Darren Walker
President of the National Gallery of ArtWikipedia
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Search complete. 17 mentions across 7 episodes found for "Darren Walker".
Oct 26, 2026
David RubensteinHOST
Hello, I'm David Rubenstein.
David RubensteinHOST
I'm going to be in conversation today with Darren Walker, who is the president of the National Gallery of Art, the immediate past president of the Ford Foundation, and for the purposes of this discussion, the author of The Idea of America, Reflections on Inequality, Democracy, and the Values We Share.
David RubensteinHOST
We're coming to you from the New York Historical's Robert H. Smith Auditorium.
David RubensteinHOST
Darren, thank you very much for coming.
Darren WalkerGUEST
In fact, one really interesting anecdote about my experience is as head of the Student Union and also president of this thing called the Friar Society, brought and hosted with the governor this event for our alumni.
Darren WalkerGUEST
And as I introduced myself to various people, I extended my hand to this very nice Texas lady with big hair.
Darren WalkerGUEST
And I said, hello, I'm Darren Walker.
Darren WalkerGUEST
And she said, I'd like a gin and tonic, please.
Tammy TibbettsGUEST
Well, I'm drawn to leaders in transition.
Tammy TibbettsGUEST
So I've been watching the president, former and current of the Ford Foundation, because I think it's interesting to see, you know, Darren Walker after 12 years as president, how he's now moved into the entertainment world.
Tammy TibbettsGUEST
And how do you... cross-pollinate with what you learn in one sector to another.
Tammy TibbettsGUEST
And then, of course, for a new leader coming in, leading a strategy reboot, change management.
Bryan StevensonGUEST
And so I've been pleased that there has been an openness and, and responsiveness at Ford and other foundations.
Bryan StevensonGUEST
Darren Walker, who was the president during most of my time, you know, became a real leader in pushing philanthropy to kind of adjust in this way, and I, I'm proud of that, and, uh, there's still a lot more work to be done.
Bryan StevensonGUEST
I'll be leaving the Ford Foundation, uh, this year, but I regard it as time well spent.
Bryan StevensonGUEST
I really do think we always have room to think critically about the structures that we inherit at foundations, and I think Ford in particular has done a good job at, at being open to that and rethinking that, and, and I'm hoping that that will continue after I leave.
Blakely ThorntonHOST
My, a friend from my high school actually bought his personal residence, and she recently sold it to now ow- it's owned by a Black person.
Justin SylvesterHOST
Daren Walker.
Blakely ThorntonHOST
Yeah.
Justin SylvesterHOST
My friend.
speaker_0HOST
It's massive.
speaker_1HOST
And following this cash injection, Darren Walker was appointed as the new CEO.
speaker_0HOST
Which is such an interesting choice because Walker's background is entirely outside the traditional Hollywood executive track.
speaker_1HOST
Yeah.
speaker_0HOST
He championed complex, slow burn narratives like Succession, shows that required time to find an audience but eventually became cultural institutions.
speaker_1HOST
He fundamentally understands the mechanics of turning expensive, risky art into highly profitable defining brands.
speaker_0HOST
So you combine Plepler's legacy of premium storytelling with Laurene Powell Jobs' immense tech wealth, and then you place Darren Walker at the helm.
speaker_1HOST
It's quite the trio.
Glen GalaichGUEST
I've never been able to get my head around it.
Glen GalaichGUEST
And some of the most prominent... leaders in the foundation sector, perhaps the most prominent prior to Darren Walker kind of taking the reins at Ford was Larry Kramer at the Hewlett Foundation, who is a major proponent of perpetuity.
Glen GalaichGUEST
And his argument was and is that you need to be around, the Hewletts of the world are so important as institutions, and we need to be around to deal with problems in the future.
Glen GalaichGUEST
And then I always put a parentheses on that.
Antony Bugg-LevineGUEST
And this, I think, goes back to my experience in the 90s sitting in South Africa saying, we know the money is out there.
Antony Bugg-LevineGUEST
Why is it not flowing to us in the form of foreign direct investment? And so whether it was with the trying to arrange loans for a cashew nut processing plant south of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean coast, whether it's talking about that community in northern South Africa or the work I was doing in Rockefeller, I think the unifying question was always, How do we get the money from where it is to where it can be mobilized and harnessed to solve social challenges? And so that insight led me at Rockefeller Foundation to pitch to my boss at the time, Darren Walker, who then subsequently earned legendary status as the head of the Ford Foundation.
Antony Bugg-LevineGUEST
And then the president of Rockefeller Foundation, Judith Rodin, on the board, this idea that we could intentionally... and we call it harnessing the power of impact investing was initiative.
Antony Bugg-LevineGUEST
And so I ended up going to the board of the Rock Foundation and saying, let's do an initiative where we combine grant making with investments we do ourselves, along with work we can do organizing people and communications to create the conditions in which more of the $100 trillion that is out there being invested for profit can flow to the things that we know are going to ultimately support solving the things this institution is working on.
Antony Bugg-LevineGUEST
But yeah, what we did wasn't revolutionary, but it did seem like it was able to...
Antony Bugg-LevineGUEST
The timing was right and it would work together with the timing to make this happen.
Antony Bugg-LevineGUEST
One thing that Darren Walker, who was my boss at the time, said to me was, don't underestimate...
Antony Bugg-LevineGUEST
What you can do if you use the Rockefeller Foundation brand in a valuable way.