Greater Boston Food Bank taps Lowell nonprofit leader to be its next CEO

Boston will soon have a new anti-hunger crusader to lead the charge now that the Greater Boston Food Bank has picked its next chief executive.

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The Food Bank’s board on Wednesday announced it has selected Carl Howell, currently the chief executive of Community Teamwork Inc. in Lowell, to take over for longtime CEO Catherine D’Amato. Howell plans to start on Oct. 1, allowing D’Amato to retire after 31 years there. (D’Amato is planning to stay on as an adviser through the end of the year.)

“We just thought he was a really strong candidate to fill some big shoes,” said Food Bank board chair Ted Truscott, chief executive of Columbia Threadneedle Investments.

At CTI, Howell leads an anti-poverty and community development organization with 650 employees and an annual budget of $220 million — much bigger than the Food Bank, whose budget is about half the size and which has fewer than a third of the workforce. He’s been at CTI for 16 years, including two years as its chief executive.

“Carl worked his way up in this organization with more and more responsibility over time,” Truscott said. “His work is around addressing the root causes and impacts of poverty: How do you lift people out of difficult circumstances and help their lives and make them better? In that respect, Carl was the perfect candidate.”

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Howell will lead an organization with the logistical maneuvering of a small army: Food is purchased and shipped out to some 600 food pantries and other hunger-relief agencies across nearly 200 municipalities in the state — at a pace of roughly 90 million meals a year.

The Food Bank worked with headhunter Russell Reynolds to find and vet candidates; board member Eileen Pyne oversaw the search. Howell joins at what the board calls an “urgent time” when more than a third of Massachusetts households are believed to be facing food insecurity, a problem bound to be exacerbated by recent federal policy changes that restrict access to SNAP and other food assistance programs.

Howell said in a statement that leading an organization with the legacy of the Food Bank is “an incredible professional honor.” He said he has firsthand experience with food insecurity and understands its last impact. “Right now,” Howell added, “so many people are struggling to get by, and we cannot afford to look away.”

This is an installment of our weekly Bold Types column about the movers and shakers on Boston’s business scene.

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