Margaret Mahoney

Biographical Information
"Margaret E. Mahoney, president of The Commonwealth Fund from 1980 to 1995. Mahoney passed away on December 22, 2011, after a long illness. She was the first woman to head a major U.S. philanthropic foundation, becoming president of The Commonwealth Fund in 1980. Prior to her leadership of The Commonwealth Fund, she was a senior executive of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and, prior to that, of the Carnegie Corporation. She played a key role in the transition of RWJF from a family foundation to one of the largest U.S. foundations in the 1970s, and revitalized the Fund, which was founded in 1918 and today has assets of $680 million."

"She served on numerous non-profit boards including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Columbia University, the Alliance for Aging Research, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the Dole Foundation, the New York Academy of Medicine, and the Dartmouth Medical School/Koop Institute Board of Overseers. She was a member of the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine, which she helped create in the 1970s."

Vartan Gregorian noted: "It was my privilege to know and work with Margaret Mahoney during her tenure as President of the Commonwealth Fund, which she led from 1980 to 1995. Prior to that, she was a senior executive at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which she joined in 1973 after serving the Corporation for nearly two decades. She was a valued advisor and a personal friend who taught me a great deal about the history of Carnegie Corporation and about the power of philanthropy to do what Andrew Carnegie called “real and permanent good in this world.” Margaret Mahoney certainly believed in that ideal and she lived it, as well."

Affiliations

 * Trustee, Columbia University