Board of Directors

Stuart Grant was introduced to SOS Children’s Villages in 2016 and joined the Board in 2017. He has a passion for supporting children who have been separated from their families, and he has recently been able to devote time to supporting the growth of the organization.

Grant’s origins are Scottish. He has spent the last 25 years as a senior finance executive and CFO in the electronics and biopharmaceutical industries. He has been CFO of three public companies, with responsibility, together with leadership teams, for driving growth and profitability across the world. Most recently, he was the CFO of Patheon, a leading service provider to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. His work has allowed him to travel extensively in Europe. His recent positions have been based in the United States, where he and his family are now citizens.

Grant holds a Bachelor of Accounting degree from Glasgow University and is a Chartered Accountant.

Brian Reinken joined the Board of Directors in 2015. He is a Partner with Egon Zehnder, one of the world’s largest global search firms, and has been with the firm since 1999. He has served in a variety of leadership roles in the firm, including serving as Managing Partner for the U.S. Practice for many years. Reinken also founded and built the Texas offices for the firm. He is a core member of the firm’s CEO and Board Practice and has deep expertise in CEO, C-Suite and Board of Director executive search. He is a core member of the firm’s Global Consumer Practice, with a focus on consumer technology, retail, media and e-commerce. Reinken has extensive global client experience, successfully serving Fortune 500 clients and leading global brands across a broad spectrum of companies.

Prior to joining Egon Zehnder, Reinken was a Director with Compaq Computer (now HP) in Houston, where he led the development and growth of Compaq.com. Earlier, he was general manager of Compaq’s printer division and led strategic planning and business development. Previously, he was a Senior Consultant with Gemini Consulting. He began his career in a variety of finance and marketing roles at Amoco Oil Company (now BP) in Chicago.

Reinken earned his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and his BBA in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin.

Bill Reese served as the Chief Executive Officer of the International Youth Foundation (IYF) from January 2005 until his retirement in December 2018. Having joined IYF in 1998 as Chief Operating Officer, Bill oversaw IYF’s operations and programs supporting positive youth development in more than 70 countries. Under Bill’s leadership, IYF invested in scaling and sustaining proven practice programs focused on workforce development and youth-led entrepreneurship, as well as leadership development for young founders and CEOs of social enterprises.

Before joining IYF, Reese spent 12 years as President & CEO of Partners of the Americas, the largest citizen-run, volunteer organization working to promote economic and social development in the western hemisphere. He also served for 10 years with the Peace Corps, first as a volunteer in an urban community development project in Salvador, Brazil, and later as director of Brazil operations. He was Deputy Director of the Latin American and Caribbean region before heading a special task force that managed the international celebration of the Peace Corps’ 20th anniversary in 1981. 
 
Reese sits on numerous boards and committees. He serves on the board of Youth Business 
International, a UK-based nonprofit promoting youth-led business start-ups and entrepreneurship globally, and was a founding co-chair of the Alliance for International Youth Development. He also is a board member of Global Citizen Year, which provides a bridge year of international service for U.S. high school graduates before they enter college, and he serves as a founding board member of Solutions 4 Youth Employment, a multi-stakeholder alliance that tackles the global challenge of youth unemployment. Reese served on the U.S. Government’s Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid from 1991 to 2009 and was chair for nine of those years.

Richard Pichler graduated from the University of Vienna in 1988 with a degree in Business Administration. Having grown up in SOS Children’s Village Hinterbrühl/Austria, he re-joined SOS Children’s Villages in the same year to start his career in Asia. His first assignment took him to South Korea, and shortly afterward, he moved on to Manila as National Director of SOS Children’s Villages Philippines. In 1992, Richard became the Regional Director of South East Asia. 
In 1995, Richard was appointed Secretary-General of SOS Children’s Villages International. Driving the organization’s strategy, Richard led the process of developing SOS Children’s Villages across three key areas: direct care for children; strengthening of families with children in vulnerable situations; and advocacy for the rights of children, in particular of children who find themselves living within alternative care institutions. He currently represents the organization with the U.N., the EU, and other major international platforms. He initiates and promotes cooperation with other leading INGOs and develops funding contacts with major international partners from government, philanthropic and corporate sectors. He is particularly focused on engendering cooperation among civil society organizations to increase impact for children.

Cameron Schmidt was most recently the General Manager of PayPal Canada, responsible for driving the growth of one of the company’s largest markets. He drove payment innovation, accelerated the growth of commerce, and managed relationships with the company’s key stakeholders and financial network partners. In this role, he also provided strategic direction to improve the shopping experience for PayPal Canada’s more than 5.5 million active users. Prior to PayPal, he spent six years at Intuit Inc., where held various positions from business unit vice president and head of small business group government relations, to product marketing, business development, and key customer management roles. Prior to Intuit, he held leadership positions at companies including Warner Lambert (now Pfizer). He is also an advisor to CEO's and boards of technology companies.

Irene Bailey is originally from Dakar, Senegal, but she grew up in an SOS Village in Germany. Passionate about children’s rights and advocacy, she is a spokesperson for SOS Children’s Villages and is a founding member of SOS Children’s Villages Atlanta Volunteer Committee, where she has been building a network of friends and supporters for the organization since 2005.

Bailey built her career in education and currently serves as Educational Consultant at Public Consultant Group, where she is responsible for establishing partnership opportunities to advance education and instructional support services for students throughout the southeastern United States.

Bailey studied International Relations, Business and Communications at the University of Mannheim, Germany, and holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the University of Oklahoma. She actively supports various organizations dedicated to international outreach and meaningful interaction between the state of Georgia and countries around the world.

Emily Chang was most recently svp, marketing at Starbucks. She joined Starbucks as China cmo in 2017, responsible for marketing, sales, loyalty, customer engagement, and digital flywheel (ecommerce, payments, partnerships). She helped open the first Starbucks Roastery outside of Seattle, tripled digital tender, managed the commercial side of Starbucks’ largest merger, and launching the brand’s delivery program. Emily then relocated to Seattle to drive brand and marketing transformation in the U.S. business.

A strategic business leader with over 20 years’ experience, Emily is a seasoned executive known for globalization, cross-cultural team leadership, change management, and innovative brand building.

Prior to Starbucks, Emily was the Chief Commercial Officer for IHG, Greater China, where she was responsible for all commercial functions across Greater China. Looking after 320+ hotels and an extended team of 5,200 Sales & Marketing members, Emily spearheaded the market share turnaround of six hotel brands.

Moving to Shanghai back in 2011, Emily built a high-performance marketing organization that established the face of Apple Retail in Asia Pacific. She first developed her Marketing expertise at Procter & Gamble, with 11 years of end-to-end business experience across all three business units and spanning everything from upstream design to retail marketing with Walmart. 

Emily has spoken at select conferences and events, including Fortune Most Powerful Women’s Summit in Hong Kong and C2 in Montreal. She has delivered two TEDx Talks, one of which is being expanded to book form, called The Spare Room. She holds a B.A. in Biology and an MBA in Competitive Strategy and Finance. In her free time, Emily enjoys writing and teaching. Most of all, she loves spending time with family: her husband of 19 years, her 10yr daughter Laini, and their two rescues, Holly Berry the mutt, and Puffin the pug.

Karen Davis is responsible for the global philanthropic programs of Hasbro, Inc., including grantmaking, product donations, employee volunteer programs, cause-related marketing and strategic philanthropic relationships. Through these programs and partnerships, Hasbro annually helps over 4 million children in need worldwide. Davis is currently spearheading the company’s philanthropic initiative Be Fearless Be Kind, an effort to develop compassion and empathy in youth. Under her leadership, Hasbro was ranked #1 for philanthropy on the 100 Best Corporate Citizens list for 2018. Davis is also responsible for Hasbro’s Employee Engagement, overseeing employee networks, feedback, recognition and events. Prior to joining Hasbro in 1998, she worked in higher education in the advancement field.

Davis currently serves on the Rhode Island Board of Education. She was a founder and past chair of the Association of Corporate Contribution Professionals and the founder and past president of the Grantmakers Council of Rhode Island. In addition, she serves on a number of advisory councils and development and event committees.

Brett is a partner and senior investment officer. Before joining Veritable in 1996, Brett was a senior tax consultant at Coopers & Lybrand, specializing in personal financial and executive compensation planning. Brett is a CPA and a member of the CFA Institute. He graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor's degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He is on the Board of The Curtis Institute of Music and is a member of their Investment and Finance Committees. Brett also serves on the Board of the Klein JCC.

Aaron Carmack is a 30-year retail executive currently serving as the Chief Operating Officer at Roger’s Electric. With more than 1,300 employees, 13 offices nationwide and $300 million in revenues, Rogers is the largest self-performing electrical and lighting contractor in the U.S. Aaron also spent 14 years as a senior executive with Home Depot and served on the board of Habitat for Humanity East Bay.

Aaron holds a Master’s of Business Administration from Goizueta School of Business at Emory University. His undergraduate studies were at DePaul University. Aaron has a passion for serving the needs of abandoned and orphaned children. He and his wife adopted their daughter from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Lance J. Reisman is a retired business executive with over 30 years of experience with Fortune 500, private and start-up companies. Since his retirement in May 2019, Mr. Reisman has joined KKR as an Advisor and the board of GeoStabilization International, a KKR company, as its Chairman. He is also engaging in philanthropist initiatives, such as SOS Children’s Villages USA.

Prior to his retirement, Mr. Reisman spent four years as a Group Executive and Vice President at Danaher Corporation, a global science and technology company with more than 30 operating companies with leading positions in diagnostics, life sciences, dental and environmental/applied solutions. During his time at Danaher, he had global responsibilities for Danaher’s Water Quality business for which he led holistic operational and commercial execution and transformation, including several strategic acquisitions. Prior to this role, Mr. Reisman spent six years in increasingly senior leadership roles at Hach (a Danaher operating company), ultimately serving as President.

Lance began his career with Frito-Lay, where he held positions as both an Industrial Engineer and Manufacturing Manager. He then transitioned to Black & Decker where he held various leadership roles of increased responsibility in marketing in the Power Tool and Hardware divisions, where he was the Vice President of Marketing. Lance also held the position of Vice-President of Sales and Marketing for Robotoolz, a Silicon Valley start-up. He was subsequently Vice President of Business Development for RSI, a major manufacturer of cabinetry.

Mr. Reisman holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, and an MBA from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.