Richard Stearns

A voice for the voiceless.

Richard Stearns’ life took an unexpected turn in 1998. At the time, he was the CEO of Lenox, Inc. where he was thriving and growing in his business career; however, he began to feel led to leave his position and serve those affected by poverty around the world.

Following God’s prompting, Stearns resigned from Lenox and accepted a new position as president of World Vision— a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. Since becoming president in 1998, Stearns has been able to put his faith into action daily by working to improve the lives of the poor. Over the years, he has had the opportunity to visit more than 40 of the nearly 100 countries where World Vision works, and has a first-hand understanding of the issues that affect the poor.

“Ending systematic poverty is possible if individual Christians respond and if the whole church exercises its massive resources and voice," wrote Stearns in an article from 2012 titled “Christians Really Do Reduce Poverty”.

Today, Stearns is known among both Christian and secular audiences as a trustworthy voice illuminating the critical issues that affect the world’s poor, and urging those who can to make a difference. He is also the author of two books: The Hole in Our Gospel and Unfinished. The books address the importance of living out the whole gospel and brining the good news to a hurting world.

Driven by his passion to raise awareness and support for poverty and justice issues, Stearns appears regularly as a commentator on some of the top issues of our day in outlets including Christianity Today, Relevant magazine, Fox News and Huffington Post. He speaks in churches regularly and in recent years has spoken at the Lausanne Conference, Willow Creek’s Global Leadership Summit, the Christian Leadership Alliance, Movement Day, Worship Together and dozens of other conferences.

Leaving a legacy.

Stearns’ greatest legacy will be his leadership in calling on the Church in America to respond to some of the greatest needs of our time, most notably the HIV/AIDS pandemic and now the global refugee crisis.

Stearns holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Stearns and his wife, Reneé, live in Bellevue, Washington, and have supported World Vision since 1984. They have five children of their own – plus millions more around the world.