--- title: Darren Walker by Elton John: TIME 100 description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. canonical: https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4301843/darren-walker-2016-time-100/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-21T00:46:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T23:14:07.371Z og:title: Darren Walker by Elton John: TIME 100 og:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. og:url: https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4301843/darren-walker-2016-time-100/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3ac0c1a9dcd224f9/698890250a4a22e6dc9c95ac/time-100-2016-darren-walker.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Darren Walker by Elton John: TIME 100 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Darren Walker by Elton John: TIME 100 twitter:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3ac0c1a9dcd224f9/698890250a4a22e6dc9c95ac/time-100-2016-darren-walker.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 21, 2016 # Darren Walker by Elton John  Bek Andersen Born to a single mother in a charity hospital in Louisiana and raised in working-class East Texas, Darren Walker knows firsthand the power of dignity, inclusion, compassion and equal opportunity to change lives and uplift communities in crisis, from New Orleans to Detroit, where he helped broker the deal to rescue the city from bankruptcy. His life story gives us hope, and his life’s work is changing the language of philanthropy, from “them” and “they” to “us” and “we.” Since being named president of the Ford Foundation, Darren has charted a radical goal for one of the world’s largest and most influential charitable organizations: conquering inequality. His leadership is authentic, and his focus on equality is nothing short of revolutionary, a clarion call for the world of philanthropy and an inspiration to those of us working for a more just and loving world. _John is a singer and composer and the founder of the Elton John AIDS Foundation_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4301843/darren-walker-2016-time-100/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4301843/darren-walker-2016-time-100/"},"headline":"Darren Walker","datePublished":"2016-04-21T00:46:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:14:07.371Z","description":"The equalizer","url":"https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4301843/darren-walker-2016-time-100/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3ac0c1a9dcd224f9/698890250a4a22e6dc9c95ac/time-100-2016-darren-walker.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3ac0c1a9dcd224f9/698890250a4a22e6dc9c95ac/time-100-2016-darren-walker.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4301843/darren-walker-2016-time-100/","name":"Darren Walker"}}]}] ```