Exclusive: 2 Pathfinder board members resign over transparency concerns

Two longtime board members of Pathfinder International — and descendants of the organization’s founder — have resigned from their positions, alleging a lack of transparency, high staff turnover, and low morale at the organization.

“We have lost faith in the organization’s current leadership and are gravely concerned by the organization’s lack of transparency,” Walter Gamble and Judy Kahrl wrote in a letter Monday to a group of the organization’s biggest supporters, which was shared with Devex.

Kahrl and Gamble are siblings and the children of Clarence Gamble, an heir to the Procter & Gamble Company fortune who founded Pathfinder in 1957. The family has given more than $40 million to Pathfinder since then and has served a cumulative 200 years on the organization’s board, according to the letter.

In addition to resigning, the two said they are withdrawing all future financial support. Kahrl and Gamble also accused Pathfinder of a lack of transparency in disclosing their late father’s ties to the eugenics movement.

Pathfinder, which is based in Watertown, Massachusetts, implements more than $100 million per year in reproductive health and family planning programs, many of which are supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development. The nonprofit has been led by CEO Lois Quam since 2017.

In their letter, Kahrl and Gamble alleged that board chair Roslyn Watson refused to share Quam’s performance evaluation prior to the CEO’s salary renewal and that Ben Kahrl, the son of Judy Kahrl, was removed from the board via secret ballot for requesting it.

They also cited a 100% turnover rate among U.S.-based staffers since Quam took over, including three chief financial officers in five years.

“Morale at the organization remains at an all-time low, resulting in the loss of numerous dedicated, professional people who are experts in their field,” they wrote.

The now-former board members state that Pathfinder paid $216,000 to a former chief human resources officer “who had fielded numerous complaints about the toxic work environment” and was let go after four years.

“This amount of severance is unheard of in the nonprofit world. The only conclusion we can draw from this is that private funds intended to support programs were used instead to muzzle any criticism of CEO Lois Quam’s poor leadership,” they wrote.

In a statement to Devex, Pathfinder sidestepped most of the allegations concerning Quam but said the board’s motion to remove Ben Kahrl was “unrelated to his requests for information.”

“This motion was reviewed, discussed, and passed during the Board meeting last week, and this morning we received and accepted the resignations of Judy and Walter, along with a list of concerns that we have and will continue to address through appropriate channels,” according to the statement, sent by spokesperson Laurel Lundstrom. “Their departures will not affect Pathfinder’s work or our enduring commitment to expanding access to quality sexual and reproductive health services to women and children in need.”

‘Toxic workplace culture’

Speaking with Devex on Monday, Kahrl said she was filled with “sadness” over the situation.

“The international staff is excellent,” she said by telephone, praising the group’s work on women’s issues overseas. “But the management back here in the U.S. is failing, failing the international staff. … And the board is not taking its responsibility as a good board should.”

Kahrl alleged that she and her son Ben Kahrl — who was also a board member until he was removed last week — made repeated efforts to access information so that they could perform due diligence but were stymied by other board members. “It meant we were left in the dark,” she said.

Judy and Ben Kahrl accused Watson of interfering to protect Quam. Speaking with Devex, Ben Kahrl said his removal was done by “secret” vote after he raised a number of concerns with the board by email, including concerns over Quam’s leadership.

Quam has spent her career between the public and private sectors. Prior to joining Pathfinder, she served at the U.S. State Department under then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She was the founding CEO at Ovations, a division of the Fortune 500 global corporation UnitedHealth Group focused on serving people over age 50, where she grew revenues to $32 billion in eight years. Quam was also named three times to Fortune's list of the most influential women leaders in business.

Anne Scott, a former chief operating officer of Pathfinder who resigned last year, said that under Quam, a “toxic workplace culture” emerged, one that stifled debate and transparency, leading to a loss of morale among staffers and high turnover.

“People [were] not being heard and not feeling safe to express their opinions. People were fearful they would be retaliated against if they state what they feel,” Scott told Devex.

“I love the mission. It’s a wonderful organization that has so many fine professionals working very hard on a very important mission. It makes me sad that the organization is being hurt in this way,” she said of Quam’s leadership.

A controversial legacy

Judy Kahrl and Walter Gamble also charged that Pathfinder has not adequately addressed the legacy of their own father, who, in addition to founding the organization, was involved with the eugenics movement. His children wrote that they have proposed a full disclosure of their father’s work in hopes of finding a way to make amends.

“Instead, Pathfinder has a short statement buried on its website that does little to address a full accounting of history in a transparent manner that will allow the organization to move forward,” they wrote.

In its statement Monday, Pathfinder wrote that the changes in its board’s membership “occurred in the wake of our efforts to come to grips with the legacy of our late founder, Dr. Clarence Gamble.”

The organization said it had retained an “independent consulting firm experienced in culturally responsive research” over the course of a year and determined that the founder’s “racially biased and unscientific personal beliefs influenced reproductive health and family planning programs under the Pathfinder banner, and even after his death in 1966.”

Further, Pathfinder said it was “doing the work” and staffing itself to confront its past and obstacles to justice.

In their letter, Judy Kahrl and Walter Gamble encouraged the organization’s large donors — part of a group called the president’s council — to reconsider their financial support.

“Our decision is not made lightly, but rather after intense deliberation and with the heaviest of hearts. It is our intent to use our family’s future donations to assist organizations that demonstrate integrity in leadership and transparency in management,” they wrote.

Update, Sept. 27, 2021: This article has been updated with additional reporting.