The Pittsburgh Foundation

Maxwell King

The Pittsburgh Foundation Names Maxwell King President and CEO
Former Board Member, Foundation Community Leader and Journalist Returns to Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH, Pa., August 15, 2014 -- The Board of Directors of The Pittsburgh Foundation today announced the appointment of Maxwell King as the new president and chief executive officer of the nation’s 14th largest community foundation. He succeeds Grant Oliphant who recently became president of The Heinz Endowments following six years as CEO of The Pittsburgh Foundation. Mr. Oliphant and Mr. King had previously worked at The Heinz Endowments.

Mr. King will begin a five-year term as The Pittsburgh Foundation’s chief executive in mid-September. He and his wife, Margaret Ann, will be returning to Pittsburgh from Vermont where they have lived since 2012.

In announcing Mr. King’s appointment, Dr. Edith Shapira, Chair of the Board of Directors, praised the Board’s unanimous decision and enthusiasm for his return to Pittsburgh in order to lead The Pittsburgh Foundation. “When Max left Pittsburgh, the region lost an important leader, and he has been missed,” said Dr. Shapira.  “Max King is a smart, thoughtful and charismatic leader who knows and loves Pittsburgh. It was important for the Foundation to lock-in a strong community leader to take us forward and there’s nobody better to do that than Max King. We are thrilled that he is returning to Pittsburgh. We are also very grateful to the Foundation’s Chief Financial Officer Molly Beerman who did an outstanding job in assuming additional responsibilities as interim CEO during this transition,” she added.

Commenting on his new leadership role at The Pittsburgh Foundation, Mr. King said, “The opportunity to come back and be a part of The Pittsburgh Foundation is very motivating to me. Peggy and I love Pittsburgh, and we are very happy to rejoin this community. Pittsburgh is a very exciting place right now and so is The Pittsburgh Foundation following the outstanding work of Grant Oliphant and his team in recent years. I am grateful to the Foundation’s Board for entrusting me to lead an already strong organization with an outstanding staff which is well-regarded nationally. I look forward to serving the Pittsburgh community and to collaborating with stakeholders in addressing issues important to the region’s well-being and outlook.”

Currently, Mr. King is a Senior Fellow of the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media where he is writing the first-ever full biography of Fred Rogers which is anticipated to be completed by the end of 2015. Mr. King served for two years as director of the Fred Rogers Center at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa. 

Mr. King’s career has spanned more than four decades, and has included time as an editor and writer on newspapers and magazines, leadership of two important institutions in the American philanthropic community, and service on numerous civic boards and committees, including serving on the board of The Pittsburgh Foundation. He served almost eight years as the editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer in the 1990s, nine years as the president of The Heinz Endowments, and six years on the board of the National Council on Foundations, including two years as chair. Mr. King received his Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude from Harvard University in 1967, and attended the Stanford Executive Program at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business.

In 2013, The Pittsburgh Foundation exceeded $1 billion in total assets for the first time in its 69-year history, representing asset growth of 33 percent since the end of 2007. Also, last year the Foundation raised almost $60 million, the third highest in its history and continuing a trend that has seen the organization strengthen its annual fundraising, including successive records set over the previous three years. Currently, the Foundation has more than 1,900 individual donor funds.