We are pleased to announce one of the keynote speakers for General Conference 2011. Richard E. Stearns is president of World Vision, one of the largest non-profit organizations in the United States. After a quarter-century business career serving as CEO of two different corporations, he joined World Vision in 1998, leading the Christian relief and development organization to unprecedented growth and calling on the American Church to respond to the global AIDS pandemic.
In 2009, Stearns was appointed to President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. He has served on the boards of InterAction, the USAID’s Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid, the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, the Center for Interfaith Action on Global Poverty and the ONE Campaign.
After earning a master’s degree in business administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Stearns began a career in marketing — at the Gillette Company. From 1977 to 1985, he held various roles with Parker Brothers Games, culminating in his appointment as president in 1984. He joined Lenox, Inc., in 1987 as a division president, and was named president and CEO in 1995.
His book, “The Hole in Our Gospel,” chronicles his journey from corporate CEO to advocate for those affected by poverty and injustice, and was named 2010 Christian Book of the Year by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association.
Stearns has traveled to more than 40 of the nearly 100 countries where World Vision works. He and his wife Renée have been World Vision donors since 1984. The couple has five children.
World Vision has more than 1,200 staff in the United States, and partners with U.S. corporations, government agencies, foundations, churches and more than a million individual donors to help children and their communities reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty. It is the largest member of the global World Vision Partnership, which last year touched the lives of an estimated 100 million people internationally, with total revenues exceeding $2.6 billion worldwide.
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