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Darrin Wilstead

Mentoring & Alumni Program Director

Darrin Wilstead has served as Director of Development at Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership (HOBY), an organization with an annual operating budget of $2.2 million that was established in 1958 to offer leadership development seminars for highly motivated high school sophomores in the United States and around the world. In addition to supervising four individuals and managing HOBY’s headquarters in Los Angeles, Darrin was responsible for overseeing two annual fundraising dinners; one in New York and one in Los Angeles, promoting a robust Corporate Sponsorship Program entitled “Team HOBY”, managing new donor acquisitions, upgrades and renewals, and writing grant proposals to secure increased funding from foundations, corporations and the private sector.

Prior to leading the development department at HOBY, Darrin served as Director of International Programs. In this capacity, Darrin was responsible for HOBY’s World Leadership Congress (WLC), an eight-day intensive leadership forum in Washington, D.C. that brings together 100 adult volunteers and 400 student leaders from 20 countries to celebrate diversity, debate ideologies and form friendships based on mutual respect and understanding. Historically, the WLC had been financially distressed. Through the restructuring of the student acceptance process and forming strategic partnerships, Darrin succeeded in turning the WLC into HOBY’s most profitable and visible program. Additionally, Darrin provided year-round oversight and administrative support to HOBY’s partners in Canada, England, Hong Kong, Israel, Lebanon, The Philippines, Sierra Leone and Mexico; and with the help of his constituents, he established new programs in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Iraq, Korea and Taiwan.

Before his tenure with HOBY, Darrin worked as an Instructor at America West Airlines where his responsibilities included training an average of 130 employees per month.

Darrin was born and raised in Mesa, Arizona, where he completed general coursework at Scottsdale Community College. In 1989, Darrin moved to Los Angeles and he currently resides in Hollywood. He is fluent in Korean and has been actively involved as a volunteer with The Trevor Project for the past four years.