Obama Foundation Announces Lynn Taliento as Chief Program Officer

May 12, 2017 at 11:05 AM CDT

Chicago – Today, the Obama Foundation announced Lynn Taliento as Chief Program Officer. At the Obama Foundation, Lynn Taliento will lead the development of the Foundation’s programmatic initiatives.

David Simas, Chief Executive Officer, said: “The Obama Foundation is developing a living, working center for citizenship that will inspire people and communities to take on the biggest challenges and ‘show up’ for the most important office in any democracy, citizenship. We are thrilled to have Lynn as part of our team leading the formation of programs that will train the next generation of engaged citizens, community organizers and world leaders.”

“I am very excited to join the team at the Obama Foundation and develop programs that will give people in Chicago and around the world the tools to address the challenges they see in their own communities,” said Lynn Taliento, Chief Program Officer.

Lynn Taliento

Lynn most recently was the leader of the Global Philanthropy Practice at McKinsey & Company. She founded the firm's first practice area dedicated to the nonprofit sector almost 20 years ago, and since worked with leading philanthropists, nonprofits and innovative corporate foundations around the world on strategy, organization and advocacy. She also led McKinsey's foundational research on the nonprofit sector, including its seminal report "And the Winner Is..." on how to design prizes that work.

Lynn is a founding board member of Malala Yousafzai's organization, the Malala Fund, which advocates for girls' secondary education around the world. She is also board chair of water.org, a nonprofit founded by Gary White and Matt Damon that has pioneered the "WaterCredit" approach to making water and sanitation solutions affordable for all.

Lynn has a B.A. from Yale University and a Master’s degree in public policy from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. She spent 4 years in McKinsey’s Mexico City Office and is fluent in Spanish. Lynn and her husband Michael Warren have two kids, Amelia and Noah, and live in Washington, DC.

Contact: Kate Berner, kberner@skdknick.com (Opens in a new tab)