Vincent and Anne Mai
/SOURCE OF WEALTH: AEA Investors
FUNDING AREAS: Education & Youth, Policy & Global, Human Services
OVERVIEW: Vincent Mai, his wife Anne, and family conduct their philanthropy through the Mai Family Foundation. Interests include education and organizations that work to overcome discrimination and promote reconciliation. Their work is concentrated in South Africa, Mai’s home country, and in the United States.
According to available tax filings, the Mai Family Foundation disbursed $4.74 million in grants in 2017.
BACKGROUND: Vincent Mai grew up on a farm in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, and attended the University of Cape Town. He started his career in 1965 at S.G. Warburg and Co., Ltd., a London-based merchant banking firm, and in 1969 moved to New York to work on Warburg's US business. Mai was a managing director of Lehman Brothers and later joined AEA Investors, where he was CEO and chairman. Mai is the chairman and CEO of Cranemere, LLC, since the firm's founding in 2012.
ISSUES:
EDUCATION & YOUTH: The Mai family is strongly interested in education, including early childhood development. Mai chaired the board of trustees of Sesame Workshop and still supports the outfit. Other grantees include Bank Street School, Prep for Prep, New Visions for Public Schools, and Juilliard School, where Mai is a trustee.
POLICY & GLOBAL: Anne Mai sits on the board of Network 20/20, whose mission is to “develop foreign policy fluency in rising and established leaders from diverse backgrounds.” Vincent is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and served on its board from 1998 to 2004.
Other grantees include Brennan Center for Justice, International Center for Transitional Justice, International Fund for Animal Welfare, and Shared Interest, which engages in “impact investing in Southern Africa through loan guarantees for businesses and farms.”
HUMAN SERVICES: Anne is a social worker by profession and has been a board member of Fountain House since the late 1990s. Fountain House provides services for people with severe and persistent mental illness and also advocates on their behalf. The family has steadily supported the organization.
LOOKING FORWARD: The foundation is still the very early phases of exploration and, as such, very much in flux.
CONTACT:
The Mai Family Foundation
500 Fifth Ave. 37Fl.
New York City, NY 10110
