Larry Kramer, president of the Hewlett Foundation, is stepping down from his role after over a decade at the helm.

He will move on to his new role as president and vice chancellor of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), though is expected to remain president of the $13 billion charitable institution until the end of the year.  

“It has been an honour and a privilege to work with and for the Hewlett Foundation’s incredible, passionate, and committed staff, grantees, and other partners,” Kramer said in a statement provided by the Hewlett Foundation.  

“I am grateful for the opportunity I have had to tackle some of the world’s most pressing problems — the existential threat of climate, challenges to democracy, and persistent inequity. As I have seen and learned at Hewlett, philanthropy at its best — open, patient, collaborative — is a force for good to help make the world a better place.” 

Hewlett Foundation board chair Mariano-Florentino (Tino) Cuéllar said board members thanked Kramer for being an “engaged steward of the foundation’s values of long-term thinking, humility, and integrity”. 

The foundation’s board will immediately search for Kramer’s successor, though no time frame was given.  

Under Kramer’s leadership, the foundation launched initiatives aimed at healing US democratic institutions and social justice, with a particular emphasis on racial justice in its existing work by asking each of its programmes to investigate how systemic racism impacts on choices made.  

The Hewlett Foundation announced $168 million in funding for racial justice initiatives in 2020 off the back of the Black Lives Matter movement.  

Climate funding was also boosted, with $600 million over five years pledged back in 2017.  

The pledge, the largest the foundation has made to climate issues, came on the eve of a summit convened by French President, Emmanuel Macron, in December 2017 to increase public and private financial commitments towards implementing the 2015 Paris climate agreement.  

Shafi Musaddique is news editor at Alliance magazine.