First and foremost, I want to thank Martin and Marianne Haefner, Eva-Maria Bucher-Haefner and the late Walter Haefner for all their help, support and friendship over the past 20 plus years.
Walter Haefner was a self-made billionaire who once told me that of all his many accomplishments in business, he was most proud of helping us start Smile Train. Martin and Eva-Maria are his son and daughter. The Haefners provided the start-up capital that launched Smile Train and now WonderWork and their continued support underwrites hundreds of thousands of surgeries a year. Thanks to the Haefner family, millions of children have received all kinds of life-saving surgeries.
I want to thank the millions of donors who have supported us at Smile Train and WonderWork. I especially want to thank the major donors whose support was crucial to our growth and success including Bill and Nancy Thompson, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Peter Widmer, Roger Rotach, Josef Felder, Kaspar Grob, Janet Carrus, Lisa Strain and Clark Kokich, William and Joanne Conway, Laura and John Arnold, Jim Ed Miller, Ken and Vickie French, Joe Cartolano, Victor and Cynthia Mitchell, Ann Ziff, Joseph Mullaney, El and Betty Richard, D’Ette Fowlkes, Rafael and Diana Vinoly, Norman and Piper Lind, Sharon L. McCollam, Janice Morford, Karin and Ginny Hakansson, William and Nancy Thompson, Don Thompson, Alan Parker, Robert Wishnew, Harold Simmons Foundation, Harold and Annette Simmons, Serena Connelly and Lisa Simmons Epstein, R. L. Moore, Joseph O’Donnell, Albert P. Malvino, Bobby D. Cox, Maurits Schouten, Jack Teeters, Virginia Beltrami, Garrett and Mary Moran, Larry and Judy Howard, Jeanine and Kevin O’Brien, David and Dru Garcia, Richard Cashin, Sanjay Newatia, Manoj Shekar, Kevin and Katherine MacDonald, Steven Bruce Klinsky, Lois W. Dyk, Suzanne Bartolucci, Dmitri Chavkerov, Lebara Foundation, Dr. Gopakumar Nair, Ratheesan Yoganathan, Rasiah R Leon, Baskaran Kandiah, Madeline and Michael Hughes, Doryce M. Moosey, Steven Levitt, Glenn and Beryl Polin, Marlyon and Jessie H. Abrams, Paul and Janie Helmer, Renee Harbers, Frank and Jeanne Trainer, Nathaniel and Nili de Rothschild, Jerome D. Ryan, Beth Onosko, Andreas and Martina Regenauer, Gregory McNece, Creighton and Andrea Hoffman, Gary and JoAllen Ferris, Lisa Bertani, Gene and Cathy Arthur, Frank Barone, Michael and Lauren Reese, Lionel and Jane Kaliff, Lucille Francis, Rick and Amanda Rowse, David and Karen Blattner Jr., Mark J. Conlin, Ms. Mahasti Mashhoon, Donald and Millie Beaudry, Sanjay Balan and Sujatha Shan, Robert J. Durkin, Ronnyjane Goldsmith, Larry and Cynthia Feinberg, Micol Bartolucci, Candice Bergen, Michelle Jourdak, Paolo Fresco, Scott Gieselman, Ms. Betty Breslaw, Janet Martin, Audrey Wreszin, Elvera E. Koper, Steven Danko, Johnnie S. Eden, Allen and Jennifer Gann, Linda Popolano, James J. Mullin, Robert and Carole Koscielny, Pam and Roy Lobenhofer, Kari Gran, George and Barbara Slaughter, Heidi and Marc Kieselstein, John P. Daley Jr., Michael and Margaret Sills, Alex Trebek, Richard and Kat Price, Sael Bartolucci, Robert and Kathy Egbert, Paul B. Guilden, Richard B. Hirsch, Mr. and Mrs. Sidney and Nena Rieb, Iris and Jerry Detter, Matthew E. Steinmetz, James and Dorene Cooney, Edgar James and Katherine Kinsella, Mel Selway, Mr. David K Blachly, Wendy Jill Palmer, Eugene Murtha, Bette Midler, John and Gaye Iorio, Francine and Cees Boudewijn, Jane Kaczmarek, Denis and Wink Cullen, Arti Shukla, Ishan Shukla, Anant Agrawal and Empower the Blind. David Gelbaum, Dick and Pat Warren, Starr Foundation, Bob and Mary Jane Engman, and Martin Moodie
I want to thank the real heroes of Smile Train and WonderWork: the thousands of surgeons, doctors, anesthesiologists, nurses, social workers, administrators and other medical professionals who are on the front lines and make our free surgery programs possible. Working in the poorest countries in the world, with very few resources, these modern-day good Samaritans are helping children no one else will help. It’s been my privilege to meet and get to know thousands of these folks over the past 25 years and they are the most inspiring, selfless, dedicated, hard-working, compassionate people I have ever met in my life. The would like to thank some of them personally for their help and friendship:
Dr. RV Ramani, Radhakrishnan Sundar, Mr. Mritunjay Tiwary, Dr. Asish Agarwal, Mr. Swami Biswanathananda, Dr. Asim Sil, Mr. Sarangadhar Samal, Mr. SV Acharya, Mr. Erwin Telemans, Dr. Sonia Vaitha, Ms. Abbey Kocan, Mr. Dale Brantner, Santosh George, Dr. Suma Ganesh, Mr. John Fawcett, Ms. Zahida Ispahani, Mr. Tekchand Pradhan, Dr. Uday R Gajiwala, Ms. Jennifer Staple-Clark, Dr. Sushil Choudhry, Mr. Sunil Kumar Sharma, Dr. Priyanka Sharma, Dr. Mehul Shah, Dr. Krishna Vaitheeswaran, Dr. Mathew Varghese, Ms. Judi Stagg, Dr. Subodh Singh, Dr. Madhu Bhadauria, Rev. Dr. Mathew Abraham, Mr. MK Raju, Father Tomi Thomas, Dr. Jim Gollogly, Dr. SA Patil, Dr. Chandrasekhar Sankurathri, Dr. Vandana Prasad, Dr. V. Suresh, Dr. Kunle Hassan, Mr. Lav Grover, Father Mathew Kayany, Mr. Col G R Prasad, Mr. Lewis Swan, Lion N C Karnany, Mr. Amod Singh, Dr. David Chang, James Muecke, Dr. G Chandra Sekhar, Mr. Andrew Mayo, Dr. Benjamin W. Roberts, Dr. Fabio Abenavoli, Ms. Caroline Harper, Dr. Kapila Edussuriya, Dr. YK Mahendra, Mr. Shri Janiyani, Dr. Harsha Bhattacharjee, Mr. Don Bell, Dr. Perumalsamy Namperumalsamy, Dr. RD Thulasirgaj Dr. William Grut, Dr. Kulin Kothari, Dr. Ashok Banskota, Ms. Mary Gladhart, Dr. Asrat Mengiste, Dr. Shankar Rai, Mr. Tom Flood, Dr. Shafiq-ul Islam, Abida Rahman, Mr. Colin Macfarlane, Dr. Shamim Khan, Dr. Abraham Gebreegizabher, Dr. Einar Eriksen, Mr. Jeff Whisenant, Dr. Dan Poenaru, Ricahard Bendell, Mr. Malcom Simpson, Dr. Mekonen Eshete, Mr. Thomas Cook, Dr. Shobha Chamania, Dr. Gennadiy Fuzaylov, Dr. Rajeev Ahuja, Dr. Nous Sarom, Dr. Meshach Ong’uti, Dr. Karl Michael Reyes, Sarah Kessler, Wayne Morriss, Dr. Hirji Adenwalla, Dr. Jyotsna Murthy, Dr. Mukunda Reddy, Dr. Andrew Hodges and Sarah Hodges, Dr. Shankar Man Rai, Dr. Carlos Navarro, Dr. Ken Salyer, Dr. Abraham Gebere Egziabher, Dr. Dan Poenaru, Dr. Gorin Jovic, Dr. Asrat Mengiste, Dr. Olfat Hashimi, Dr. Keith Rose, Mansoor Chowdhury, Dr. Casio Raposo do Amaral and his wife Vera, Dr. Shi Bing, Dr. Ruyao Song, Dr. Liu Xinhua, Yan Ming Fu, Dr. Li Li, Dr. Wang Xing, Dr. Vithal Lahane, Dr. Anant Sinha, Dr. Binita Sinha, Dr. Prateek Kumar, Dr. Vijai Singh, Dr. Sanjay Agarwal, Dr. P.K. Chhajer, Dr. Bharat Sharma, Dr. G.S. Kalra, Dr. Akhilesh Sharma, Arun Mathur, Dr. Krishna Kumar, and Dr. N. Panchavarnam.
At both Smile Train and now WonderWork, we rely on our esteemed Medical Advisory Boards to set the highest standards for safety and quality. Both of these boards were created and led by one of the most accomplished and respected plastic surgeons in the world: Dr. Joseph G. McCarthy of NYU Medical Center. I want to thank Dr. McCarthy for his leadership and friendship. And extend my appreciation to the following MAB members for contributing so much of their talent, time and expertise: Dr. Alice Chiu, Dr. Adrian Gelb, Dr. Nicole Gibran, Dr. Norman Medow, and Dr. Anjali Sastry.
I have never accomplished meaningful in my life working alone. I have always been blessed with smart, talented, hard-working colleagues who have helped me. By far the best teams I have ever worked with in my entire career were at Smile Train and WonderWork. I am very grateful that when I left Smile Train to start WonderWork virtually the entire senior management team followed me including DeLois Greenwood, who is the most selfless, dedicated and compassionate person I have ever met. DeLois helped start and led three of the most important surgical charities in the world: Operation Smile, Smile Train and WonderWork. Hana Fuchs has been my CFO for the past 16 years and she has done an incredible job of keeping us on the tracks. Karen Lazarus has been my right-hand man for almost 20 years and she has been our MVP at both Smile Train and WonderWork. Michele Sinesky is the best donor relations person I have ever met and she has earned the trust and support of thousands of donors of all ages. Janet Huang and Vera Eastman are the brains behind our direct mail program which has brought hundreds of thousands of WonderWork donors on board over just the past few years. Tiffany Carson has done a great job helping us create and manage our global network of partner hospitals and NGOs. Ujjal Bhattacharia of Mumbai, India continues to support and nurture all of our partners in India, the largest country in the world. Thank you Ujjal, and the entire WonderWork team for all you do.
At WonderWork, I have been very fortunate to work with a great board of directors. Our lead independent director, JJ Coneys, is the Chairman of our Audit and Compensation committee and works closely with our CFO and our auditors KPMG. JJ has been a huge help in helping us build our board. Ravi Kant, a Founding Board member also helped us in many ways including hosting a major donor trip to India. I want to also thank our other board members for all of their help and support: Steve Levitt, Clark Kokich, Dickie Steele, Steve Rappaport, Richard Price and Mark Atkinson.
I would also like to thank all the other advisors, friends, celebrities and supporters who have helped me in a million different ways over the past 20 years including: the best-selling author and renowned economist Steven Levitt, Dartmouth Professor and investing genius Ken French, Carlyle co-founder William Conway and his wife Joanne, my favorite movie producer, Bradley Thomas, Candice Bergen who has been helping us in so many ways since 1997, Howie Mandell, Warren Buffet, Sir Ben Kingsley, Mariska Hegartay, President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara who traveled to China to help us launch Smile Train so many years ago, and Walter Cronkite who let me film him in his CBS office and create our very first Smile Train video.
General Colin Powell, who was a longtime donor and friend. Tom Brokaw who helped us launch Smile Train and got us on The Today Show. My longtime friend Dr. Drew Ordon who traveled to India and operated on a cleft patient for his popular TV show, The Doctors. Alex Trebek who has tirelessly traveled all over the U.S. to host special events for our donors. Jane Kaczmarek who has been a longtime donor and supporter – she too has traveled around the world with us. TV and movie star Chris Meloni and his wife Sherman who joined us in Haiti and toured the biggest slum in the western hemisphere before Chris helped operate on a sweet little 8-year-old girl. Christie Brinkley who is the best spokesperson any charity could ever hope for. Norah O’Donnell who was a spectacular host for our Smile Train 10 Year Anniversary Event at Lincoln Center.
I’d like to thank the amazing Megan Mylan for directing Smile Train’s Academy Award winning film Smile Pinki. This documentary has been viewed by tens of millions of people and helped Smile Train raise tens of millions of dollars.
Many friends of mine helped me get Smile Train and WonderWork up and running. Special thanks to Richard and Kat Price who helped start Smile Train in China way back when, global health genius and best-selling author Dr. Atul Gawande, Chris Raleigh, Renee Harbers, Larry and Judy Howard, Tom Morgan, Stephen and Marnie Worth, Brad and Michelle Cuddeback, Michael and Kristin Bianco, John and Gretchen Mannix, and Robert DiScalfani.
The best art director in the world and also my former ad agency partner, Mike Schell, designed the logos for both WonderWork and Smile Train. He also created hundreds of ads, brochures, annual reports, direct mail letters, and videos to help us over the years. Without Mike Schell, Smile Train nor WonderWork would ever be where they are today. Thank you Mike!
Now to thank all the people who helped me with this book:
This book would not exist if it weren’t for my very talented, intelligent, persistent and tireless co-author Eve Charles. Eve wrote, shaped, polished, nurtured and gave birth to every aspect of Before and After. At the beginning of the process, Eve came with me to India and met hundreds of patients and surgeons and nurses. She saw first-hand how much these surgeries mean to these children and their parents. She got to know some of the selfless surgeons who have dedicated their lives to helping others. And she helped me figure out what 20 plus years of doing this work has meant to me and so many others. I am very lucky to have had her help and steady hand in telling this story.
Emma Parry of Janklow and Nesbit has been my literary agent extraordinaire. Emma was there from the beginning and helped nurture this project and find us a great home at BenBella Books. Thank you to Glenn Yeffeth, BenBella’s visionary publisher, who saw the potential in this book and who has championed it from start to finish. Much gratitude is due to our editor Leah Wilson, who nurtured the book with tremendous sensitivity, intelligence and insight. Thanks to Sarah Dombrowsky who spearheaded the stunning cover and design. And thanks to the rest of the incredible BenBella team, including deputy publisher Adrienne Lang, production manager Monica Lowry, senior marketing associate Cameron Proffitt, publishing associate Alicia Kania and publishing assistant Rachel Phares, copyeditor James Fraleigh, and proofreader NAME HERE.
Now to my family. From an early age, my parents taught my brothers and I about the importance of helping others. My mother Rosemary Mullaney always pushed me to get involved with charitable work and community service. My dad, Joseph Edward Mullaney Jr. is a major donor to both Smile Train and WonderWork. He has traveled to many developing countries and met hundreds of patients, parents and surgeons and nurses.
I want to thank my children, Maura, Charlie and Quinn, for allowing me to travel around the world and for forgiving me for the baseball games and piano recitals I sometimes missed. And I will always owe a huge debt of gratitude to my beautiful wife Cricket for convincing me to serve as interim President of Smile Train back in 2001 when it was facing difficult times. That decision changed my life. I am a very lucky man.
Brian Mullaney
Boston MA, June 2016