New York, New York, United States
Brian Mullaney is the founder and former CEO of Smile Train, the world's largest cleft charity. Brian led a very talented, hard-working team of 25 employees who developed partners and programs in 92 of the world's poorest countries. Created a fundraising program that earned the trust and suepport of 2+ million donors and to date has raised almost $2 billion. And most importantly, helped provide more than $2 million free cleft surgeries for children who could never afford it. When Smile Train's surplus of unused donations reached $150 million, and cleft surgeries began to decline, Mullaney and virtually his entire senior management team left Smile Train to launch WonderWork, another surgical charity, to help children suffering with clubfoot, burns and blindness. WonderWork raised $55+ million and helped provide 250,000+ surgeries in just five years, before it was forced into bankruptcy in 2016. Over his 30-year non-profit career, Mullaney helped raise $1+ billion and helped provide 2+ million surgeries in developing countries. Mullaney has a for-profit, marketing, advertising and film background which helped him conceive, produce and distribute the Oscar-winning documentary, Smile Pinki which raised tens of millions for cleft surgeries. And he also produced the viral video on blindness, FirstSight, which has been viewed by 20+ million people and generated donations from 90+ countries. Mullaney has appeared on and in: CNN, The New York Times, TIME Magazine, The Daily News, Good Morning America, Harvard Magazine and his work has been featured in many books including best-sellers, Think Like A Freak (Steve Levitt, Stephen Dubner), A Path Appears Pulitzer prize winning authors Nick Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn), and The Why Axis (Prof. John List). Mullaney has given speeches and talks at Harvard University, MIT Sloan School of Business, Columbia University, Princeton, Syracuse, The Harvard Club of New York, The Asia Society, The Winsor School for Girls, The Fessenden School, Columbia Preparatory & Grammar School, The Hopkins School and The Belmont Hill School. Mullaney was the first foreigner to receive the prestigious Soong Ching Ling Camphor Tree award in China.
WonderWork provided almost 100,000 free, life-changing surgeries a year for poor children and adults in developing countries who are suffering with clubfoot, burns or blindness. Each of these problems can be solved through a miracle surgery that costs as little as $25 and takes as little as 5 minutes. Instead of sending volunteers on medical missions, WonderWork empowered local doctors through free training, equipment and financial aid. This approach provides very safe, high-quality and inexpensive surgeries while helping very poor but very proud communities become self-sufficient over time. WonderWork provided free surgeries in 40 of the world's poorest countries with just 9 employees and minimal administrative costs.
Smile Train is the world's largest cleft charity providing 100,000+ free surgeries a year in 90 of the world's poorest countries. Since inception, Smile Train has provided almost 2 million free cleft surgeries and has raised almost $2 billion in donations. As Founder, and President of Smile Train for 10+ years, Mullaney led the team that built Smile Train from scratch into the world's largest cleft charity with more than 1,500 partner hospitals in 90+ of the world's poorest countries. Mullaney helped grow Smile Train's donor base from 100 donors in 2001 to 3,000,000+ donors. One out of every 100 Americans is a Smile Train donor. Today, with a massive surplus of $500+ million of unused donations, Smile Train has more than enough money to provide millions of free surgeries over the next decade.
Schell/Mullaney was one of America's first marketing agencies dedicated to helping high tech clients. For its client Dow Jones, Schell/Mullaney launched the first digital version of the Wall Street Journal and helped Computer Associates grew revenues from $600 million to $6 billion. In 1996, Schell/Mullaney was sold to CKS Partners for $15 million.