2013 Forty Under 40: Matt MacGregor

GIVING BACK “Regardless of what sector I end up with long term, I always want to be engaged with non-profits. And not just by donating. I wanted to be actively engaged with transforming organizations that I think do a lot for the community—potentially as a board member or as a staff member.”

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Age: 31

Executive Director, Timmy Global Health

In 2009, Matt MacGregor was working as a consultant in Vietnam when Chuck Dietzen, the founder of Timmy Global Health, asked him to apply for the executive director’s job at Timmy.

MacGregor knew the organization; he’d been a Timmy volunteer in Ecuador five years earlier, and he loved the work it does sending doctors abroad to give underserved people access to quality health care.

But he hadn’t thought about running a not-for-profit; the Rhode Island native earned his bachelor’s in history and international affairs, and his master’s in international affairs and economics at Tufts University. In addition, Timmy Global Health was underperforming, and MacGregor had never been to Indianapolis.

“I thought about what I wanted to do,” MacGregor said, “and took a huge leap of faith.”

Some 3-1/2 years later, he’s guided Timmy Global Health to much firmer footing by focusing the mission on student empowerment and global health.

When MacGregor took over, the organization was sending 100 volunteers abroad each year. Now it’s 500 to 550. The budget, including in-kind goods and services, has grown to $3.1 million, up from $1.8 million, and Timmy is now affiliated with nearly 30 universities, compared with eight when he took over.

He’s also helped set a new vision for Timmy Global Health, which labels itself “an Indianapolis-based nonprofit that expands access to health care and empowers students and volunteers to tackle today’s most pressing global health challenges.”

“We really define ourselves now as an organization that’s trying to create a movement of young people who care about health disparities and want to transform the lives of patients all around the world,” he said. “That is what Timmy always has done, but it was never presented that way in the past.”

MacGregor said he’s pleased with what’s happened with Timmy.

“I’ve seen through this organization that when you manage an organization well,” he said, “you can transform lots of lives.”•