Peter deCourcy Hero
From 1989 to 2007, Peter Hero was the President and CEO of Community Foundation Silicon Valley (CFSV), where in that time he grew total assets from $7 Million to over $1.1 Billion, with annual grants exceeding $150 million. In January, 2007 he helped enable the merger of CFSV with a neighboring community foundation, creating Silicon Valley Community Foundation to which he is now Senior Advisor. CFSV was named the national “Outstanding Foundation of the Year” by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), the only community foundation ever to receive this award. In 1998, CFSV created the Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund (SV2), the region’s pre-eminent venture philanthropy giving circle.
Prior to this position, Peter was President of the Maine College of Art, a 4-year college of art and design. He holds an M.B.A. from Stanford University School of Business, a B.A. (Magna Cum Laude) and M.A. (With Distinction) in Art History from Williams College, and (Honorary) Doctor of Laws from the Maine College of Art.
In 1991, Peter was appointed by President George Bush to a 6-year term on the National Council for the Arts. In 2002, President George W. Bush appointed Peter to The National Institute for Museums and Libraries Board of Trustees. Both appointments were confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Other recent recognition includes the John Gardner Leadership Award (given by The American Leadership Forum), the Excellence in Civic Leadership Award (awarded by The Tech Museum of Innovation), Lifetime Achievement in the Arts (by Arts Council Silicon Valley) and statewide recognition by the California Arts Council, Exemplary Contributions to the Arts.
Fortune Magazine , in an extensive article on CFSV, noted that: “It is Peter Hero, more than anyone else, who has shown Silicon Valley how to give…by channeling the area’s distinctive culture into an unusual brand of charity: demanding, ambitious, self-conscious, creative, even risky—everything you’d expect from Silicon Valley.”
Peter is the founding Chairman of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Foundation and currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Skoll Foundation, eBay Foundation, PBS, Stanford University’s Haas Center for Public Service, the American India Foundation. He is a Visiting Fellow at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. He was a founding Director of the Entrepreneur’s Foundation and is a past Director of the Council on Foundations where he chaired the National Committee on Community Foundations. He currently chairs the World Bank Advisory Committee on global community foundation development and is a member of the Melbourne (Australia) Community Foundation Board of Directors.
For more than 12 years Peter has been working in Central and Eastern Europe to help create networks of locally-based community foundations. Former Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel appointed Peter to the 2002 NATO Summit Council of Advisors in Prague. He lectures at Stanford Graduate Business School (which has written a case study on CFSV) and his writing has been published in the United States and Europe . His most recent book, Local Mission, Global Vision: Community Foundations in the 21st Century, is published by The Foundation Center in New York City.