Alumni Profiles

When SOS Children’s Villages-USA — a private, non-profit organization that provides homes for abused and neglected children — was looking for people to serve on its board of trustees, it turned to Hugh Dugan, U.S. delegate to the United Nations in New York.

When Dugan was looking for others to serve with him, he turned to Kerry Moynihan, a classmate from the Wharton Executive MBA program.

“Being in school with someone offers very good insight into what their capabilities are on a day-to-day basis, as opposed to just looking at someone’s bio,” says Moynihan, a partner in executive search firm Korn Ferry’s Washington, D.C. office. “You know this person can deliver.”

SOS Children’s Villages-USA, an affiliate of a worldwide organization founded in Europe 50 years ago, first approached Dugan because of his high-profile job and his work with youth groups throughout the world. In 1994, for example, the International Olympic Committee awarded Dugan a gold medal for a resolution he wrote at the U.N. calling for the reinstitution of the historic Olympic truce that encouraged countries to “cease hostilities during the games.” “It became the most supported resolution in the history of the U.N.,” says Dugan. He also serves on the board of one of the few volunteer organizations abroad that is successful,” says Dugan. “It’s the largest charity in Germany. One-third of every household in Norway contributes to it. When I mention SOS to colleagues at the U.N., it’s an instant ice breaker because most of them have SOS villages in their countries.”

In the U.S., SOS villages — stable and nurturing permanent homes for foster children — have been established in Coconut Creek, Fla., and Lockport, Ill. A third village will be located in Milwaukee, Wisc., and one is also being planned for the Washington, D.C. area. Around the world, 371 villages in 128 countries help more than 200,000 children.

Dugan spent a week in June in Austria attending SOS’s international assembly held at the very first village created. Board meetings occur three times a year and committee meetings are held monthly by phone. Dugan, who is also the treasurer of SOS’s American chapter, visits the Washington D.C. headquarters several times a year.

Moynihan joined the 10-member board in August. He sees the organization as a “private sector kind of solution that works. They are doing enormous good. Anybody who has any feelings for children has to be sensitive to a mission of this type. I’ve seen through friends involved in the foster care system how difficult it is to get children into good foster homes. The law and social agencies that are supposedly designed to help can be a hindrance at best and an outright obstacle at worst.”

Moynihan also served for five years on the board of the WEMBA scholarship fund set up in 1990 and intended “typically for people who are self-employed or coming out of the public and/or non-profit sector.” Moynihan himself was the first recipient of that scholarship. Dugan credits his Wharton education with giving him the financial expertise to work with “an enterprise that is non-profit by nature but has to meet all the financial requirements and constraints of any organization. It’s a wonderful opportunity to apply more of my Wharton skills in the diplomatic arena, promoting an interest that I support.”