Direct Relief Names Three to Its Board of Directors

Direct Relief has appointed Emma Carrasco and Adam Cooper to the organization’s Board of Directors, each bringing business and nonprofit acumen to the organization’s growing humanitarian efforts.

Direct Relief chair emeritus Mark Schwartz was also recently appointed as a director, returning to the organization’s board after previously serving for 10 years.

The new board appointments come at a time of significant growth for the organization’s global humanitarian response efforts, including being the largest charitable provider of Personal Protective Equipment worldwide in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and as the largest private provider of medicines and medical supplies into Ukraine since the onset of the war in Ukraine.

“Direct Relief is thrilled to welcome these impressively accomplished individuals to its board,” said Mark Linehan, board chair. “Each of their unique perspectives, experience, and interests will support the advancement of the organization’s mission of mobilizing essential medical and other resources across the U.S. and around the world.”

Carrasco is senior vice president/corporate affairs at NBCUniversal News Group. She joined NBCU News Group from National Geographic Society, where she served as chief marketing and communications officer and SVP of global strategy since 2016.

She previously spent four years at NPR as chief marketing officer and senior vice president for audience development; and served as executive vice president at Miami-based marketing agency RepúblicaHavas.

Until recently, Carrasco was a board member of Toast Ale, a certified B Corporation dedicated to eradicating food waste.

Cooper served for 18 years as senior managing director and general counsel of Citadel LLC, where he oversaw global legal, compliance, transaction management, and regulatory affairs functions.

Following Citadel, he served as chair of the Advisory Board of Driehaus Capital Management. Among other financial markets industry board and nonprofit work, Cooper has served on the Northwestern Memorial Hospital Foundation Board and Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law Board, and was the Law Board’s chair, 2018-2020. He spent the first 12 years of his career at the law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman.

Schwartz is a co-founder/co-managing partner of KSHFO, LLC, a multi-family office that focuses on investments in technology and real estate. He was formerly the chairman and CEO of Specialty Merchandise Corporation, an import distribution company. Schwartz has also served as vice president at Goldman Sachs.

He received his MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, where he served on the Management Board, and his BA from UCSB, where he is a current trustee of the UC Santa Barbara Foundation.

Schwartz previously served on the Direct Relief Board of Directors, 2012-21, as chairman, 2018-20.

The Direct Relief Board of Directors will serve three-year terms.

For more about DRI, visit https://www.DirectRelief.org.