bio

1959  I was born on May 5th to Joe and Rosemary Mullaney at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. Air Force ROTC paid my Dad’s way through Holy Cross College and Harvard Law School.

1963 – 1970 My dad paid $18,000 for our first house on Derbyshire Road in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. He was making $5,000 a year as a young lawyer at Jones Day Reavis and Pogue.

1970 Our 2nd house on Gainsborough Road, Potomac, Maryland. My dad worked in the White House for Donald Rumsfeld and President Nixon.

1971 My little sister Maura Anne Mullaney contracts a very rare illness called Stevens Johnson Syndrome. When her temperature soars to 107+ degrees she suffers third degree burns and almost dies.

1972 Our 3rd house on Goose Pond Road, Lincoln, MA. My dad served as General Counsel at The Gillette Company and later rose to become Vice Chairman.

1973 After cutting lawns, shoveling snow and delivering newspapers for years, I got my first “real” job in 9th grade. I worked as a dishwasher at Willow Pond Kitchen Restaurant every Saturday night from 5 till midnight for $2 an hour, a free cheeseburger and a Coke. That $14 felt like a fortune.

1973 After my parents spent two years trying to save her, my little sister Maura Anne Mullaney dies at 10 years old. I am 13 years old.

1975 Tried parachuting. (once.)

1977 Win New England Prep School pole-vaulting championship.

1977  Graduated from one of the best, all-boy, prep schools in America, The Belmont Hill School in Belmont, Massachusetts.

1977 Admitted to one of the best colleges in America, Harvard College, Class of 1981.

January, 1978 Dropped out of Harvard, moved to Los Angeles and Rented a “fully furnished” apartment in Hollywood for $150/month.

1978 Got a job as a bank teller in Beverly Hills. My take-home pay was $150 a week. $50 of that went to my rent and food.

1978 Volunteered every Tuesday as a Crisis Suicide Counselor at the Suicide Prevention Center of Los Angeles, the graveyard shift, 10:00 – 4:00 am.

November, 1978 Lost my job after getting mono. Time to return to college. Rode my motorcycle from LA to Florida to Boston with $186. Slept outside two out of every three nights.

January, 1979 Hired as a loan collector at Shawmut Bank of Boston.

June, 1979 Re-enrolled in Harvard College, began with summer school.

1980 Front row seat with my Mom for the “Miracle On Ice” when the Americans beat the Russians at Lake Placid Olympics.

1980 Testified for my friend Lori Brown – and the prosecution – during a landmark rape trial in Los Angeles. Her attacker was sentenced to 10 years.

1981 Founded student-run ad agency at Harvard called HSA Advertising.

1982 Leaving a Westport nightclub, Alhambras, my brother Sean, Tony Polestra and I are assaulted by group which included Mafia hitman Joe “The Animal” Savitch from Fall River, MA.

1982 Got to meet and shake the hand of Mother Teresa at Harvard Commencement. Her speech was electrifying, “Go find your own Calcutta!” she told us. And 15 years later, I did.

1983 Graduated from Harvard College with an A.B. in Business Economics.

1983  Hired as a Junior Copywriter for $15,000 a year at Young & Rubicam New York. Clients include Jell-O, Birds Eye, Ruffles and Kodak.

1985  Hired as a Senior copywriter for $50,000 a year at J. Walter Thompson. Clients include: Miller Beer and Burger King.

1987 Promoted to Senior VP, Creative Director at J. Walter Thompson. Salary raised to $100,000 a year. Pitched and won a mainframe software account for a client called Computer Associates. I had never used a computer before but was anxious to learn about them.

1990 Co-Founded Schell/Mullaney with my art director partner and best friend, Mike Schell. Schell/Mullaney was one of America’s first high-tech ad agencies. I used my life savings to start it in my apartment which was our office for the first four months. Schell/Mullaney’s clients include: Dow Jones, Wall Street Journal, Ziff-Davis, Standard Micro Systems, Polaroid and Computer Associates.

1990 Schell/Mullaney wins the $10 million Computer Associates account. Thank you J. Walter Thompson! Within a few years, we replaced all of Computer Associates’ ad agencies across Europe. We opened a Schell/Mullaney office in Paris to service those clients. A few years after that, we were responsible for all of CA’s advertising around the world. And then started handling all of their trade shows, direct mail, branding, etc.

1991 Started doing pro bono work for The Andrew Glover Foundation, an alternative-sentencing charity working on New York City’s lower east side.

1992  Started doing pro bono work for Church of Our Savior, Park Avenue, New York City.

1992 My business partner Mike Schell and I co-found Operation Smile. A charity that provided free surgery for poor children in New York City.

1994 Created the great software giveaway, FREE MONEY, for Computer Associates’ new personal finance software, SimplyMoney. This ad generated so many phone calls it broke its 1-800 number and helped CA acquired 1 million new users in just weeks.

1995 Merged our Operation Smile charity with another charity called Operation Smile based in Virginia. I joined their board, began going on medical missions and fundraising.

1996  Travel to Gaza City on Op Smile medical mission. Toured refugee camps, interviewed Hamas fighters, mothers of martyrs, etc.

1996  Sold Schell/Mullaney to CKS at the beginning of the internet gold rush. This was a true life-changer for me because it enabled me to start a non-profit career after I was done running Schell-Mullaney. My 20+ year non-profit career which was focused on providing surgeries for poor children and adults in developing countries was much more interesting, challenging and rewarding than my advertising career.

1997 Created a popular new Wall Street Journal ad campaign for Computer Associates featuring customized Dilbert comics from Scott Adams.

1996 Helped produce Op Smile fundraiser on the Intrepid aircraft carrier in New York, raised $1.2 million.

1997 Travel to Hong Kong, China, Vietnam on Operation Smile missions. I met this 9-year old girl in China, her name was Beautiful Cloud. I got to watch the 45-minute cleft surgery that she had been waiting 9-years for and carry her into the post op area and wait for her to wake up. When she did and a nurses handed her a mirror, 9 years of tears came gushing out of her eyes. That surgery changed her life. And it changed mine too.

1997  Came up with idea for Smile Train after I had an epiphany on Vietnam medical mission with Operation Smile. Why not empower local doctors and nurses to do cleft surgeries instead of sending American volunteer surgeons on 2-week medical missions that help 100 children at a time?

1997 Pitched Smile Train idea to my ad agency’s richest client: Charles Wang. Wang was the highest paid CEO in America for 4 years in a row and had just received a $700 million cash bonus when I asked him for a large grant to help me start Smile Train. Wang pledged $10 million for Smile Train Project from his company, Computer Associates and we became co-founders of Smile Train.

1997 NBC Anchorman Tom Brokaw gets us on The Today Show the same morning Hillary Clinton appears and makes right-wing conspiracy allegations which draw a record 6+ million viewers. Hundreds of viewers call the NBC switchboard wanting to know more about The Smile Train.

1997 President George H.W. Bush presents Smile Train idea to Chinese President Jiang Zemin who likes it and promises to help.

1998 We travel to China to pitch Chinese Minister of Railways on our Smile Train idea. He tell us our idea is “impossible”. We return to New York with our tails between our legs but charge head with the idea of empowering local surgeons – which was the big idea – not the train – and we decide to keep the name, Smile Train.

1998   Hosted major Smile Train fundraiser in NYC, raised $10 million. Showed live cleft surgery on Smile Train Patient #1: 9-year old Wang Li via satellite-feed.

1998  Wang and I resign from Operation Smile board after two young children die in Beijing on a botched Op Smile mission. 

1999 Wang and I spin off Smile Train project from Op Smile as independent charity. We take with us $4.5 million we had raised at Operation Smile.

1999 Eloped with the prettiest, smartest, nicest girl I ever me: Cricket Milani.

2000 Our daughter Maura Anne Mullaney is born on September 14th.

2001  Agreed to serve as “interim” President of Smile Train after we fired 2nd executive director in two years. First year’s surgeries: 2,000.

2001 Our son Charles Brian Mullaney is born on October 10th.

2003 Our son Quinn Hayward Mullaney is born on December 22nd.

2004  I’m honored to be chosen as the first foreigner to ever be awarded the prestigious Soong Ching Ling Camphor Tree award in China.

2004 More than 1,800 Smile Train donors come to New York for a donor thank you event to celebrate our first 100,000 surgeries.

2004 My mom, Rosemary Mullaney dies unexpectedly at the age of 70.

2005 President George H.W. Bush and wife Barbara come to China to help us. Their support gets Smile Train on the front page of every newspaper in China and a 1.5+ hour meeting with China President Jiang Zemin.

2007 To raise awareness about clefts and Smile Train, we decide to produce a documentary about clefts and try to win an Oscar. We actually hire two directors and try to produce two movies which we hope will double our chances of receiving an Oscar. But the Chinese Minister of Propaganda refuses to let us shoot in China, so we shoot one documentary in India. Everything went great except we finish the movie one week after the Oscar deadline. So we stick it in a closet for a year and then take it and enter it in a bunch of film festivals. It does very well at all the film festivals except for the Sundance Film festival which rejects it. We enter it into the Oscar competition, it makes the short list which is announced in December. And Smile Pinki wins the Oscar for the best Short Documentary in 2009.

2008 The New York Times calls Smile Train “one of the most productive charities, dollar for deed, in the world.”

2007 I’m honored to be awarded the Christmas Angel Award from Father Patrick Burns and Bishop DiMarzio with Irish Tenor Ronan Tynan at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Brooklyn, New York.

2009 Speak at The Asia Society in New York. Wang was supposed to be part of the program but his helicopter broke down.

2009 Our documentary about clefts that we conceived, produced and distributed wins an Oscar. Smile Pinki helps us raise tens of millions and dramatically increases awareness of the problem of clefts worldwide.

2010 I give a speech at Syracuse University, Newhouse School of Public Communications

2010 I deliver the commencement address at Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School (founded in 1764) at Lincoln Center.

2010 Smile Train’s cleft surgeries stop growing and start to decline. Smile Train’s surplus of unused donations soars to $135 million and includes millions of unused donations going back to 2006. I propose expanding Smile Train mission by utilizing surplus of unused donations to provide surgeries for children who’re burned, blind and crippled. My co-founder Charles Wang hates our idea and demands that we “let the money pile up.” None of us understand why he does this but we find out why a few months later.

2010 Wang begins his takeover of Smile Train by putting 4 of his personal employees on the Smile Train Board including his secretary, his accountant, his lawyer and his CFO. Wang then calls an “emergency” board meeting and forces me and my senior management team out of Smile Train without cause. Wang takes over the board and day-to-day management of Smile Train.

2011 Without the knowledge or permission of Smile Train Board, Wang secretly negotiates a merger between Smile Train and Op Smile. This merger gives Op Smile $50 million of Smile Train donations to spend however they like. It gives Wang personal control over $150+ million of Smile Train donations. We immediately organize a campaign to stop Wang and his illicit merger.

All of Smile Train’s independent directors vote against the merger. Wang and his four employees that he put on Smile Train board all vote for the merger – so it’s approved. Immediately afterwards, Wang personally fires 5 women, all senior Smile Train managers, claiming they are “redundant.” Most of them are senior managers who receive no severance after 11 years of service because they refuse to sign separation agreements prepared by Wang’s lawyers that state if Smile Train sues them, they will pay for all of Smile Train’s legal fees. The agreements state that they cannot work or volunteer for any organization affiliated with me.

After details about Wang’s merger scheme are leaked to The New York Times, opposition to the merger soars. Press coverage is very critical. Thousands of ST donors sign a petition demanding that Wang and his merger be stopped.

After all of Smile Train’s independent directors hire Jones Day, a law firm and send a letter to the New York State Attorney General demanding that he investigate Wang and the merger, Wang cancels his merger and blames me. Wang announces publicly that he is going to destroy me.

2011 Wang sues me in New York State Court.

2011 I start a new charity to help children suffering from clubfoot, burns and blindness. Virtually all of my senior managers from Smile Train join me along with hundreds of Smile Train major donors and supporters.

2012 Wang’s lawyers sue me and my charity WonderWork in Federal Court. The lawsuit is based on false affidavits signed by two of Wang’s long-time, personal employees. We cannot afford 2-3 years of litigation so we agree to settle without any admission of guilt or wrong-doing. Wang’s lawyers agree to settle after they demand that a settlement will not impair their ability to file additional lawsuits.

2012 My team and I create BurnRescue, a WonderWork charity program that helps provide free surgeries for severely burned children.

2012 I speak at Columbia University School of Public Health.

2012 My team and I create FirstStep, a WonderWork charity program that helps provide free surgery and treatment for children born with clubfoot.

2013 Wang’s lawyers sue me in The High Court of Justice in UK. They tell the court that I am a “consultant” that “tricked” Smile Train UK into putting me on the payroll for six years and that I stole more than a million dollars. The truth is that these payments were all approved by Smile Train Uk and Smile Train New York and were part of my pay. They were a payroll allocation by our U.S. auditors for me and our top managers. I repaid all of these monies and the British Judge said that Smile Train New York should reimburse me as did members of the Smile Train board. Wang said he would not allow that.

2013 I give a speech at MIT: Sloan School of Business.

2013 My team and I create 20/20/20, a WonderWork charity program that helps provide free, eyesight restoring surgery for blind children and adults.

2014 – 2018 After lawsuits in New York State Court, Federal Court and the High Court of Justice in the UK are all settled, Wang has run out of ways to harm us. But then Wang hears about a small contract dispute that WonderWork has with another blindness charity called HelpMeSee. There was a 2-3 day arbitration scheduled to resolve this dispute. But then Wang injects himself as he meets with the Founder of HelpMeSee and persuades him to fire his lawyers and hire his lawyers who have been suing me and WonderWork for years. Instead of settling the dispute for $600,000, HelpMeSee pays Wang’s lawyers $13+ million to turn a 2-3 day arbitration into a nearly 3 year “show trial.” Wang provides HelpMeSee with hundreds of pages of Smile Train documents and “witnesses” who are all on Wang’s payroll. Wang himself testifies for two days.

2015 Our WonderWork video about blindness, FirstSight is the most poplar vide on the National Geographic website for more than a year. After it goes viral, more than 20 million people see it as donations to WonderWork pour in from 92 countries including Khazikstan.

2016 I join the Collaborative Pastoral Council of NewRoads Church in Belmont, MA.

2016 Wang’s lawyers force WonderWork into bankruptcy.

2017 I deliver the commencement address for my alma mater, The Belmont Hill School, founded in 1923. My son Charlies is in the Belmont Hill class of 2020.

2018 Wang’s lawyers force WonderWork into bankruptcy and out of business. WonderWork’s 100,000+ surgeries a year for children and adults who were crippled by club foot, severely burned or blind come to a halt. WonderWork has $22 million in the bank when it was forced into bankruptcy and $16 million dollars of that money is comprised of restricted donations for surgeries for the poor. Lawyers took virtually all of WonderWork’s money and none of it went to WonderWork partner hospitals for surgeries. $8+ million was given to HelpMeSee to do blindness surgeries but HelpMeSee doesn’t provide any blindness surgeries so it has been just sitting in HelpMeSee’s bank account for years.

October, 2018 Charles Wang dies. We all hope and pray this means the end of nearly a decade of Wang’s lawsuits. But it doesn’t.

December, 2018 Wang’s lawyers file a massive federal lawsuit and sue me, Hana Fuchs, my WonderWork CFO, my entire board of directors and our auditors, KPMG. Like all the other lawsuits from Wang’s lawyers, this lawsuit is based on sensationalized, false allegations and vicious lies. For more than a decade’s worth of lawsuits, legal attacks, character assassination and threats against me, my charity, directors, donors, co-workers, partners, vendors and auditors, Wang’s lawyers have been paid $25+ million. All of these legal fees have been paid by public charities, Smile Train and HelpMeSee. The man who orchestrated all of this litigation, Charles Wang, paid for none of his lawyers fees.

2021 My Dad, Joe Mullaney lived a remarkable life that came to an end on January 22nd, 2021, two months before his 88th birthday. He was smart, active, sharp, generous, funny, healthy and happy from his childhood right up to 3 weeks before his death, when he had a bad fall which sent his health into a steep decline. By luck, my wife and I, and our three kids got to spend the last six months of his life, looking after my Dad. We saw him every single day, in Westport, MA during the summer and then we flew him down to Vero Beach, Florida for his last Christmas. (We bought a house near his in Vero.) It was an honor and privilege to be with him during the last days of his life – if I can be half the man my Dad was, I will be a very lucky guy.

2021 June. The last of many years of Wang’s lawsuits, a Federal lawsuit filed in 2018, by Wang’s lawyers just months after Wang died, built on lies and demonstrably false allegations, was finally dismissed by a Federal Judge. This brought to an end, more than 10 years of litigation and legal attacks by Wang’s lawyers against me, my charity WonderWork, my co-workers, partners, donors, directors and vendors. I have been looking forward to this moment for many reasons, but perhaps the best one is that this means I can finally get back to work, and start helping children and adults no one else will help.

Stay tuned.