Michael Hill

CHAUTAUQUA – Michael E. Hill, currently the president and CEO of Youth For Understanding USA, will be Chautauqua Institution’s 18th president, the Institution’s Board of Trustees has announced.

Hill is an experienced leader of arts, cultural and social service organizations including Washington National Cathedral, The Washington Ballet and United Cerebral Palsy. Youth For Understanding USA is one of the world’s oldest, largest and most respected intercultural exchange programs.

“We are absolutely thrilled that Michael is coming on board. He is a high-energy, visionary leader who understands how to balance tradition and progress,” said Chautauqua Institution Board Chairman James Pardo. “Michael has already logged an incredible track record of success for a person of his years. His unique background will help Chautauqua Institution connect more deeply with the community, reach new audiences and expand our exposure on a national and international stage.”

Hill has a rich, diverse work history with a variety of organizations. In addition to holding senior management positions at several nonprofits, he has extensive experience in fundraising, programming, marketing and communications. He is an international educator and founding faculty member of the Master of Arts Management program at George Mason University, and in 2016 served as an Aspen Institute Non-Profit Leadership Fellow.

Among his achievements, Hill directed a $125 million expansion of the historic Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., securing the largest single gift ever made to a theater in the United States. At St. Bonaventure University, he oversaw the construction of a new museum complex, the addition of an artistic residency center and the quadrupling of programming at the university’s multi-venue arts complex. During his college years, he served for a time as assistant editor for The Chautauquan Daily, and later served for several seasons as a guest critic for symphony and theater while serving as Director of The Quick Arts Center at St. Bonaventure University.

“This is an incredible opportunity to help an internationally recognized, highly respected institution leverage its strengths to engage Chautauquans in new ways and to find new audiences,” Hill said. “I am honored, and I am humbled. I am passionate about Chautauqua Institution’s history and the incredible diversity of its programs. I look forward to reconnecting with the Chautauqua I remember, and listening and learning so we can raise the Institution’s visibility and further enhance its astounding reputation.”

Following Tom Becker’s retirement announcement earlier this year, the Chautauqua board appointed a committee chaired by George Snyder, immediate past chair of the Board of Trustees, to launch a rigorous national search to find a successor. The Institution retained executive search consultants Russell Reynolds Associates, which conducted a comprehensive leadership needs assessment with Chautauqua senior staff, the Board of Trustees, Chautauqua Foundation Board of Directors, major donors and other stakeholders. “Michael emerged as the unanimous selection of the search committee from a pool of incredibly talented and diverse candidates. Our search process reaffirmed the national prominence of the Institution,” said Snyder.

Hill succeeds Becker, who is retiring at the end of 2016 after 13 years as president. The two will work together in the weeks ahead to ensure a seamless transition and an exciting beginning to the 2017 season.

“We thank Tom Becker for his historic service, and we look forward to Michael Hill’s leadership and the perspective he brings from his previous positions,” Pardo said. “Since its beginnings in the 1870s, Chautauqua Institution has had a succession of dynamic, inspirational leaders driving the Institution forward. With a new president, and with a new Amphitheater about to debut, it is truly an amazing time to be a Chautauquan.”

A native of Norfolk, New York, Hill, 42, earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism at St. Bonaventure University, where he is a member of their Board of Trustees, and a master’s degree in arts and cultural management from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. He will begin his work at Chautauqua Institution on January 1, 2017.

Committee Appointed; Executive Search Firm Retained

CHAUTAUQUA – A nationwide search has begun to find Chautauqua Institution’s next president.

James Pardo Jr., Chair of the Institution’s Board of Trustees, has announced the appointment of a six-person committee that will lead the process to identify and select the Institution’s 18th president. The Institution’s goal is to name a successor to retiring President Tom Becker this fall.

“This is an extraordinary time for Chautauqua Institution, and an extraordinary opportunity for a creative, high-energy leader to take the Chautauqua experience to a new level,” Pardo said. “With a new Amphitheater coming on line in 2017, we are truly excited by the new programmatic opportunities before us, and we are eager to see how our new president’s vision for the future advances the Institution.”

Becker recently announced his intention to retire effective December 31, 2016, following 13 years as president and nearly 32 years of service in total to Chautauqua.

“The Board and the search committee recognize the tall order ahead of us in choosing Tom Becker’s successor,” Pardo said. “Because of Tom’s extraordinary efforts and successes over the years, our next president will find the Chautauqua Institution in its best financial and operational position ever.”

Executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates has also been retained to guide the committee and the Board through the search and hiring process.

“We anticipate that the process will be a robust one that will attract a number of highly qualified candidates from many different backgrounds,” said George T. Snyder, chair of the presidential search committee. “Over the next few months, we will screen prospective candidates, develop a shortlist of finalists and bring them to Chautauqua for on-site visits during the summer season. It’s our hope that our new president will start work on the first day of the New Year.”

Today’s announcements follow more than two months of research by Board leadership, in addition to consultation with outside experts, Institution staff, and many members of the Chautauqua community. The Board and Institution staff will provide regular updates to Chautauquans as the search process unfolds.

Chautauqua Institution Presidential Search Fact Sheet

Presidential Search Committee

George T. Snyder, immediate past chair of the Board of Trustees from 2007 to 2013, will chair the presidential search committee. Snyder is a lifelong Chautauquan and property owner. He currently serves as a director of the Chautauqua Foundation, chairing its Personnel Committee, and is co-chair of the Promise Campaign. A native of Pittsburgh, he is a partner with the Stonecipher Law Firm.

The following Chautauquans also have been appointed to serve as members of the search committee:

• Jim Brady, who is the Central Region Managing Partner for Grant Thornton LLP, one of the top six largest professional services firms in the U.S. A member of the Chautauqua community since 2003 and now a property owner, Brady serves on both the Institution’s Board of Trustees and the Chautauqua Foundation’s Board of Directors, chairing the Development Council.
• Laura Currie, who is manager of the clinical trials program in the Pediatric Hematology and Oncology Division at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. A lifelong Chautauquan and property owner, Currie also serves as an Institution Trustee and a Foundation Director, and she chairs the Planned Giving Committee.
• Bill James, who has worked in the consumer products industry his entire career with assignments in Europe and the U.S. James and his family have come to Chautauqua for 25 years; he is a property owner and joined the Foundation Board as a Director in 2014.
• Candace Littell Maxwell, who is a retired consulting executive and corporate director for the life sciences industry. Maxwell has been coming to Chautauqua for 15 years and is currently in her sixth year of service as a Trustee of the Institution.
• James A. Pardo Jr., who is a retired partner at King & Spalding LLP.  At Chautauqua, where he is a property owner and has come with his family since 1991, Pardo serves as Chair of the Institution’s Board of Trustees, ex officio as a Foundation Director, and Vice-Chair of the Chautauqua Hotel Corporation’s board.

Executive Search Firm

Russell Reynolds Associates is a global leader in assessment, recruitment and succession planning for boards of directors and key leadership roles for organizations of all kinds. Its consultants have extensive experience identifying, assessing and recruiting exceptional board members, CEOs and senior leaders for nonprofit organizations around the world.  The search will be led by the firm’s Washington and Boston offices.

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There is no question that the Chautauqua Institution is not only a gift to our county, but so too, deserves the world class reputation it has earned over more than a century as a seat for intellectual discourse and creative artistic presentations.

You’d be hard pressed to find any other center of learning like it, anywhere in the world.

…and the announcement earlier this week of the end of year retirement of its president, Tom Becker, should give us pause to reflect on his accomplishments and say to him as a community, “Thank you”.

I am troubled, however, by the planned demolition of the historic amphitheater in order to replace it with a modern version. I have followed the discussion for the past year, as presented in the media, as proponents of restoration have built….I believe….a strong case for retaining the existing theater and rehabbing it at a much less expensive price tag than the new plan calls for….A reported $42 million.

Here are my thoughts.

One thing that has always challenged me about the Institution is their limited interaction with Jamestown and the missed opportunities to develop “off-season” programming for a population of children largely economically disadvantaged.

Though over the years, they have solicited and received monies from the Jamestown based Foundation community (in the millions I might add) my personal experience some 12 years ago when I first came to our community to serve as CEO of the Gebbie Foundation, troubles me to this day.

I was invited to and attended a luncheon with their senior staff and a few board members. Being new to the position and only having a cursory knowledge of the Institutions value and import, it was suggested by my bosses that I accept the invitation, visit the Institution and ask a simple question.

That question was, “what can we do to have the Institution program more broadly in the Jamestown community, especially in the “off-season?”

The response I received was unanimous….as several persons attending the luncheon spoke to the same basic answer.

“To experience Chautauqua, one needed to be inside the walls of the Institution”

What troubles me about that idea is that “one” would think, that given their reputation and stature around the world, they would look at their local role in broader terms….feel some level of responsibility to help uplift and educate those children who might otherwise go a lifetime without hearing a concert, see a ballet or learning from the lecture series…all of which are unparalleled.

To give them credit, they have partnered with the Reg Lena, the Jackson Center, WRFA and many other local organizations for decades….yet, off season programming designed to nurture and expand the minds of Jamestown’s most vulnerable citizens (our children) has been relatively non-existent.

Is it their job to play a part in such an effort? I believe it is. After all, they are a part of our community, too.

If it was possible to raise some $42 million to replace the historic amphitheater from donors who believe that it is the correct step to take, then how tough would it be to create an “off-season” fund for specially designed programming benefitting the community’s children….in effect playing an important role in building new generations of local residents whose appreciation of the arts and letters presented there, guarantee future supporters…..and wouldn’t it help build better citizens in the long run?

Whenever legacies are discussed….regardless of the individual or organization being touted at the time, those who will stand out are not the ones who confine their efforts to a limited constituency, but rather reach out to those whose need for those gifts is obvious…and well outside a limited definition of who their beneficiaries are.

Experiencing Chautauqua should not be limited to what happens inside the walls of the Institution…especially for children who will never see a play, lecture, dance, concert or any other of the wonderful offerings presented there, unless nurtured to appreciate.

Because so much financial support has been awarded to them by Jamestown based foundations for decades, and in order to play a part in building a stronger local community, choose instead to rehabilitate and restore the existing historic amphitheater and take a few of the millions raised to teach our children during their school year (the institution’s off season).

Open the gates to Chautauqua’s valuable programming…let it out for our children to experience.

Legacy is built and sustained by the gifts that are given to those who otherwise will never know…and without the Chautauqua Institution reaching out in a generous way, many of our children will never know….and ultimately….care even less.

I’m John Merino and this is American Chronicles.

American Chronicles is a bi-weekly locally produced feature on WRFA written and produced by retired Gebbie Foundation CEO, John C. Merino. Currently, John is an Adjunct Professor of Micro-Economics, Organizational Management, and 20th Century World History at Mercyhurst University. American Chronicles airs twice monthly, Friday mornings at 7:15 and Friday Afternoons at 4:35. American Chronicles features original stories (partly fact and partly fiction), commentary on local, state , national, world conditions and more.

Find past episodes at www.wrfalp.com/tag/american-chronicles/

Tom Becker

CHAUTAUQUA – Chautauqua Institution President Tom Becker is announcing his retirement, effective at the end of this year. Becker has served as the 17th President of Chautauqua Institution since November of 2003.

Chautauqua Institution board chairman James Pardo, Jr. said the Board would begin work immediately to launch a nationwide search for Becker’s successor, and will provide regular updates to Chautauquans as the process unfolds.

Tom Becker joined Chautauqua Institution in 1985 as Vice President of Development for the Institution, and Vice President of the Chautauqua Foundation.

As president, he steered the Institution through the financial crisis of the late 2000s and positioned it for long-term sustainability.

Image from CIWeb.org.

(Note: The following is a submitted Media Release from Chautauqua Institution)

CHAUTAUQUA – The Chautauqua Institution Board of Trustees voted Saturday to let design plans for a renewal of its Amphitheater go out to bid. Board Chairman Jim Pardo called the decision “the best guarantee for the sustainability and growth of Chautauqua Institution’s mission and its reputation as a place where ideas are shaped, audiences are inspired and a community is engaged. It is a vote that positions our entire Institution for the next 100 years.”

The decision follows an eight month intensive process that included a review of the study group work and findings begun in 2010, the addition of information from outside historic preservation experts, and opinions and ideas heard from the community during this past season’s weekly public forums.

Pardo said he understood the sensitivity around any structure with the history and tradition of the Amp.  “The feedback during the past eight months included critics and equally emphatic supporters of change.  We listened and learned from all we heard,” Pardo said.

 Board Chairman Pardo said today’s action involved three key steps:

• Reaffirming goals for the Amp, including guaranteeing safety and accessibility, respecting audiences and performers and honoring the Amp’s history of place and purpose.
• Authorizing the Chautauqua staff to put the project out to bid to learn the actual cost. The Board still must vote on accepting bids and moving forward with the construction. The vote is expected at the Board’s November 7 meeting.
• Instructing Chautauqua’s administrative team to seek the necessary permits for the project from the town of Chautauqua.

Pardo said private donors have stepped up in dramatic fashion, pledging more than $33 million for the Amp project, nearly meeting fundraising goals. Pardo said he is confident those goals will be met.

Chautauqua Institution President Tom Becker put the Amp project on hold in January, asking the board for time to consult with preservation experts, re-engage and gain additional input and ideas from the Chautauqua community and review the project’s design and timeline.

During this period, the Institution engaged the National Park Service Office of Preservation Assistance and was guided by their recommendations. The Institution named an independent panel of historic preservation experts; redoubled its efforts to seek preservation-specific engineering counsel; produced regular written updates; created web access to previous reports and information; released to the public the reports and studies additionally commissioned; further explored the feasibility for retaining parts of the current structure; and led 27 community engagement sessions during the just completed 2015 summer season.

“We have actively sought input from our stakeholders from the inception of the project in 2010, and we continue to listen carefully,” Becker said.  “Renewing the Amp is the most definitive statement the Chautauqua Institution can make to support our vision, to honor our cultural tradition, and to preserve Chautauqua Institution’s legacy as a place of community and assembly.”

Becker said that he believed the renewed amphitheater will enhance Chautauqua’s ability to attract global opinion leaders and thought leaders for the lectures that make the Amp famous and a facility that will allow the classical arts, endangered in so many places, to thrive at Chautauqua.

“Today we have been given the opportunity to design a place that is also safe, accessible, and respectful of audiences, artists, speakers and clergy, a place that recognizes and can respond to the constant evolution of its content. It is a design intended to give Chautauqua what it  needs and does not have today–the flexibility to create and respond to ideas and opportunities not yet imagined, but sure to be a part  of the coming century,” according to Becker.

“It’s about the work. The Amp is more than a building,” said Becker.   “It is the programs that take place there and the experiences audience members have when they attend those programs. The true Amp brand is the history, the traditions and the cultural contributions it has made and will continue to makeas the heart and soul of Chautauqua Institution. That is the legacy we’re preserving with this project.”