Wes Moore

Bestselling Author, Combat Veteran, Maryland Governor

In addition to serving as CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation, Wes Moore founded BridgeEdU, where he also served as CEO. A coaching platform for college freshmen and sophomores, BridgeEdU focused on first-generation students from low-income families. In 2019, the company was acquired by Edquity, a student financial services company. Image adapted from a photo courtesy of the Creative Production Agency.

Wes Moore made history on November 8, 2022, when he became the first black American elected to the highest office in the state of Maryland, which he will serve as governor. Moore is also the former CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation, the largest anti-poverty organization in New York City. Under his leadership—which lasted from 2017 to 2021, the foundation raised upwards of $650 million and embarked on various new initiatives. According to Paul Tudor Jones, a Robin Hood Foundation co-founder and board member:

“Thanks to Wes Moore’s transformational leadership, Robin Hood is at the strongest point in our 33-year history.”

The year Moore stepped down as CEO, sports apparel company Under Armour named him to the board of directors. Before joining Robin Hood, Moore authored two bestselling books: The Other Wes Moore and The Work. He is also a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, having served with the 1st Brigade of the United States Army’s 82nd Airborne Division.

Moore was born Westley Watende Omari Moore on October 15, 1978, in Takoma Park, Maryland. His father, William Westley Moore, Jr., was a journalist who worked in radio and television. His mother, Joy Thomas Moore, was a public relations consultant and an executive for a nonprofit. On April 16, 1982, when Moore was three years old, his father died of acute epiglottitis. Two years later, Moore’s mother moved the family—including Moore’s two sisters—to the New York borough of the Bronx. The family lived with Moore’s grandparents, Rev. Dr. James Thomas, an immigrant from Jamaica who became the first black minister to serve in the Dutch Reformed Church, and Winell Thomas, a retired school teacher of Cuban descent.

Moore’s grandparents had every intention of returning to Jamaica after Rev. Dr. Thomas retired. Instead, they decided to support Moore, using their retirement money to pay for his first year of military school. Moore enrolled in Valley Forge Military Academy and College during high school and graduated from its junior college with an associate’s degree in 1998. Moore then attended John Hopkins University, from which he earned a Bachelor’s in International Relations and Affairs. Moore traveled across the pond in 2001 and attended the University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship to obtain his master’s.

While he attended Oxford, Moore worked in the international trade and finance division at Deutsche Bank. But his finance career was interrupted when he joined the U.S. Army and deployed to Afghanistan, reaching the rank of captain. Several years later, in 2014, PBS aired a three-episode program, Coming Back with Wes Moore, which Moore executive produced. The series sought to answer some of the questions that flood the minds of veterans returning to civilian life after war.

On July 6, 2007, Wes Moore married political adviser Dawn Chanté Flythe. Adapted from a photo courtesy of the Baltimore Community Foundation.

Moore spent a year as a White House Fellow following his military service. He worked in the Office of U.S. Foreign Assistance Resources, part of the State Department, then headed by Condoleezza Rice. After writing several books—two of them national bestsellers—and contributing to various high-profile publications, in addition to producing, hosting, or directing television programs, Moore returned his focus to politics. He launched his gubernatorial campaign in Maryland on June 7, 2021, and won the November 8 election the following year.

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