Gerald Lewis New Executive Director of the Washington Food Coalition

The Washington Food Coalition is pleased to announce Gerald Lewis as the new Executive Director. Gerald is a successful business owner and nonprofit executive with 40 years of leadership experience in both the private sector and international relief and development.  He was born into an entrepreneurial family with a diverse range of businesses, including purebred cattle ranches in Oregon, Washington and Montana.  He launched two successful enterprises serving national and international clienteles, achieving market-leading brands by the age of 30.

In their humanitarian service, Gerald and his wife Vicky were privileged to reside with their two children in Central America, Middle East, Africa, Mediterranean, Southeast Asia and the USA. Gerald has served as a national director in three countries, and as a regional vice president for major international relief and development agencies. 

Gerald's work has taken him to more than 130 countries, designing and implementing large scale emergency response initiatives in zones of conflict or disaster affected populations, as well as diverse integrated development portfolios spanning water and sanitation, nutrition, heath, education, agriculture, and economic development. Including large food security relief food initiatives serving hundreds of thousands displaced persons, refugees, and populations living in was zones.

For the past decade Gerald served in a succession of innovation focused roles with World Vision International (WVI); five years as the global director for partnering and collaboration, and most recently as the senior advisor for global innovation and collaboration.  

With a primary focus on cross-sector partnering and the role of the private sector in sustainable development, Gerald helped spearhead groundbreaking global research in 2008 on Business-Nonprofit partnerships in collaboration with Accenture Development Partnerships and International Business Leaders Forum. 

In 2013 Gerald with four partners launched a social enterprise company, Point Innovate LLC, to provide solar energy solutions to combat energy poverty in developing countries, with a primary focus on Africa, where more than 80% of the population have no reliable access to electricity.  

Gerald and Vicky reside on a small ranch near Enumclaw, WA. 

Gerald-

"My greatest passion is for people. I have been described as someone who has no strangers, only friends I haven’t met yet. My greatest joy is in mentoring and growing new leaders, and I believe that building and empowering others is the only legacy one leaves behind. This passion has also enabled me to lead large organizations through a transformation process to become truly externally oriented, excelling in engagement with all stakeholders - at the highest levels of government, international businesses, or in the local community. I am keen to explore how I can contribute my skills and passions with Washington Food Coalition’s board, staff, member organizations and other stakeholders to make great strides in eliminating hunger in Washington State."