NPAG Assists Proteus Fund with CEO Search
July 1, 2026 – Executive search firm NPAG has assisted in the recruitment of Amardeep Singh the new president and CEO of Proteus Fund and Proteus Action League. He will officially assume the role in September. The Proteus Fund board of directors selected Mr. Singh following a rigorous national search supported by NPAG. The search was led by Ellen LaPointe, Ebony Breaux-Liang, and Andres Marcuse-Gonzalez. “On behalf of the entire board, I am thrilled to welcome Amar as Proteus Fund’s next leader,” said board chair A. Nicole Campell. “Amar’s contributions to Proteus and to the field of social change philanthropy more broadly have been significant. The board is excited to see the strong vision and committed leadership that he will bring to this role as he guides Proteus through its next chapter.”
“Amardeep joined the Proteus team just months before I wrapped up over a decade on the Proteus board and six years as chair,” said Jason Franklin, former chair of the Proteus Fund board of directors. “In the last five years, he has repeatedly proven himself to be a great addition to Proteus’ leadership team. His selection to serve as Proteus’ next president and CEO is both wholly deserved and a wonderful win for both the organization and the field. At a time when civil society and social justice values face incredible attacks, having someone with such clarity and experience step up to keep building Proteus into the most dynamic funder and fiscal sponsor possible is exactly what these times demand.”
Mr. Singh is a seasoned grassroots activist, civil rights attorney, nonprofit founder, and philanthropic leader. For the past five years, he has served as Proteus Fund’s vice president of programs, managing its donor collaborative portfolio and building its donor organizing infrastructure. His deep understanding of Proteus Fund informed by his experience as a leader of a grantee organization, a donor partner, and as a member of its senior leadership team uniquely positions him to step into this role. His leadership will build upon a period of significant growth, transformation, and momentum for Proteus Fund, now a $60 million progressive philanthropic organization supporting 23 funds and initiatives.
Mr. Singh’s entire career has been rooted in advancing inclusive democracy and the rights of Muslim, Arab, South Asian, and Sikh communities in the United States. He co-founded the Sikh Coalition and served as its executive director from 2003 to 2011, supporting its growth from a single staff member to a team of twelve. He then led the Sikh Coalition’s programs through 2014, achieving landmark civil rights policy wins at the federal and local levels. The Coalition remains the largest Sikh nonprofit in the U.S. Mr. Singh joined Open Society Foundations (OSF) in 2014 as a program officer on the National Security and human rights team, and ultimately serving on its equality team as a senior program officer.
“This is a critical time for the democracy we seek to defend and for the movements we support,” said Proteus Action League board chair Quanita Toffie. “Having a leader like Amar who is highly respected, relationship-driven, and passionate about the organization’s mission and work will further strengthen our ability to meet this moment.”
Proteus Fund partners with foundations, individual donors, activists, and other allies to work strategically towards racial, gender, queer, and disability justice and an inclusive, fully representative democracy. The Fund partners with philanthropic and community leaders to identify critical opportunities, gaps, and challenges facing movement organizations and mobilizes donor support and a range of non-grant tools to strengthen and sustain their work.
Serving Foundations and Non-Profits
Since 2002, NPAG is a national executive search and consulting firm dedicated to supporting justice movement leadership. The firm has partnered with a broad range of foundations and non-profits working in racial and gender equity, LGBTQIA+ rights, reproductive health, democracy preservation, public health, economic justice, climate, and other social justice movements. They are a women-owned and women-led firm with a diverse team of 20+ professionals, and have completed over 1,400 searches – including many hundreds at the CEO/executive director level – nationally and globally over nearly 25 years. In addition to search, NPAG provide bespoke training and capacity building, outplacement, board facilitation and development, and both team and individual leadership coaching services.
Related: 7 Key Trends Impacting Non-Profits
Ms. LaPointe, managing director, is a seasoned non-profit executive who has held C-suite and other senior leadership roles in organizations focused on LGBTQIA+/HIV health care, research and advocacy; philanthropy; technology-centered approaches to advancing well-being; law; and intersectional equity and social justice throughout her career. Her national practice at NPAG includes retained executive search in philanthropy and in legal and health-focused non-profits, board and executive level strategic advisory services, succession planning, executive coaching, and outplacement support.
Most recently, Ms. LaPointe was CEO of Fenway Health, a $145 million, 600-person non-profit that advocates for and delivers innovative, equitable, accessible health care, supportive services, and transformative research and education to over 33,000 LGBTQIA+ people and people from other underserved communities annually.
Ms. Breaux-Liang comes to NPAG with over a decade of experience in education, nonprofit work, recruitment, and executive search. She began her career as a Teach for America Corps member in the San Francisco Bay Area, and later supported students through the college application process as a college advisor and director of college counseling. Ms. Breaux-Liang got her start in executive search at Isaacson, Miller, where she focused on recruiting leaders for senior positions in higher education and the arts and culture sectors.
Mr. Marcuse-Gonzalez recently returned to NPAG after joining The Democracy Fund in 2022 as an internal recruiter. During his time with the Democracy Fund, he took part in hiring nearly a quarter of the current staff while ensuring that equity was present in all hiring processes. Prior to his tenure at NPAG from 2020-2022, Mr. Marcuse-Gonzalez spent three years working with think tanks and local non-profits in D.C. His early experiences supporting major fundraising teams led him to pursue a career in diverse executive recruitment and consulting.
Related: Navigating Uncertainty: How Non-Profit Executive Search is Evolving
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
