Lifesaving CommerceKatharina Harf's management savvy and some celebrity assists help her nonprofit donor center perform like a business.
ByGwen Moran•
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
 |
| Katharina Harf Photo© Natalie Brasington |
| Number of DKMS-registered donors internationally since 1991: 2.2 million Number of DKMS-facilitated transplants internationally since 1991: 22,000 |
Katharina Harf's biggest heartbreak occurred when she was a 14-year-old living in Frankfurt, Germany. Her mother, Mechtild, had been diagnosed the previous year with acute leukemia. Despite Mechtild's six siblings and the roughly 3,000 registered bone marrow donors in Germany at the time, none was a match for a transplant. Harf's mother died in 1991.
Harf's father, Peter Harf, chairman of cosmetics giant Coty Inc., started a donor recruitment center after his wife's diagnosis. The center,DKMS--which stands for Deutsche Knochenmarkspenderdatei, meaning German bone marrow donor center--attracted 68,000 donors within a year.
Continue reading this article — and all of our other premium content with Entrepreneur+
Join the internet’s leading entrepreneur community! With your subscription you’ll get:
- Access to all of our premium content and an ad-free experience
- Entrepr免费订阅eneur Magazine
- Four free e-books a year and 20% off everything from our bookstore
- Exclusive events with business celebrities and successful entrepreneurs
