Ricardo Castro is a left-of-center nonprofit attorney working as the general counsel of the International Rescue Committee. He has previously worked in various senior legal roles for prominent left-of-center organizations, including the Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, Consumer Reports, and the Clinton Foundation.

Background

After graduating from law school, Ricardo Castro worked in corporate law, first as an associate with McCarter and English, a nationally prominent law firm headquartered in Newark, New Jersey, and afterword with Clearly, Gottlieb Steen, and Hamilton, an internationally prominent white-shoe law firm headquartered in New York City, where he focused on Latin American securities transactions. ^{1 2} In an interview with Bloomberg Law, he claims that after making his last student loan payment he resigned from corporate law “the next day.” ³

Nonprofit Roles

Castro’s first role in a nonprofit was as a staff attorney for the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, a New York City-based organization oriented around facilitating services to people with AIDS. ⁴  In 1997 Castro joined, initially as associate general counsel, the Open Society Foundations (formally the Open Society Institutes), a private grantmaking foundation created and funded by billionaire financier and liberal philanthropist George Soros. ⁵ Within ten years of joining the organization, Castro was promoted to general counsel and secretary. ⁶

In 2013, Castro left the Open Society Foundations to join the Ford Foundation, a prominent large left-of-center grantmaking organization, as vice president, secretary, and general counsel. ^{7 8} A little over a year later in 2014, Castro left the Ford Foundation for Consumer Reports (formerly known as the Consumers Union of the United States) a left-leaning nonprofit consumer-issues oriented organization known for its magazine of the same name, working as their executive vice president. ^{9 10}

About one and a half years later in 2016, Castro became the general counsel of the Clinton Foundation (also known as the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation and originally named the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation). Notably, his appointment coincided with the 2016 presidential election in which Hillary Clinton ran and lost as the Democratic Party candidate. In that vein, in an interview with Bloomberg Law, Ricardo notes that his role entailed reviewing reported claims about the Clinton Foundation and deciding, along with the foundation’s senior leadership, which claims should be responded to and which should be “ignored.” ¹¹

International Rescue Committee

After about a year at the Clinton Foundation, Castro joined the International Rescue Committee in 2017 as senior vice president and general counsel. ¹² The Committee (originally known as the International Relief Organization) is a global humanitarian aid, relief, and development nongovernmental organization. ¹³

1. “Our Firm.” McCarter & English. Accessed October 25, 2021. https://www.mccarter.com/our-firm/.
2. “Who We Are.” Clearly Gottlieb. Accessed October 25, 2021. https://www.clearygottlieb.com/about-us/who-we-are.
3. Russel-Kraft, Stephanie. “From C-Suites to Refugees, Ricardo Castro Knows Crisis.” Bloomberg Law. July 8, 2019. Accessed October 25, 2021. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/business-and-practice/from-c-suites-to-refugees-ricardo-castro-knows-crisis.
4. “History.” GMHC. Accessed October 25, 2021. https://www.gmhc.org/history/.
5. ^[1] “Who We Are.” Open Society Foundations. Accessed October 25, 2021. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/who-we-are#:~:text=The%20Open%20Society%20Foundations%20are,of%20more%20than%20%2416%20billion.
6.  Russel-Kraft, Stephanie. “From C-Suites to Refugees, Ricardo Castro Knows Crisis.” Bloomberg Law. July 8, 2019. Accessed October 25, 2021. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/business-and-practice/from-c-suites-to-refugees-ricardo-castro-knows-crisis
7. “Ford Foundation appoints Ricardo Castro as general counsel.” Ford Foundation. February 14, 2021. Accessed October 25, 2021. https://www.fordfoundation.org/the-latest/news/ford-foundation-appoints-ricardo-castro-as-general-counsel/.
8. “Mission.” Ford Foundation. Accessed October 25, 2021. https://www.fordfoundation.org/about/about-ford/mission/.
9. “Our Mission.” Consumer Reports. Accessed October 25, 2021. https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/about-us/what-we-do/index.htm.
10. Russel-Kraft, Stephanie. “From C-Suites to Refugees, Ricardo Castro Knows Crisis.” Bloomberg Law. July 8, 2019. Accessed October 25, 2021. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/business-and-practice/from-c-suites-to-refugees-ricardo-castro-knows-crisis.
11. Russel-Kraft, Stephanie. “From C-Suites to Refugees, Ricardo Castro Knows Crisis.” Bloomberg Law. July 8, 2019. Accessed October 25, 2021. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/from-c-suites-to-refugees-ricardo-castro-knows-crisis.
12. Russel-Kraft, Stephanie. “From C-Suites to Refugees, Ricardo Castro Knows Crisis.” Bloomberg Law. July 8, 2019. Accessed October 25, 2021. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/from-c-suites-to-refugees-ricardo-castro-knows-crisis.
13. “Who We Are.” International Rescue Committee. Accessed October 25, 2021. https://www.rescue.org/who-we-are.