Ken Hackett

President, Catholic Relief Services

Ken Hackett is president of Catholic Relief Services (CRS), one of the world’s most effective and efficient relief and development agencies. He oversees operations in more than 100 countries, with a global staff of nearly 5,000.

A native of West Roxbury, Mass., Mr. Hackett graduated from Boston College in 1968. Upon graduation, he joined the Peace Corps and was assigned to serve in Ghana.

Mr. Hackett joined CRS in 1972, starting his career in Sierra Leone. He has served CRS in posts throughout Africa and Asia, as well as in a variety of positions at CRS headquarters. He was the Regional Director for Africa, guiding CRS' response to the Ethiopian famine of 1984-1985. He supervised operations in East Africa during the crisis in Somalia in the early 1990s. Mr. Hackett has led CRS since 1993.

Mr. Hackett has received honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Notre Dame, Boston College, Villanova University, Siena College, the University of San Diego and New York Medical College.  

In Oct. 2004, Mr. Hackett was named a Knight Commander of the Papal Order of Saint Gregory the Great, one of the highest Papal honors.

He has served as North America President of Caritas Internationalis, the confederation of humanitarian agencies of the global Catholic Church. He serves on the boards of the Pontifical Commission Cor Unum, the Vatican body that coordinates the Church’s charitable work; Migration & Refugee Services—U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; International Policy Committee—U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; and the Africa Society. He has served on the advisory committees of the Time Global Health Summit; Woodrow Wilson Institute, Committee on Failed States; Changing the Present, a non-profit corporation operated by Important Gifts, Inc.; and the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs, and was recently named to Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley’s International Advisory Council.

Mr. Hackett lives in Baltimore with his wife and two children.