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Contributor
Stephen Bennett
President and Chief Executive Officer, United Cerebral Palsy
Stephen Bennett leads the international non-profit United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) as President and CEO. He has a 30-year history of success in business development, strategic planning, financial management, marketing, event production, and local and national public policy, having started his career as a Peace Corps/VISTA volunteer in South Central Los Angeles in the aftermath of the Watts riots.
As Executive Director of UCP of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties from 1978-1986, he developed housing and assisted living facilities and advanced public policy for people with disabilities at both the state and federal levels. Bennett was the CEO of AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) from 1989-1992, where he was credited with saving one of the nation’s largest AIDS service organizations from bankruptcy.
In 1992, he created and headed a national consulting practice focused on health care enterprises. The firm assisted for-profit and not-for-profit business through strategic consulting by developing business strategies and directing projects in managed care, financing, regional strategy, market strategy, public policy and e-health.
Bennett has served as adjunct faculty at the UCLA Anderson School of Management and at Pepperdine University. Throughout his career he has volunteered his talents to public service causes, working in mental health, breast cancer and disabilities. He has served on various boards, including ANGLE, Leadership 18, and the National Institute for the Severely Handicapped. He is a founding board member of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and he currently chairs the Disability PAC. He serves on various non-profit and philanthropic boards, including that of the ARCUS Foundation, a leading global foundation advancing pressing social justice and conservation issues.
A lifelong champion for civil rights for people with disabilities, Bennett uses his successful business experience to focus on the mission driven business of non-profit organizations so they can succeed in a challenging business climate.