NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous announced the selection of Maxim Thorne as Senior Vice President and Chief Development and Communications Officer of the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization. Thorne, an experienced senior executive, fundraiser, attorney and activist, will oversee development, communications and marketing.  

Thorne brings significant experience in political and mission-based fundraising, nonprofit management and civil and human rights advocacy. 

"Maxim's experience, leadership and commitment to civil and human rights will be invaluable as the NAACP moves into this next century where the emphasis will be on innovation and expanding the NAACP's impact through grassroots activism," Jealous said.

Thorne most recently served as Executive Director of Brooklyn Child and Family Services, an organization that received millions in government and private funds to address early childhood education, homelessness, affordable housing and social services. He held prior positions as Chief Operating Officer of Human Rights Campaign and HRC Foundation, Executive Director of New Jersey Head Start and Deputy Executive Director of Passaic County Legal Aid Society.

"It's been my life's work to create, strengthen and fortify institutions that bring about social justice and human rights," said Thorne. "The NAACP is the gold standard in civil and human rights and I'm proud to be a part of the leadership team."

A graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School, Thorne practiced corporate and poverty law. He has testified before the US Congress and helped litigate the famous Abbott v. Burke case representing Head Start, the NAACP New Jersey State Conference and daycare centers before the New Jersey Supreme Court. He was the executive producer of two cable shows and his intellectual writing has focused on the complex interplay of factors affecting equality, including non-profits and private enterprise, educational opportunity, health and childcare, the digital divide, and supportive legal and political infrastructure.

Thorne serves on many nonprofit boards, including the North Star Fund, Chair of the Governance Task Force on the Yale Black Alumni Association, Barnert Hospital Foundation, Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies and the Paterson Alliance. He is also the founder of Weekend for the Renewal of America's Promise. 

Thorne spent his childhood in British Guyana and the Bahamas. "He was born into social justice," Jealous added, noting that Thorne's great grandfather, Alfred Athiel Thorne founded the first high school for African boys and girls in 1894, the League of Colored People and was principal architect behind the formation of the British Guiana Workers Union that help lead the first anti-colonial and trade union movements in the Caribbean in late 1800 and early 1900s. 

Thorne, who relocated to the United States in 1984, has lived on five continents, speaks three languages and is a devotee of salsa dancing, classical and reggae music, and Indo-Chinese and Caribbean cuisine.

Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.

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