Trustees — Hans E. Hageman

Hans Hageman is the CEO and Founder of Hans Hageman and Associates, LLC.  Hans Hageman and Associates trains, coaches and consults Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, nonprofits and individuals in the areas of communication, leadership, and diversity.

Raised in East Harlem, he spent countless hours in Exodus House, his home and a residential treatment center for addictions, established and run by his parents.  The importance of community, service and education was learned here and from them as pioneering examples who committed their lives in service of others.  Determined to pursue a career that would impact and change the lives of children and their families Mr. Hageman has spent his life in service of others at home in the United States and in countries like Sudan, India, Ghana, Senegal and Nicaragua.

His strong focus, determination, persistence and the importance his parents placed on education led Mr. Hageman to graduate with honors from Collegiate School for Boys, receive his B.A. from Princeton University and his J.D. from Columbia University School of Law.  Mr. Hageman has a vast amount of experience in the private as well as public sector.  His law experience encompassed several successful years at two of New York’s finest firms.  He served as Assistant District Attorney in the Office of Special Narcotics Prosecution for New York, Chief Counsel for the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem and as the Minority Chief Counsel and Staff Director for the United States Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution.  He is also a former consultant with the national Police Corps where he provided NLP and tactical communication training.

During his legal career, Mr. Hageman realized that educating children was his life’s mission.  So in 1992 he co-founded The East Harlem School at Exodus House, where he served as Executive Director.  This unique private middle school for children of East Harlem provides students and their parents an affordable model of cooperative private education for those who normally would not be able to afford it.

In 2002, Mr. Hageman founded the Sulaxmi School for Girls in Lucknow, India.   During his visit to Lucknow in 2000, Mr. Hageman met hundreds of children, most of them little girls of school age and witnessed the abject poverty (families with earnings of less than $1 per day) of the families. In spite of the enormity of the problem, he experienced that determination that has been with him since Exodus House.  He along with the support of his wife committed their savings and built a free school for girls in Lucknow, India.  He knew he could not do this alone hence the birth of the Salus Foundation.   The Salus Foundation is a not-for-profit organization established by Hans and his wife to provide financial and technical support to the Sulaxmi School for Girls.

From 2002 through 2009, Mr. Hageman was the Executive Director of Boys and Girls Harbor, Inc., a $14.5 million organization serving 2,500 children in New York City.  In 2005, under the umbrella of Boys and Girls Harbor, Mr. Hageman founded, The Emily N. Carey School (ENCS), an independent private high school for students who had not met with success in New York City’s public and parochial schools.  ENCS was established to provide a curriculum and program that prepares students for college, the world of work and life.   ENCS provides students with a depth and breadth of education, which would normally be far beyond the reach of their lower-income parents to provide.   Hans said “we teach these young men and women the importance of, and the skills required for, active participation in our democracy. The motto of the school: “To Know,” “To Care,” “To Act” represents ENCS’ mission to strive to develop its students into lifelong learners with a strong moral and ethical set of values.”

Mr. Hageman has been honored with a 2001 Essence Award, the Hero Award from the Robin Hood Foundation, and numerous community service awards from Columbia BALSA, New York Law School, the New York City Council, Princeton Alumni, and the Boy Scouts of America among others.

He has also been featured on ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, WNEW and New York 1 among others.   He has been featured in the New York Times, the Daily News, Essence Magazine, New York Magazine, People Magazine, the Christian Science Monitor and numerous other publications.

Mr. Hageman is Chair of the Board of the Salus Foundation, Inc., Trustee of the Harlem Academy and Advisory Member of the Schools That Can Foundation. He is a former officer in the US Army Reserve and also a former Treasurer of the Board of the Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement.