Posted on September 19, 2010

People in the News (9/19/10): Appointments and Promotions

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in Menlo Park, California, has announced the appointment of BRETT JOHNSON as associate director for public investments. Johnson, previously the chief investment officer and portfolio manager for mutual fund and investment firm Grubb & Ellis AGA, will help select external fund managers, monitor their performance, and develop investment strategies. Hewlett also announced that CHRISTOPHER SHEARER has joined its education program. Shearer was previously associate executive director of the National Geographic Society's Education Foundation, where he managed grantmaking for K-12 education policy, financing, and reforms in teacher preparation and practices. He also has served on the boards of the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers and the Geography Education National Implementation Project.

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation in New York City has announced that president/CEO DAVID WALKER will resign as of October 15 to serve as founder and CEO of a new initiative focused on promoting and realizing specific fiscal solutions. Walker, who headed the U.S. Government Accountability Office before joining the foundation, will continue to serve as a member of the foundation's advisory board. Board chair Pete Peterson will serve as acting CEO.

The Chicago-based Joyce Foundation has announced the election of TRACEY L. MEARES and MARGOT M. ROGERS to its board. Meares, deputy dean and Walton Hale Hamilton professor of law at Yale Law School, previously held the positions of Max Pam professor of law and director of the Center for Studies in Criminal Justice at the University of Chicago Law School. Rogers most recently served as chief of staff to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan; previously, she worked as special assistant to the director of education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The San Francisco-based Tides Foundation has named MELISSA L. BRADLEY to the position of CEO. As founder and managing director of New Capitalist, Bradley facilitated venture capital transactions and created investment vehicles instrumental in capital sourcing for minority-owned firms. A former Open Society Institute Soros Justice Fellow, she also founded the Reentry Strategies Institute and the Entrepreneurial Development Institute and created the Capital Access Program at Green for All.

Washington, D.C.-based Independent Sector has hired GEOFFREY PLAGUE as director of government relations. Plague, a former congressional aide, previously worked as advocacy and policy director for the Basic Education Coalition, a group of international development and humanitarian assistance organizations working to provide children in the developing world with a quality education.

The New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies has announced the appointment of DOUG WHITE as academic director of its George H. Heyman, Jr. Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising. White, who has taught at the center since 2003, will collaborate on its programming and promotion while further developing the curricula of its academic programs.

The Philadelphia-based Opportunity Finance Network has announced the appointment of PAM PORTER as executive vice president of strategic consulting. Porter, who earlier led two boutique consulting firms, most recently served as executive vice president of strategy and planning at Right Management, a talent and career management firm. In her new position, she will work with clients of OFN's consulting practice to develop effective strategies to build high-performing community development financial institutions.

In other news, German-born philanthropist ERIC ROSS, whose generosity benefitted numerous Newark, New Jersey-area organizations, died in Switzerland at the age of 91. Ross, who lost his parents in the Holocaust, and his late wife contributed $12 million to the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. — the museum's largest donation — and made significant contributions to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, the Newark Museum, Saint Barnabas Medical Center, and Rutgers Hillel, among other organizations.