FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Robert Vander Hooning
People ask me how I found a kidney donor. I tell them that's not the right question. Of course, without "Save My Dad" signs on my car and lawns around town, my donor wouldn't have known about me. But without faith, there's no donation.
For twelve years, I raised three girls as a single dad. When kidney failure struck, they became the focus and purpose of my campaign.
We built Kidney4Dad.com as a visual story about my life that made me relatable. But we also addressed the fears expressed by friends, family members, and strangers— safety, medical bills, lost wages and out-of-pocket costs. The campaign generated 42 online applications, moved 18 people into medical testing, and led to a living donor I had never known.
At a post-transplant checkup, I asked my Northwestern Medicine care team how I could help other kidney patients apply what we had learned from Kidney4Dad. A few weeks later, I launched Kidney4 and began building personalized campaigns, social media, and outreach materials free of charge for kidney patients who needed skilled, hands-on help finding a living donor.
CAREER
I began my career at GM Research in Detroit where I built mathematical models of plants and supply chains. I later moved to Square D, where I led manufacturing operations, served as Chief Quality Officer, and built a corporate university.
While working at Square D, I was asked to substitute for a faculty friend at Northwestern University. That led to a three-year joint appointment with the Kellogg School of Management and McCormick Graduate School of Engineering. I went on to develop graduate courses for the University of Chicago, Carnegie Mellon, and IMD in Lausanne.
Based on my research into the economics of customer loyalty and quality, I consulted extensively in Europe and served as senior auditor for the European Foundation for Quality Management in Brussels.
After leaving Northwestern, I founded Knowledge Stream Partners, a 50-person AI- and systems-based marketing firm with offices in Zurich, Boston, and Los Angeles. Following the sale of my firm, I expanded my AI work into mortgage and portfolio-risk modeling before the 2008 financial crisis. I also served as President of The International Bankers School.
I earned a BA in economics and an MS in engineering from the University of Michigan.