September 18, 2024 • 7 mins
Paul Corvino sits down with CEO of Union Mission, Mark Hood. Union Rescue Mission welcomed nearly 10% of the 75,000 people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County over the past year through its three sober living facilities. On an average night, they have 1,300 precious souls under their roof, with 900 being moms, dads, and kids and over 100 seniors. Charity Navigator gives them a perfect 100 rating, and 86 cents of every dollar donated goes to life-changing programs.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is CEOs you should know with Division President of iHeartMedia,
Paul Corvino. Today I have the honor and privilege of
talking with Mark Hood, the newly appointed CEO of the
Union Rescue Mission RM is the oldest mission in Los Angeles,
assisting LA's homeless population for over one hundred and thirty
three years. Welcome Mark, Thank you, boul. It's pleasure to
(00:24):
be here, pleasure to have you. So before we get started,
what I'd like to do is a quick rapid fire
at Q and A. All right, gets our mouths moving
and our brains working. Are you ready? I'm ready? Okay, winter,
a summer, summer, beach, your ski vacation, beach. Beatles are
stones beatles Michael Jordan or Tom Brady Michael Jordan. Godfather
(00:46):
are Star Wars Guardfather? Hey, you said that with a
lot of authority. Daniel Craig is Sean Connery, Sean Connery.
Whoever says Godfather always says Sean Connery. It says Godfather,
good time. Connery are always the same celebrity that people
say you remind them of.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Oh wow, John Wayne, John Wayne. That's only my kids,
by the way, the Duke.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Okay, but I'm really interested in hearing your journey, your story.
Before this job, you were overseeing a large scale operations
at PPG Areo Space, So I'm really interested to see
how you wound up going for that. From that, what
the process was to where you are today. So let's
start off. Tell me a little bit about where you
(01:30):
grew up and how you finally got to where you
are today.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Sure, so, I grew up in Hunst fal Alabama, born
and raised in that area, loving family, great mom and dad,
three brothers. Got married to a beautiful woman named Donna.
We're still together after thirty nine years. We had five
beautiful children, twelve grandkids and one on the way. During
(01:54):
that journey, I went to work for a great company
called PPG Aerospace. I spent nearly forty years with that organization,
and a lot of that was traveling around the world.
As one of our sales directors got a little tired
of the traveling and asked to settle down. I thought
they would put me back in North Alabama. They put
me in Silmar, California, and that little did I know
(02:18):
that that would change my life and my trajectory. Because
I thought I was going there to run out one
of our facilities that build our product.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
What was the product?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
The product is we make most of the windows that
go in aircraft around the world, and our Sillmar facility
about seventy percent of what they do is supporting military
aircraft for our US military. So most of the fighter
aircraft in the world carry the PPG window and most
of the commercial and business jets also carry our products.
(02:51):
So that was what they do in our sill Mar, California.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Your role at that time you were running the facility.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yes, I was our plant manager and as a plant manager,
we were looking for or some community outreach for the
facility and we had a list of nonprofits in the
area where were going to go visit. We went and
visited Hope Gardens. At the time, I had no idea
who Union Rescue Mission was, but after visiting Hope Gardens,
we never visited a second facility. It was the way
(03:16):
they were transforming lives, the vision they had for women
and children was something that I very much connected with,
and our organization over the next five or six years
just very much partnered with that group. We had hundreds
of volunteers that would go out and support different events.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
We would have.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
That's how I got to know the team at Union
Rescue Mission, and that's how I got to know Reverend
Andy Bales, and I became very attached to the life
transformation there.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Where's the location of the mission.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
The Union Rescue Mission is downtown on South San Pedro,
right in the heart of skid Row. It's a beautifu
facility that's serving that homeless community downtown.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Tell us about the differences you're working in the commercial
world and now you're in a nonprofit world.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Well, this is week number three for me, so I'm
still learning what those differences are like, but I will
tell you and I shared this with our leadership team.
The corporate world that I was in was very fast paced.
It was a great environment, loved it, but very fast paced,
very demanding, and very focused on getting product out the door.
That's what we do. My first week at Union Rescue Mission,
(04:29):
which was also very fast paced, very full, but it
felt more like being in church than being at work.
The people there are just so engaged in loving and
helping others and trying to transform lives. And you walk
in the door and you just feel like you're part
of a community, part of a family. So still busy,
still very active, but there's a big difference in building
(04:51):
a window and taking part and seeing someone recover their life.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
How can our audience contribute make a donation? How would
they contact your organization?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
They want to go to Just help one the number
one dot org. You can definitely can just help one
with the number one. Just help one with the number
one dot org. It will take you to a website
where you can make donations. You can also We've got
a great event coming up called over the Edge.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
And tell me a little more about over the Edge.
These people here that we work with you, I guess
we're partnering with you doing this event. And they're trying
to get me to jump off a building.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Okay, so the event is a bit crazy and our
VP of philanthropy has talked me into it. We're actually
going to Universal City and the Hilton Hotel the donates
their property for this event. They don't charge anything. They're
a great supporter. We go to the top of the
building and we repel off the twenty five story Hilton
(05:54):
at Universal City and it's all a raise awareness for homelessness,
all to raise money to support the calls. And we
would love people to come down and and join us
two million dollar goal this year, we're about halfway there,
so would love anyone in the community to come alongside
us for that great event.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
And the event is September twenty seventh and twenty eighth.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Twenty seventh and the twenty eighth, and I think we
have two hundred slots available to go over the edge.
You can donate whether you come over the edge or not.
We'd love you to.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
How tall is the building twenty five stories twenty I
guess well, it doesn't really matter if you fall from
twenty five stories or from five.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Stories, it really does. At some point gravity just takes over.
Good news is they've been doing this for a lot
of years and everyone's always made it safely down.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
And I'm going to say they've got the safety cable.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Now you've got the safety cable, and I'm going to
be going down with you. So it's going to be
a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Well, I'm considering it. I'm not sure yet if I
could muster of the courage up to join you, but
we're at iHeart, we're very excited to be partnering with
you in this event. If you want to get involved
in this great organization. You want to jump from a
bill thing with cables getting it down there nice and safely,
or you want to just get involved a contribute time
(07:07):
to work with the organization. Go to just help one
dot org. Again, we're talking with Mark Hood, the newly
appointed CEO of the Union Rescue Mission. We really enjoyed
having you on today. Thank you, Paul. This is Paul Corvino,
Division President of iHeartMedia saying thank you for tuning in
(07:27):
to another episode of CEOs you Should Know. Listen to
CEOs you Should Know on the iHeartRadio app
This is CEOs you should know with Division President of iHeartMedia,
Paul Corvino. Today I have the honor and privilege of
talking with Mark Hood, the newly appointed CEO of the
Union Rescue Mission RM is the oldest mission in Los Angeles,
assisting LA's homeless population for over one hundred and thirty
three years. Welcome Mark, Thank you, boul. It's pleasure to
(00:24):
be here, pleasure to have you. So before we get started,
what I'd like to do is a quick rapid fire
at Q and A. All right, gets our mouths moving
and our brains working. Are you ready? I'm ready? Okay, winter,
a summer, summer, beach, your ski vacation, beach. Beatles are
stones beatles Michael Jordan or Tom Brady Michael Jordan. Godfather
(00:46):
are Star Wars Guardfather? Hey, you said that with a
lot of authority. Daniel Craig is Sean Connery, Sean Connery.
Whoever says Godfather always says Sean Connery. It says Godfather,
good time. Connery are always the same celebrity that people
say you remind them of.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Oh wow, John Wayne, John Wayne. That's only my kids,
by the way, the Duke.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Okay, but I'm really interested in hearing your journey, your story.
Before this job, you were overseeing a large scale operations
at PPG Areo Space, So I'm really interested to see
how you wound up going for that. From that, what
the process was to where you are today. So let's
start off. Tell me a little bit about where you
(01:30):
grew up and how you finally got to where you
are today.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Sure, so, I grew up in Hunst fal Alabama, born
and raised in that area, loving family, great mom and dad,
three brothers. Got married to a beautiful woman named Donna.
We're still together after thirty nine years. We had five
beautiful children, twelve grandkids and one on the way. During
(01:54):
that journey, I went to work for a great company
called PPG Aerospace. I spent nearly forty years with that organization,
and a lot of that was traveling around the world.
As one of our sales directors got a little tired
of the traveling and asked to settle down. I thought
they would put me back in North Alabama. They put
me in Silmar, California, and that little did I know
(02:18):
that that would change my life and my trajectory. Because
I thought I was going there to run out one
of our facilities that build our product.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
What was the product?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
The product is we make most of the windows that
go in aircraft around the world, and our Sillmar facility
about seventy percent of what they do is supporting military
aircraft for our US military. So most of the fighter
aircraft in the world carry the PPG window and most
of the commercial and business jets also carry our products.
(02:51):
So that was what they do in our sill Mar, California.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Your role at that time you were running the facility.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yes, I was our plant manager and as a plant manager,
we were looking for or some community outreach for the
facility and we had a list of nonprofits in the
area where were going to go visit. We went and
visited Hope Gardens. At the time, I had no idea
who Union Rescue Mission was, but after visiting Hope Gardens,
we never visited a second facility. It was the way
(03:16):
they were transforming lives, the vision they had for women
and children was something that I very much connected with,
and our organization over the next five or six years
just very much partnered with that group. We had hundreds
of volunteers that would go out and support different events.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
We would have.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
That's how I got to know the team at Union
Rescue Mission, and that's how I got to know Reverend
Andy Bales, and I became very attached to the life
transformation there.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Where's the location of the mission.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
The Union Rescue Mission is downtown on South San Pedro,
right in the heart of skid Row. It's a beautifu
facility that's serving that homeless community downtown.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Tell us about the differences you're working in the commercial
world and now you're in a nonprofit world.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Well, this is week number three for me, so I'm
still learning what those differences are like, but I will
tell you and I shared this with our leadership team.
The corporate world that I was in was very fast paced.
It was a great environment, loved it, but very fast paced,
very demanding, and very focused on getting product out the door.
That's what we do. My first week at Union Rescue Mission,
(04:29):
which was also very fast paced, very full, but it
felt more like being in church than being at work.
The people there are just so engaged in loving and
helping others and trying to transform lives. And you walk
in the door and you just feel like you're part
of a community, part of a family. So still busy,
still very active, but there's a big difference in building
(04:51):
a window and taking part and seeing someone recover their life.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
How can our audience contribute make a donation? How would
they contact your organization?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
They want to go to Just help one the number
one dot org. You can definitely can just help one
with the number one. Just help one with the number
one dot org. It will take you to a website
where you can make donations. You can also We've got
a great event coming up called over the Edge.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
And tell me a little more about over the Edge.
These people here that we work with you, I guess
we're partnering with you doing this event. And they're trying
to get me to jump off a building.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Okay, so the event is a bit crazy and our
VP of philanthropy has talked me into it. We're actually
going to Universal City and the Hilton Hotel the donates
their property for this event. They don't charge anything. They're
a great supporter. We go to the top of the
building and we repel off the twenty five story Hilton
(05:54):
at Universal City and it's all a raise awareness for homelessness,
all to raise money to support the calls. And we
would love people to come down and and join us
two million dollar goal this year, we're about halfway there,
so would love anyone in the community to come alongside
us for that great event.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
And the event is September twenty seventh and twenty eighth.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Twenty seventh and the twenty eighth, and I think we
have two hundred slots available to go over the edge.
You can donate whether you come over the edge or not.
We'd love you to.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
How tall is the building twenty five stories twenty I
guess well, it doesn't really matter if you fall from
twenty five stories or from five.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Stories, it really does. At some point gravity just takes over.
Good news is they've been doing this for a lot
of years and everyone's always made it safely down.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
And I'm going to say they've got the safety cable.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Now you've got the safety cable, and I'm going to
be going down with you. So it's going to be
a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Well, I'm considering it. I'm not sure yet if I
could muster of the courage up to join you, but
we're at iHeart, we're very excited to be partnering with
you in this event. If you want to get involved
in this great organization. You want to jump from a
bill thing with cables getting it down there nice and safely,
or you want to just get involved a contribute time
(07:07):
to work with the organization. Go to just help one
dot org. Again, we're talking with Mark Hood, the newly
appointed CEO of the Union Rescue Mission. We really enjoyed
having you on today. Thank you, Paul. This is Paul Corvino,
Division President of iHeartMedia saying thank you for tuning in
(07:27):
to another episode of CEOs you Should Know. Listen to
CEOs you Should Know on the iHeartRadio app
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