The Human Calling

An entrepreneur, economist, philanthropist, and policy researcher, Daofeng He was born in Yunnan, a rural province in southwest China, and currently resides in Bethesda, MD. In the US, Mr. He has appeared on CBS, and Fox News and the podcast "Veteran's and Community Healthy" by Sunday Magazine (WMAL 105.9 FM) to discuss his COVID-19 rescue efforts, which he described as asking God's calling to help fellow Americans. Through his Maryland-based family foundation, he launched the Life Preservation Initiative (LPI) in March 2020 to donate 1,000,000 sets of PPE to frontline healthcare workers and vulnerable communities in the fight against COVID-19. Under Mr. He's leadership, the LPI collaborated with Christian organizations such as the Salvation Army, Bowery Mission, and the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn. The LPI and Mr. He have been covered in 23 press outlets including NBC, ABC, and New Evangelization Television. In 1994, Mr. He founded the Human Resources Development Center of Western China to work with the World Bank to increase labor mobility from inland rural areas to developed coastal areas in China. This project successfully resettled 600,000 workers from impoverished counties and reskilled them to perform factory jobs or find other employment. He then went on to chair many successful business endeavors. In 1999, while chairman of Huaxia West Company, he decided to additionally serve as acting president of the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA), refusing a salary. Leading an NGO independently of the government came with significant political risks, but Mr. He was determined to see social reform come to China and took many measures to protect CFPA's work. Mr. He has been published extensively in China. In 2019, Mr. He received the President's Volunteer Service Award from the White House for his outstanding service to fellow Americans and those most in need. The same year, Mr. He received three more awards, including the United Nations NGO/Department of Public Information's Outstanding Achievement Award for International Alleviation, the Global Outstanding Social Entrepreneur Award at the Global Corporate Social Responsibility Summit in New York, and the International Leadership Foundation's Leadership Award in Washington, DC.