March 2015, Paul Bloom, CASE Senior Fellow
We are extremely sad to report the passing of one of CASE’s great friends and supporters, Michael Havard.
Mike died suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 52 on February 24, 2015 near his home in New Canaan, Connecticut. Mike was an engaged and passionate member of CASE’s Advisory Council from 2011 through early 2015. He was also a great supporter of Fuqua’s Sustainable Business and Social Impact (SBSI) conference, speaking at the event and arranging to have his company, Newman’s Own, serve as a sponsor. Many of our team members and students fondly remember walking around with Newman’s Own cereal boxes, pizzas and popcorn products during the conference. Mike loved to engage with our students and help advise them on career paths that would use their skills to have a positive impact on the world.
Early in Mike’s career he worked for Kraft Foods before serving for over a decade as the Chief Marketing Officer of Newman’s Own. After Newman’s Own he was the Chief Marketing Officer of the Serious Fun Children’s Network, the nonprofit that manages the Hole in the Wall Camps that the late Paul Newman established to serve children with serious illnesses. He ended his career working for a private equity firm in Connecticut, trying his hand at moving into the field of impact investing.
CASE’s Cathy Clark states that “Mike was an impact scaler like no other!” Through his work, he found numerous ways to do well (selling salad dressing, cereals, popcorn, etc.) while doing good (pouring all of Newman’s Own’s profits into charitable causes like Serious Fun). Besides CASE, Mike provided invaluable counsel to operations like VolunteerMatch, New Covenant House Soup Kitchen, and his alma maters, Trinity College and Georgetown University. He also coached his three teenage sons in their athletic pursuits and took great joy in spending time with them and his wife, Judy, during family vacations at places like Block Island, Rhode Island. Mike was an avid athlete himself, leading Team Hole in the Wall to four finishes of the New York Marathon. He was planning to run the Boston Marathon next month.
Our team will truly miss Mike – his warm and welcoming personality and friendship, commitment to impact and generous support of our work at CASE. Those interested in honoring Mike can make donations to the Serious Fun Children’s Network or to the Havard children’s fund (payable to Lampert, Toohey & Rucci, Trustees c/o Philip J. Toohey, 46 Main Street, New Canann, CT 06840).