Kurt Buchholz

Kurt Buchholz serves as the President & CEO of Lutheran Hour Ministries, a position he has held since October 2013. In this position, Buchholz functions as the chief administrative and executive staff member of the organization; shapes and implements the ministry's organizational policies; oversees the organization's headquarters and staff; reports to the Board of Directors for the International Lutheran Laymen's League.

Buchholz most recently served as the vice president for special initiatives and executive director of the Lutheran Malaria Initiative for Lutheran World Relief in Baltimore, Maryland. In this role he led strategic initiatives targeted at simultaneous growth in three areas: international programs, constituent engagement and internal management systems. The Lutheran Malaria Initiative is a partnership of LWR and The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) to mobilize U.S. Lutherans in the global effort to eliminate malaria deaths in Africa.

From 1993 through 2011, Buchholz served LCMS World Mission in a variety of leadership positions, including interim executive director, where he helped reverse a decade-long trend of decreasing revenue and lead the organization to financial stability. He was instrumental in leading the rollout of a complex $100 million fundraising campaign for LCMS World Mission that ended in 2011. He has also lived and worked in Taiwan in various leadership roles, including school start-up and management, and he and his wife Jenny served as missionaries there from 1993 until 2001.

He is a graduate of Concordia University in Irvine, California, in the elementary education program and received his Director of Christian Education certification and a Master of Arts in organizational management from Concordia University in St. Paul, Minnesota. He and his wife Jenny have two teenage daughters.