Accomplished financial executive Stephen Robert was the CEO and largest shareholder of the Oppenheimer Group before he retired. He and his wife set up the Source of Hope Foundation to channel their philanthropic activities. Stephen Robert is also on the board of several charities.
Private philanthropy on a global scale is increasing. Recently, the amount of money given through private philanthropic foundations increased by 50 percent, from $5.1 billion in 2013 to $7.8 billion in 2018. Additionally, a rise in the number of globally focused charitable foundations has taken place, with more than 75 percent set up between 1993 and 2018. Most of these foundations are located in Western Europe and North America. They range in size from small outfits with no staff members and expenditures below $1 million to global organizations with billions of dollars in disbursements. Their activities are concentrated in countries in sub-Saharan Africa, South East Asia, and Central America. The majority of giving focuses on developmental activities, with health and education sectors getting the most significant shares. The foundations also provide investment finances (such as microfinancing) in the economies of the recipient countries. Private foundation philanthropy provides 4-5 percent of the annual official development assistance to many countries.
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Stephen Robert, former chairman and CEO of the Oppenheimer Group, founder of the Source of Hope Foundation, and former chair of Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, is also a proud Brown alumnus and chancellor emeritus. His involvement with the school culminated in the 2019 dedication of Stephen Robert Hall at the Watson Institute, which now provides expanded space for events, lectures, and exhibits with a focus on public policy.
The Watson Institute sees the arts as part of its mission of fostering high-level conversation on social issues and public policy. Recent arts-connected exhibits at Stephen Robert Hall have included Histories of Consequence: Works by Sandra Mayo, which ran in the first half of 2020. The Mayo exhibit featured manipulated monoprints using several media that address large-scale global events - natural disaster, political upheaval, forced migration, walls and barriers - and their multi-generational effects on ordinary people. The Argentinian artist makes use of techniques such as coding and mapping to distill the essences of complex situations into approachable stories focused on the lived experiences of individuals. Other recent events and exhibits in the new space include a screening of the film Albatross, director Chris Jordan’s attempt to address the overwhelming problem of plastic pollutants in the world’s oceans, and The Blink of Our Lifetimes: The Ecology of Dusk, artist Pamela Petro’s moved-camera, light-and-shadow photographs of some of the world’s most ecologically sensitive regions. The former chairman and CEO of the New York City-based Oppenheimer Group, Inc., Stephen Robert is also the co-founder of the Source of Hope Foundation. Leading the foundation along with his wife Pilar Crespi Robert, Stephen Robert has directed Source of Hope’s anti-poverty work across the globe.
With projects in places like Ethiopia, Palestine, and Columbia, Source of Hope also funds domestic projects. For example, the foundation made a generous financial contribution to establish the Stephen Robert and Pilar Crespi Robert Rapid Medical Evaluation Center at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. Located in a low-income on the west side of Manhattan, more than half of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital’s patients are either on Medicare or uninsured. Since many uninsured patients use the emergency room as their primary source of care, the emergency room at Columbia Presbyterian was overcrowded before the expansion, with patients waiting up to nine hours for care. The 8,000-square-foot rapid medical evaluation center is equipped with 22 new treatment bays, new bed-side diagnostic equipment, and a full staff of doctors and nurse practitioners. The addition of the new space has improved patient care by allowing medical staff to make diagnoses faster and treat and release patients more promptly. |
AuthorThe former owner, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Archives
March 2022
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