Catholic Relief Services

Catholic Relief Services is organized as a nonprofit corporation and has no shareholders, share capital or equity owners in the commercial sense; the concepts of a shareholder or an ultimate beneficial owner do not apply to this legal form. The on-file registry data for this profile shows no disclosed shareholders, which for a nonprofit corporation of this kind reflects its legal structure rather than a gap in beneficial-ownership disclosure.

In place of shareholders, Catholic Relief Services operates under the governance of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Its own legal name, as filed with the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation, is “Catholic Relief Services – United States Conference of Catholic Bishops,” and the organization describes itself as the official international humanitarian agency of the USCCB. Consistent with this relationship, the newly elected president of the USCCB, Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, named the chair of Catholic Relief Services’ board of directors in December 2025, indicating that USCCB leadership exercises a governance and sponsorship role over the organization comparable in practice to that of a corporate member, rather than a shareholder holding an equity or voting stake.

No verified natural-person ultimate beneficial owner exists for an organization of this legal form, and none is reported here. Ownership-equivalent information for Catholic Relief Services is best described as not applicable given its nonprofit corporate structure, rather than not public or not found.

Catholic Relief Services discloses a board of directors and senior executive leadership team rather than company officers in the commercial sense. Its board is reported to comprise 13 clergy, most of them bishops, and 10 lay members. Sean L. Callahan has served as President and Chief Executive Officer since 1 January 2017, when he succeeded Dr. Carolyn Y. Woo at the end of her five-year term; his appointment was announced by the Catholic Relief Services board on 16 September 2016, and he had previously served as the organization’s Chief Operating Officer and, before that, as Executive Vice President for Overseas Operations. Other current senior executives identified on the organization’s own leadership pages include Annemarie Reilly, Executive Vice President for Global Operations; Dr. Shannon Senefeld, Executive Vice President for Global Programs; Schuyler Thorup, Executive Vice President for Global Resource Engagement and Mobilization; and Danusia Dzierzbinski, Chief Financial Officer. None of the sources reviewed disclose the nationality of any officer or board member; nationality is not inferred from name, residence or correspondence address, and is recorded here as not disclosed.

Three verified recent changes affect Catholic Relief Services’ governance. First, Bishop Patrick M. Neary, CSC, of the Diocese of Saint Cloud, Minnesota, was named chair of the board of directors effective immediately on 4 December 2025, with a term running to November 2028. Second, this succeeded Archbishop Nelson J. Perez of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, who had chaired the board since November 2022. Third, five new episcopal board members and one new non-episcopal (lay) director, effective 1 January 2026, were elected at the organization’s annual meeting in Baltimore in late 2025.

Board and executive leadership information for Catholic Relief Services is best described as partial: current senior roles and recent board-chair transitions are documented in the organization’s own announcements and independent Catholic news coverage, but a complete historical roster of past board members, individual appointment dates for most sitting directors, and any officer nationality or country of residence are not publicly disclosed.

Catholic Relief Services has no parent company, subsidiaries or shareholders in the conventional corporate sense. The on-file corporate-linkage data for this profile shows no parent, subsidiary or ownership relationship recorded in the source registry, which is consistent with its structure as an independently registered nonprofit corporation rather than evidence that no group relationship exists.

Catholic Relief Services identifies itself as the official international humanitarian agency of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and its own registered legal name, “Catholic Relief Services – United States Conference of Catholic Bishops,” reflects this relationship. However, no Maryland state filing reviewed for this profile describes the USCCB as a corporate parent holding an ownership or voting interest in Catholic Relief Services, so this is reported as an affiliate relationship rather than a verified parent-subsidiary structure. Catholic Relief Services is also a founding member of Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of more than 160 national Catholic relief, development and social-service organizations; membership in this confederation is a cooperative and pastoral relationship rather than a corporate ownership link, and it is reported here as an affiliate relationship rather than a parent, subsidiary or branch.

No historical mergers, acquisitions or disposals involving Catholic Relief Services were identified in the sources reviewed. Corporate-linkage information for this organization is best described as not applicable in the sense used for stock corporations, reflecting its nonprofit legal form rather than a gap in the underlying registry data.