St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's fundraiser selects new CEO in midst of global expansion

Key Points

• ALSAC promoted Ike Anand to president and CEO as it navigates global expansion and a $12.9 billion six-year plan to advance pediatric cancer treatments.
• The fundraising arm raised more than $2.5 billion for St. Jude in 2024 amid an increasingly complex US funding landscape.
• Anand’s for-profit background at Expedia Group drives a data-driven culture, including the pioneering use of artificial intelligence in donor communications while safeguarding privacy.
• Despite potential impacts from US health policy shifts, ALSAC’s mission to provide free treatment to all children with cancer worldwide remains unchanged.

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 importance of data, nurturing customer relationships, and managing teams around the world – experiences he says helps at ALSAC. “We have a culture here now of testing and learning, getting better at what we do and ultimately understanding that we’re not really competing against anybody else,” he said. “We are trying to be better at what we do.”

One area where Anand has drawn attention is incorporating artificial intelligence into ALSAC’s fundraising. Its initiative of using AI to help guide its communications with donors has influenced multiple programs in philanthropy.

Anand is quick to point out that ALSAC does not use donors’ specific data to communicate to them individually, but does use aggregated data to make decisions about what information may interest certain types of donors. “For us, it is really, really vital that the consumers have trust in us and that they see us valuing their privacy, that they see us valuing their information and using it in the right manner,” he said. “And so we’re really careful about it.”

Health care policy changes from President Donald Trump's administration may impact rural hospitals and increase the need for St. Jude's services, which include free treatment for children with cancer. However, Anand says that St. Jude and ALSAC see it as their mission to care for all 400,000 children around the world diagnosed with cancer, so the changes do not really change their focus.

“Our mission is a unifying mission," he said. “We are not a political organization. I think everybody agrees that saving children is one of the most important things we can do as humanity.”

Marlo Thomas, National Outreach Director for St. Jude and daughter of the late entertainer and philanthropist Danny Thomas who founded ALSAC and St. Jude, said that goal has remained the same.

“When my father founded St. Jude with a dream that no child should die in the dawn of life, he meant no child anywhere,” she said in a statement. “Ike Anand is the perfect person to carry that dream forward and help continue to expand our mission globally."

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