Paul Haible

Paul Haible is the former Executive Director of the Peace Development Fund (PDF).

"Besides his native Massachusetts, Paul has lived in Vermont, Maine and Alaska, and now makes his home in San Francisco. “I needed to live with more of the world,” he explained about his move to the West Coast 25 years ago. With Development Officer Ray Santiago, he hopes to establish a west coast presence for PDF, while maintaining PDF’s historic connection to New England. Paul’s family and land ties to New England remain strong. “We have to relate to our community wherever PDF has a presence,” he noted.

"Paul’s career includes 12 years as staff at the Vanguard Public Foundation, five years with the Indigenous Environmental Network, and a decade as an organization/management consultant, progressive political strategist and coach. Over many years, and still now in his spare time, he has worked as a ship builder and carpenter. While he was a commercial fisherman and boat builder in the 70s, Paul heard about the progressive funding movement through a former Middlebury College classmate.

"He liked the community board model Vanguard Foundation was instituting, where donors and community members work together. He was intrigued by urban politics. “It was a steep learning curve for someone much more familiar with the suburbs and rural life in Vermont and Maine,” he remembered. Paul got in on the ground floor of many organizations that sprang from this work, like the Funding Exchange, Working Assets and the Northern California Community Loan Fund. “Vanguard trained many of the new funders, and I provided a lot of technical assistance for the Funding Exchange which brought some of these funders together.”..

"Today, Haible is a member of the advisory boards of the Seva Foundation, Vanguard Public Foundation and the Teh-Lu-Lah Learning Center, and is an advisor to the Flying Eagle Woman Fund...

"Paul has been on PDF’s Board since 1991, and with former Treasurer, Alan Rabinowitz, he worked to make PDF fiscally sound. But being a volunteer Board member is very different from being Executive Director. “Am I ready for all this?” he wondered when his name was put forward during PDF’s search process."