(Los Angeles) August 15, 2018 – The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation today announced the retirement of Edmund “Ed” Cain, vice president of grant programs, effective December 31, 2018. Cain joined the Foundation in 2006 and led all domestic and international grant program work as well as strategic planning for the organization.
“It has been my honor to serve the mission and work of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation,” said Cain, “This capstone to an almost 50 year career promoting sustainable development has been a particularly rewarding chapter of my life. I will be forever grateful for the partnerships and friendships I’ve made during this time.”
Cain joined the Hilton Foundation from The Carter Center in Atlanta, where as director of the Global Development Initiative, he supported President Carter in advancing the Center’s mission of advancing peace, fighting disease and building hope by working with post-conflict countries in the formulation of national development strategies. Prior to that, Cain had a long career with the United Nations (UN) serving in New York, Malaysia, Myanmar and Afghanistan, and as a UN Resident Coordinator in Turkey and Egypt.
“Ed has demonstrated, throughout his career, a deep value for others, firmly believing that only through creating opportunity and expanding people’s choices can lives be improved,” said Peter Laugharn, Hilton Foundation president and CEO. “Like our founder, Conrad N. Hilton, Ed believes in ‘thinking and acting big,’ a philosophy he applied in leading the Hilton Foundation and philanthropy toward an understanding of and support for the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He has been a proponent for the unprecedented opportunity the SDGs provide as an aspirational framework to guide cooperation among government, business, civil society and philanthropy, all toward advancing sustainable human development. He will leave a lasting positive mark on the Foundation’s efforts to improve people’s lives.”
Cain led his program team’s development of the Hilton Foundation’s Philanthropic Approach, which articulates the Foundation’s strategic investments in program solutions, systems change and learning as the means to achieving greatest impact. He also built a team that enabled the Foundation to forge respectful and trusting relationships with grantees and other partners, resulting in the Foundation receiving its highest marks ever in the industry-recognized Grantee Perception Report.
“It has been a pleasure working with Ed over the last dozen years,” said Steve Hilton, chairman of the Hilton Foundation board and grandson of its founder, Conrad N. Hilton. “During his time at the Foundation, Ed has provided exemplary leadership in overseeing the development of our strategies. Ed has helped to build and mentor our program staff and leaves behind a powerful legacy of highly talented and passionately committed team members. Speaking for our entire board, we are extremely grateful for his many contributions to the Foundation and wish him all the best.”