OSF names new president as Mark Malloch-Brown steps down

Mark Malloch-Brown said he will step down as president of Open Society Foundations, clearing a path for board chair Alex Soros to create a new leadership team as he restructures the more-than-30-year-old philanthropy giant established by his father George Soros. Malloch-Brown said in an email sent to grantees and partners Monday that his resignation will be effective June 1. A former deputy secretary-general of the United Nations, Malloch-Brown was tapped by George Soros to lead OSF in 2021. The two are longtime friends. However, Malloch-Brown said that he would step aside and make way for Alex Soros to choose new leadership for the organization, which is one of the biggest private human rights funders in the world. Binaifer Nowrojee, who is currently vice president of programs at OSF, has been tapped as his successor and was unanimously selected by the foundation’s board. She is Kenyan of Indian origin and is also the first woman from the global south to lead OSF. Malloch-Brown has been working closely with the younger Soros since he was elected chair in December 2022, replacing his father. Together, the two have helped oversee a massive reorganization of the New York-based foundation that has, so far, included shuttering offices around the world and laying off hundreds of employees. Staffers around the world as well as a union representing OSF employees in the United States have complained about the rollout of the restructuring, saying it was done without transparency and without allowing them the opportunity to voice their concerns directly to OSF leadership. “I was always intended to be a bridge between Soros’s OSF and that of Alex Soros,” Malloch-Brown wrote in the email Monday. “Now that Alex has fully taken over as chair and we have largely completed a restructuring of OSF it seemed the right time, after more than three years, to step down and let him put in place his own team,” he added. George Soros expressed confidence in Nowrojee’s ability to lead OSF through a transition period. “When I established the Open Society Foundations, I wanted them to be truly global. … At the outset, that was merely an aspiration,” he wrote in a statement. “But now I feel that this ambition has been fulfilled with Binaifer Nowrojee as president of the Foundations, supported by an international team.” Nowrojee has been at OSF for nearly 20 years and has held several positions, including East Africa foundation director and regional director for Asia-Pacific. Prior to that she was at Human Rights Watch. “She has a strong human rights background, which I hope lays to rest the speculation that OSF is moving away from downgrading the defense of human rights,” said Kenneth Roth, former head of Human Rights Watch. Nowrojee is highly respected by OSF staff who have worked with her and consider her to be “decent, committed and smart,” an OSF employee told Devex on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to the press. There is optimism that she will be allowed to exert her leadership during a chaotic time for the organization, the employee said. “Heading this remarkable institution, the world’s largest funder of human rights, at a time when justice and compassion are under siege, is by far the biggest, and best, challenge I have ever faced. I am proud to be president and stand ready to join my colleagues in the fight,” Nowrojee said in a statement. Update, March 11, 2024: This article has been updated with additional information about Nowrojee’s background and comments from the former head of Human Rights Watch.