THOMAS TIGHE

President and CEO, Direct Relief

Thomas Tighe has served as President and CEO of Direct Relief, a nonprofit humanitarian medical organization, since October 2000. Direct Relief, established in Santa Barbara in 1948 and funded entirely with private support, provides medical material assistance to locally run health programs around the world and in the US. Since Tighe’s arrival, the organization has provided cash grants of more than $40 million and furnished more than $4 billion essential medicines, equipment, and supplies to support health services for low-income people in 88 developing countries and in all 50 U.S. states, where the organization conducts the country’s largest nonprofit charitable medicines program. From 1995 to 2000, Tighe served as Chief of Staff and Chief Operating Officer of the Peace Corps, overseeing day-to-day operations of the agency’s worldwide programs and a resurgent growth of the agency to a 27-year high. From 1993 to 1995, Tighe served as Associate General Counsel of the Peace Corps, negotiating bilateral agreements to initiate Peace Corps programs in South Africa and China. From 1989 to 1993, he served as Associate Counsel on the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, conducting oversight and developing legislation related to veterans’ mental-health care, special disability programs, drug and alcohol treatment, and services for homeless veterans. Tighe also handled collateral duties related to foreign aid and the Peace Corps. A 1982 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, Tighe received a JD in 1985 from the University of California, Hastings College of Law and an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in May 2003.