Paul Irwin
Key Player

President and CEO, Humane Society of the United StatesPaul Irwin is the president and chief executive officer of the Humane Society of the United States, an animal-rights group that fronts as an animal-welfare group. He has been an officer of HSUS, the world’s richest animal-rights organization, since 1976. He is also president of the World Society for the Protection of Animals (headquartered in London, England), EarthVoice, the Center for Respect of Life and the Environment, the International Center for Earth Concerns, and Humane Society International. Irwin is an ordained United Methodist minister and a trustee of the American Bible Society.

Irwin is one of a number of HSUS employees who has come under fire for living a lavish lifestyle at donors’ expense. His salary is over $300,00 a year. The group also paid him $85,000 for renovations to a beachfront Maine cabin; the organization held the property in trust, but Irwin and his family used it exclusively for vacations. Irwin collected $15,000 in executor’s fees from a board member’s estate without notifying the board in advance, as required by the HSUS “code of ethics.”