Gene Falk

Gene Falk is the CEO and Co-Founder of mothers2mothers. He brings an unusual background to this role: he helped develop m2m while working as a senior executive in the media industry before leaving a long career in New York and moving to South Africa to oversee m2m's roll-out and expansion.

Immediately prior to working with m2m, Gene was Senior Vice President at Showtime Networks whose line up included Showtime, The Movie Channel, Sundance Channel, and others. There, he established and ran the Digital Media Group, and he oversaw all of the company's new business opportunities, business development activities and new media ventures.

Earlier in his tenure at Showtime, Gene served as Senior Vice President and General Manager for its Direct Broadcast (DBS) division. As Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Showtime's pay per view division, he led marketing and distribution efforts for events ranging from Mike Tyson fights to concerts by the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead, and was central to the company's partnership with legendary promoter Don King.

Gene has a long-standing history of activism for HIV/AIDS and gay and lesbian civil rights. As a founding national Board member of GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, and subsequently as its Board Chair, Gene played a key role in building one of the country's leading LGBT civil rights groups. Gene provided critical support and direction to HIV/AIDS groups including Treatment Action Group (TAG) and Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), and was instrumental in establishing the Michael Palm Foundation, a leading source of funding for LGBT and HIV/AIDS organizations.

In both his professional and his activist roles, Gene has served on many other boards and has received numerous awards and citations, including TAG's 'Treatment in Action' award for his contributions to the fight against AIDS, and the Skoll Foundation Award for Social Entrepreneurship.

He holds a BA cum laude, from Williams, and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Gene was also honored with the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship.