By David Treadwell

In April 2006, Jeff Flug had it all: a lucrative Wall Street job with limitless prospects; a spacious Park Avenue apartment; a supportive wife; and three happy, healthy daughters. But for Flug, all wasn’t enough. At age 44, he quit his job and embarked on a new venture to help eliminate poverty and hunger around the world. In the process, he discovered the greatest reward: the gift of giving.

Jeff Flug ’84 greets visitors warmly in his simply furnished, 13th-floor office on Park Avenue. After a few pleasantries, this confident go-getter reveals the passion that led him to forsake a top managerial position with the investment bank JPMorgan.

“Did you know that over one billion people in the world live on less than a dollar a day?” he asks. “And that another one and a half billion live on between one and two dollars a day? That’s just wrong.”

Flug left JPMorgan in 2006 to take the reins at Millennium Promise, an organization with an extraordinary humanitarian goal: to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger around the world. (For more about Millennium Promise, see below).

“We are blessed in this country with plenty, and with that gift comes a real responsibility to assist those who are suffering,” explains Flug. “In my work, I often think of a quote by Winston Churchill: ‘We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.’”

For many years, Flug made a very fine living in the financial sector, building on a solid start at UMass Amherst. An accounting major, he assumed leadership positions in the Student Credit Union and during his senior year passed the CPA exam on his first try. After graduating summa cum laude, Flug began his meteoric rise at the accounting firm of Price Waterhouse. Two years later, he earned his MBA at Columbia in finance. Then he landed a job as an associate at Goldman Sachs, working most days from 7 a.m. until 11 p.m. From there, he moved up to the “day desk,” where he began serving his own large clients.

“It was fabulous,” he recalls. “Here I was, only 30 years old, working on the trading floor alongside bright, energetic people, and interacting with 45- and 50-year-old CIOs and CFOs. I had developed great business relationships and established solid credibility.”

In 1995, Goldman Sachs put Flug in charge of the New York desk, and two years later, named him head of global derivatives sales worldwide, a position in which he managed 40 people, oversaw more than $100 million in sales, and traveled extensively to London, Tokyo, and other world financial centers.

“Life was great. I had a terrific job, and I was living in Manhattan with my wonderful wife, Sheryl, and three daughters, Samara, Hayley, and Jenna,” he says.

Chase Manhattan Bank aggressively wooed Flug and eventually persuaded him to join its ranks. A few months later, Chase merged with JPMorgan and tapped Flug to be national sales manager. He oversaw $1 billion in sales, a figure which ballooned to $2.2 billion under his management.

“It was the end of 2004, and it was time to catch my breath,” recalls Flug. “I began asking myself, ‘Is this it? Is this what life is about?’ I had built relationships around the world. But I had attended exactly zero of my three daughters’ basketball games, violin recitals, or plays. My wife told me that when they moved out of the house I’d regret the time I hadn’t spend with them. And she was right.”

Flug was granted a seven-month sabbatical from JPMorgan. “It wasn’t that typical to do,” notes Jeff, “as there were 15 others right behind me waiting to take my job.” Beginning in January 2005, Flug got to know his children (“I’d see them off to school and take them for hot chocolate”), traveled (“China, Utah, Alaska, Italy”), read, and exercised.

Refreshed, he returned to JPMorgan in October but soon discovered that his heart wasn’t in it. “I had realized there was more to life,” he says. He considered several options, such as sticking with it for five more years or taking more time off to play around and travel. Those choices felt flat, empty. Instead he heeded Churchill’s advice and decided to “make a life” by becoming involved in a great cause.

True to his nature, Flug worked diligently to find a worthy one, cold-calling such organizations as CARE, the Peace Corps, and Save the Children. Plans took shape to bring the whole family for a nine-month stay abroad to help fund a clinic and build a school. Then an executive recruitment firm approached Flug about becoming the head of Millennium Promise, an exciting new NGO (non-governmental organization).

“I knew what an LBO (leveraged buyout) was, but I had no idea what an NGO was,” laughs Flug.

He had heard of Jeff Sachs, the co-founder of Millennium Promise, though. Sachs is an internationally renowned macroeconomist and author of the landmark book The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time. “I told them, if you’re looking for someone with a gold Rolodex, then I’m not your guy,” says Flug, “but if you’re looking for someone to set up and run an organization, then that’s what I can bring.”

The more Flug thought about Millennium Promise, the more compelling it seemed. “Here was a chance to have an impact on millions of people around the world,” he says. In April 2006, Flug resigned from JPMorgan and became CEO of Millennium Promise.

Big-picture numbers tell the tale: During the first year of operation, Millennium Promise raised a staggering $100 million in pledges. Flug began with a staff of six; now it numbers 14.

“We are lucky to have such an accomplished leader at the helm of Millennium Promise. Jeff Flug is a man who left Wall Street to devote himself to the fight against extreme poverty,” says Sachs. “He has put a great deal of energy into providing a real level of leadership and direction. We are lucky to have him. People around the world benefit from his leadership.”

Flug spends much of his time engaging donors and potential donors as well as keeping all interested parties informed. His major task: ensuring that the experience of donors and partners is a rich one and that their linkages to Millennium Promise are rewarding. The demands of the nonprofit world aren’t all that different from the one Flug came from, as he sees it. “Donors, partners, and clients all require personal attention,” he notes simply.

Millennium Promise has caught the eye of philanthropist George Soros, who has invested $50 million in the cause. And more partners—organizations that provide goods or services—are lining up. Sumitomo Chemical donates insecticide-treated bed nets; Ericsson is bringing connectivity and mobile phones to villages; Swiss Re provides rainfall insurance.

Flug recalls a memorable moment while visiting one of the villages this past summer. “We were with several prospective donors, and the chief of the village was showing us all the changes there. He showed us the granary that looked like an igloo where they were storing excess maize, a first-time accomplishment thanks to agricultural methods. He showed us the new bore well with a pumping device to tap water to drink. And he showed us the new medical building. Then he said, ‘Look at what we have done together’ and gave me a big hug. I looked over at my wife, Sheryl, and saw tears in her eyes. And I decided right then and there that I could never go back to spending my days worrying about high-yield bond rates.”

The Flugs have experienced Jeff’s journey as a family. “It has made all of us more globally and socially minded,” says Flug. “My daughters now have a deeper sense that they can have a tangible impact on a cause that moves them. It’s exciting for me to see their confidence and their desire to make an impact, however they choose to do so.”

Sheryl Flug says the experience has changed the family’s outlook. “The dinner topics have become more intriguing,” she says, “with talk of school feeding programs or bed nets… one of the biggest lessons we have learned, clichéd though it is, is that enabling the happiness of others can be a catalyst for one’s own happiness. Our visits to the Millennium Villages have been life-altering for us all.”

To hear Jeff Flug talk about his work, one might think that he majored in religion or philosophy at UMass Amherst, not accounting. “I remember what Mother Teresa once said to a volunteer: ‘I am giving you the gift of letting you help me,” says Flug. “This work really is a gift, a privilege.” But it appeals to Flug’s financial side as well: “You don’t have to quit your job to make a real impact,” he says. “In our work, we can see the big returns possible on a very small investment, such as a bed net to prevent malaria.”

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What is Millennium Promise?
	Original Millennium Villages 1 Potou, Senegal 2 Tiby, Mali 3 Bonsaaso, Ghana 4 Pampaida, Nigeria 5 Koraro, Ethiopia 6 Ruhiira, Uganda 7 Sari, Kenya 8 Mayange, Rwanda 9 Mbola, Tanzania 10 Mwandama, Malawi
The goal of the nonprofit Millennium Promise is to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in Africa by 2015. The eight globally endorsed objectives address the many aspects of extreme poverty. “If you look at the goals, they read like the Bill of Rights,” says Jeff Flug. “As citizens of this world, we have an obligation to ensure we hold up this Bill of Rights for individuals in the United States, Asia, Africa and across the globe.” Jeffrey Sachs co-founded the organization in 2004. He is considered to be the leading economic advisor of his generation, focused on the issues of economic development, poverty elimination, and enlightened globalization. Flug serves on the board of directors alongside co-founder Sachs and other luminaries, including Jimmy Carter, Angelina Jolie, composer Quincy Jones, and the presidents of the Nike Foundation and the University of Notre Dame. “Extreme poverty is the best breeding ground on earth for disease, political instability, and terrorism,” says Sachs. “The rich do not have to invest enough in the poorest countries to make them rich; they need to invest enough so that these countries can get their foot on the economic ladder. Economic development can be successful. It tends to build on itself. But it must get started.” Millennium Promise’s flagship initiative is the Millennium Villages. Operating in 80 villages across 10 sub-Saharan African countries, the program takes a comprehensive approach to eradicating extreme poverty by simultaneously tackling hunger, disease, inadequate education, lack of safe drinking water, and absence of essential infrastructure, toward promoting self-sustainability. No dollars change hands; Millennium Promise provides essential materials—bed nets (to prevent malaria), fertilizers, roofing material, medications—and expertise and materials. The work of teaching, farming, and medical care is up to the villagers. The Millennium Development Goals* l. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger 2. Achieve universal primary education 3. Promote gender equality and empower women 4. Reduce child mortality 5. Improve maternal health 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases 7. Ensure environmental sustainability 8. Develop a global partnershipfor development * Goals arising out of the United Nations Millennium Declaration, signed at the Millennium Summit in September 2000. For more information on Millennium Promise, visit www.millenniumpromise.org.