After a year-long search, United Way of King County has turned to a familiar face for its next President and CEO.  United Way’s Board of Directors announced today that former Board chair Blair Hamilton Taylor will step into the role on July 14.

A nationally recognized leader whose executive experience spans the private, public, and nonprofit sectors, Taylor will be United Way’s third president and CEO since 2000. The move marks a homecoming for Taylor, who served on United Way’s Board of Directors from 2016-2020, including as Board chair from 2016-2017.

He called his United Way homecoming “a truly exciting moment.”

“It is an honor and privilege to join the United Way of King County at this very important time for the organization and the region,” said Taylor. “The opportunity to work with the outstanding team and board of an organization I’ve supported and admired for many years is a dream come true.

“The United Way has a history of uniting people and bridging gaps to drive meaningful, lasting community change at ground level,” Taylor added. “It is an organization whose mission of bringing together communities is more important now than ever before.”

A familiar face in both the Seattle business and nonprofit community, Taylor currently chairs the board of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle and serves on the Advisory Board of the Neurosciences Institute at the University of Washington.

He previously served in several leadership roles at Starbucks, managing global human resources, corporate social responsibility, community affairs, government affairs, and global philanthropy.  Taylor also served as CEO of both the Los Angeles Urban League and President Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper Alliance.

As United Way president and CEO, Taylor succeeds Gordon McHenry, Jr., who stepped down as CEO last July but remained United Way President until December. Since last July, Dr. Catherine Cushinberry has served as the organization’s interim CEO.

One of the largest local agencies in the 1,100-member United Way Worldwide sphere, United Way of King County works side by side with partners to build an equitable future. Our programming and strategic focus is to support the well-being of King County residents—investing in access to financial resources, quality education, enough to eat, and a safe place to call home—while also working to transform inequitable systems.

“Blair brings an exceptional breadth of leadership experience across the corporate, nonprofit, and public sectors, along with a deep and unwavering commitment to advancing equity and opportunity in our communities. His track record of driving transformative impact makes him uniquely suited to lead United Way of King County into its next chapter,” said Lisa Chin, United Way board chair.

“Over the course of his distinguished career, Blair has demonstrated the power of cross-sector collaboration to create lasting change,” Chin added. “His visionary leadership and proven ability to align organizations around a shared purpose will be invaluable as United Way of King County continues to expand its impact across the region.”

Taylor has also served in academic roles at the UCLA Anderson School of Management and, most recently, at Arizona State University, where he’s been an Executive in Residence and Adjunct Professor of Cross-Sector Collaboration.

To learn more about United Way of King County leadership, click here.