest disaster relief charity at a perilous time. Two weeks before she took charge, the charity was fined for its ongoing inability to adequately manage its blood supply and a week later its disaster fund was depleted after responding to severe flooding in the Midwest. Now the Red Cross, whose once sterling reputation had been tarnished by its response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and a string of leadership scandals, is saddled with debt as it responds to a new round of storms, including Hurricane Ike.

But if McGovern is a rookie when it comes to natural disasters, she is proving to be a quick study. And one of her chief concerns is raising money. While Hurricane Gustav did not cause anywhere near the damage of Katrina, the Red Cross had taken out loans to mount a $70 million relief effort for evacuees. Last week it launched a campaign to raise $100 million to recover those costs and replenish the disaster fund. According to McGovern, if more Americans hear stories about how the organization saves lives, they will be more likely to donate money, volunteer, and give blood. "I feel [so] strongly about the mission [of the Red Cross] that I want to scream it off the rooftops," she told the Post. "We live in a very generous society, and I'm confident people will help."

At the same time, McGovern, who rose to become the executive in charge of the consumer-markets division at AT&T and later headed a division at Fidelity Investments, wants the organization to become more efficient. And while she has impressed some of the organization's fiercest critics, she's aware that more needs to be done to return the organization to solvency. "I would like to live in a world where we're not fundraising episodically with each storm," she said. "Our mission is so much bigger than these epic storms. Our mission is to be there for the American people every day."

Rucker, Philip. “Red Cross CEO's 'Trial by Hurricane'.” Washington Post 9/12/08.

Primary Subject: Human Services
Secondary Subject(s): Hurricane Relief
Location(s): National

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