Most conversations about the Care Economy are missing someone.
When employers talk about caregiving benefits, the providers who actually deliver the care are rarely at the table. When providers talk about what families need, the employers who could pay for it are somewhere else. Both groups are describing the same problem from opposite ends, and mostly not to each other. This fall, we added two directors to the FamTech.org Board who sit at those two ends.
Gayatri Richardson
Gayatri Richardson leads Global Associate Experience at Walmart and heads its Accessibility Center of Excellence. Walmart employs well over a million people in the United States, which means Gayatri works on caregiving at a scale where small design decisions affect enormous numbers of families. A caregiver herself, she previously chaired the Family Caregiving Subcommittee of the Arkansas Women’s Commission and served on the boards of Vote Mama Foundation and Path Forward. She currently serves on the boards of Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families and the Clinton School of Public Service’s Dean’s Advisory Board.
Margaret Haynes
Margaret Haynes is President and CEO of Right at Home, a global network representing more than 800 franchise owners providing in-home care to seniors and adults with disabilities. Since joining the company in 2011, she has helped guide its growth, strengthen operations, and equip local business owners to deliver outstanding care in their communities. A former Board President of the Home Care Association of America, Margaret brings firsthand experience as both a family caregiver and a consumer of home care services—grounding her leadership in the realities of care delivery and the families it serves.
The employer and the provider, in the same room
We didn’t recruit these two women because their organizations are large. We recruited them because the gap between what employers fund and what providers deliver is one of the places the Care Economy so often breaks, and we would rather have that conversation inside our own boardroom than observe it from outside.
We should also say this: FamTech.org is a trade association. Our board and our membership include direct competitors. Adding executives from major employers and providers means being deliberate about how we handle conflicts, which is why our Board is adopting a conflict of interest and recusal policy, antitrust guidelines, and written confidentiality expectations for directors. Good governance isn’t an obstacle to having the right people in the room. It’s what makes it possible.
Gratitude for exceptional service
Jisella Brough steps off our Board this month after serving as Secretary. Among many exceptional contributions, Jisella is the founder of One For the Ages, and a strategic advisor across a number of ecosystem contributors. She spent her tenure doing meaningful and compounding work, including introducing us to Margaret. We are better for her time with us.
