St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s fundraising organization, ALSAC, promoted Ike Anand Tuesday to become its new president and chief executive officer.
The leadership change comes as ALSAC — which raised more than $2.5 billion for the Memphis-based hospital in 2024, according to tax filings – navigates a global expansion and an increasingly complicated funding landscape in the United States.
“My role is to make sure that ALSAC is able to deliver on its promises to St. Jude so that St. Jude can continue to dream big,” said Anand, who had been ALSAC’s chief operating officer since 2020. “And ALSAC has a lot of initiatives in the pipeline to make sure that that happens.”
Dr. Frederick M. Azar, chairman of ALSAC’s board of directors, said Anand had been instrumental in redefining the organization’s strategic direction, including its six-year $12.9 billion plan to provide pediatric cancer cures and treatments globally, and will help it continue to grow. “Throughout his tenure, Ike has demonstrated visionary leadership and an unwavering commitment to the St. Jude mission,” Azar said in a statement.
For Anand, who spent 15 years at travel tech firm Expedia Group and the rest of his career at other for-profit businesses, heading a nonprofit, even one as large and influential as ALSAC, was not an early life goal. But the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on his family and friends changed that.
“I was hunting to do something that makes me feel valuable and purpose-driven in this world,” Anand said. “And what I found, it was the perfect match.”
At Expedia, he learned the importanc