Billy Starr

View interview

Personal Information

Bio

Billy Starr founded and leads the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge, the most successful athletic fundraising event in the nation.

Since 1980, the PMC, a 190-mile bike-a-thon, has contributed more than $204 million to cancer research. By 1984, the PMC had established itself as the largest grossing fundraising event for the Jimmy Fund, New England's most popular charity. By 1990, the PMC had become the most successful cycling fundraiser in the world.

Starr has built a unique organization that performs at a level of proficiency rarely found in either the corporate or nonprofit worlds. In 2008, the organization raised and contributed $35 million, the largest gift ever received by the Jimmy Fund. The sum represented 100 percent of every rider-raised dollar.

In 1993, the Jimmy Fund honored Starr and the PMC, at Fenway Park by awarding him the Tom & Jean Yawkey Memorial Award for outstanding service. In 1995, Starr was chosen as one of twelve profiled in the original PBS Visionaries series. In 1997, the bridge connecting the Jimmy Fund Clinic to the new Smith Research Labs and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute was named the Pan-Massachusetts Bridge to Progress.

Starr also serves as a consultant for other charity events. Before starting the PMC, he was a reporter for newspapers in Massachusetts and Colorado, worked in public relations with Hill & Knowlton and was the squash coach at Babson College. He received his BA from the University of Denver in 1973, a Masters in Education from Northeastern University in 1978, an honorary Doctorate of Laws from Babson College in 1998, and an honorary doctorate from Baypath College in 2008. An avid cyclist, skier, and racquets player, Starr has ridden in his own event for all 29 years. Starr lives with his wife, Meredith, and daughters Hannah and Sophia, in Wellesley, Mass.

Name of Business / Organization

Pan-Massachusetts Challenge (PMC)

Homepage

http://www.pmc.org/

Location

History

Member for

14 years 25 weeks