The CEO - over ten years into her tenure and with no end in sight - is not a serious person. Her decision-making is arbitrary and the directives that follow are ill-articulated, often internally contradictory, and counter to policies and good industry practices. She prizes external voices (which have their own agendas) over those of her staff. She is not equipped to advocate to her Board on behalf of the organization, and following each Board meeting, overturns months of staff work on the basis of her dire interpretation of an off-hand remark from a Board member. To work here is to see your best, good-faith, professional efforts systematically undermined time after time, year after year. It is not healthy. The best years of your career are better spent elsewhere.
The organization is in a perpetual state of turmoil as one after another set of consultants is brought onboard to reinvent systems and processes. The CEO knows the organization is dysfunctional, but fails to recognize that this dysfunction starts with her. Instead, she cloaks herself in one “bold” action after another (30M young people employed in 10 years! Pivoting on a dime to become an African organization!) when what is really called for is careful, stepwise growth grounded in organizational and personal humility.
Following the CEO’s decision to dismiss 40 staff with centuries of collective experience (while preaching about the deeply held "values" of the organization), several of her senior staff have apparently come to the same conclusion, as they rush for the exits. The CEO made no effort to work with staff to develop new roles; she preferred to jettison them (curiously, many of those let go were the most experienced and critically-minded). And still, the Board renews the CEO’s tenure at great cost to the organization’s assets, its reputation, and its well-being. It’s an embarrassment.
For the Board: Ignore the criticisms of the CEO as the words of a few malcontents if you wish, but please ask yourself: Why aren’t other voices jumping to her defense? Why, when people cite the wise words of international development foundation CEOs in op-eds and at global conferences, is the Mastercard Foundation’s CEO not among those cited?
