Michael Blake

As vice president of finance at the Haas. Jr. Fund, Michael Blake ensures good stewardship of the Fund’s investment portfolio and also oversees finance, information technology and other non-grantmaking operations of the Fund.
 
Michael brings to the Fund a wealth of experience in finance, philanthropy, and nonprofit management in the United States and around the globe. He is immediate past president of the Foundation Financial Officers Group (FFOG), an international association of chief financial officers of the largest private foundations.
 
Before joining the Haas, Jr. Fund, Michael worked as a consultant to the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, conducting a comprehensive survey of the capital needs of San Francisco nonprofit organizations and creating a report that was widely used by donors and managers of capital campaigns. Before that, Michael oversaw all operations of the Peace Corps in the Central African Republic. In his capacity as country director, he served as a member of the U.S. Government Country Team led by the U.S. ambassador.
 
Michael was the first Peace Corps member to be knighted (as Chevalier de l’Ordre de Mérite) by order of the president of the Central African Republic. Michael also has served as administrative director of the Hesperian Foundation and, before that, as a Peace Corps teacher, leader and teacher-trainer, as well as chairman of the National English Commission in Central Africa.

Michael earned an M.B.A. at the University of California, Berkeley, with a concentration in nonprofit management, and a B.A. in Economics at Duke University.