Cordell Brown

Cordell joined Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors in February, 2017. He provides leadership for business systems, grants management, and knowledge management. He is responsible for all non-IT components of systems management including information design and management, workflow analysis, training, and user adoption. He directly manages the grants and contracts management team, overseeing the compliance and efficiency of the $300 million grant portfolio, driving policy, and monitoring of our largest client-facing system. Additionally, Cordell leads the knowledge management team, focused on knowledge capture and knowledge dissemination strategies, leveraging people, process, and technology to facilitate learning, training, and onboarding across the organization. He drives the effectiveness and efficiency of operations, internal systems, organizational learning, policies and procedures, and ensures those policies and practices are reflected in the systems that support them.

Cordell holds a strong quantitative and qualitative background in strategic planning, sophisticated metric and trend analysis, and program/project management. With over ten years of experience in nonprofit leadership, serving as Chairman of the Board and Strategic Planning Officer of CapraCare, he leads an organization dedicated to providing health services and community development in Haiti. Previously, an Assistant Vice President at MetLife, Cordell held a broad range of diverse roles. As a senior leader in Strategic Planning, he was responsible for driving and implementing strategic planning policies and processes, monitoring performance against plan, and supporting significant initiatives that drive results. Prior to that, he was a Leadership & Management Development Director, where he helped transform the MetLife culture from a mutual company to a high-performance public company, coaching over 1600 senior and executive leaders. His other prior roles and responsibilities included IT Strategy & Planning Director, Strategic Human Resources Director, and IT Project Manager.

Cordell’s Board service includes, Chairman & Strategic Planning Officer of CapraCare, Inc. and Vice-President of Diving For Life, Inc. He is a Fordham University graduate, who received a double-major B.A. degree in Mathematics and Computer Science, then a double-major MBA in Management, and Information & Communications Systems, graduating summa cum laude and first in his class. He also holds a Certificate in Executive Nonprofit Leadership from the Fordham Graduate School of Social Service, and is a certified Facilitator, from Development Dimensions International. Cordell is a native New Yorker who enjoys travel, downhill skiing, and SCUBA diving around the world.

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