Who will be the next CEO of the Boston Foundation? Hint: Not a white guy.
If you think it’s just me banging the drum, think again. Paul Grogan, the outgoing white guy in charge, said so himself in a recent Globe interview: “There is a strong hope that the next president is a minority. I’ve heard it put: It needs to be a woman, a minority, or both.”
Mind you, Grogan won’t be part of the search process. Cochairing that effort are two Boston Foundation board members: former University of Massachusetts Boston chancellor Keith Motley and BlueHub Capital CEO Elyse Cherry.
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Having them overseeing the search — a Black man and a woman who is a lesbian — is another indication where the influential foundation is heading: to perhaps the most inclusive search this town has ever seen for a high-profile job.
It’s about time. Actually, it’s past time.
Too often, the fix is in for the white male insider winnowing the field before the search begins. I give Grogan credit for saying what he said. He could have dodged the question and let the status quo prevail. (Grogan, who was named CEO in 2001, succeeded Anna Faith Jones, who was the first Black woman to lead a major community foundation.)
In an interview with my colleague Zoe Greenberg, Grogan sent a message loud and clear that if you’re a woman or a person of color, the foundation not only welcomes your candidacy but prefers it. (Keep reading until the end, and you’ll be rewarded with my running list of potential candidates.)
Foundation board members I talked to don’t go as far as saying “No white men need apply.” What Cherry can say is that the board is “absolutely committed to a full national and inclusive search.”
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“Paul leaves important shoes to fill,” Cherry told me. “Whether we fill them with pumps or sneakers remains to be seen.”
Other than the appointments of Cherry and Motley, the search process is just getting underway. A job description has yet to be written, and an outside search firm hasn’t been hired. Cherry wouldn’t say how long the search might take, but Grogan has agreed to stay until his successor is named.
Cherry and the board do have a sense of the kind of leader they are looking for.
“Ultimately, the person who leads this foundation needs to drive a conversation about the future of Boston, needs to be able to encourage philanthropy, needs to connect with the communities we are trying to serve, and needs to think about policy and civic leadership,” she said.
Typically, when a longtime leader steps down, it’s also an opportunity to reevaluate the organization’s raison d’etre. In his 19 years at the helm, Grogan established the foundation as a player in shaping policy and helped double its endowment to $1.3 billion as grant-making tripled to $150 million annually. The foundation focuses its philanthropy on education, health and wellness, the arts, affordable housing, and jobs.
“I don’t view this is as we’re going to pivot to a new direction,” said the foundation’s board chair. Sandy Edgerley. “I see new leadership building on the incredible success of the foundation.”
At the same time, Edgerley expects the new CEO will have an “opportunity to have his or her imprint on the foundation.”
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Now onto the really fun part: Who are the potential candidates who might step forward or be asked to throw their hat in the ring?
There won’t be a shortage of interested parties. This could be the most coveted job in Boston right now. The pay is good: Grogan’s compensation package was about $745,000 in 2017, according to the latest tax filings, and the work is all about doing good by giving away money.
The following list is not an endorsement, but a sampling of people who could be part of the candidate pool:
Let’s start with people with political experience:
— Linda Dorcena Forry, a former state senator who is now an executive at Suffolk, the construction company
— Sonia Chang-Diaz, state senator and former school teacher
— John Barros, the City of Boston’s chief economic officer and former executive director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative
— Charlotte Golar Richie, a former city housing official, former state representative, and nonprofit leader
— Yvonne Spicer, the Framingham mayor and former executive at the Museum of Science
— Michelle Wu and Andrea Campbell, Boston city councilors who each served as council president. (Unsolicited advice to Mayor Marty Walsh: Send the search committee glowing references for Wu and Campbell if you’re worried they might challenge you in the next election.)
The Boston Foundation’s board itself is chock full of possibilities:
— Pam Eddinger, president of Bunker Hill Community College
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— Vanessa Calderón-Rosado leads IBA, Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción,a nonprofit and community development corporation that works with displaced families
— Dr. Myechia Minter-Jordan, chief impact officer of DentaQuest and former CEO of a Roxbury health care organization, the Dimock Center
— C.A. Webb, CEO of the Kendall Square Association
In case you’re wondering, Cherry and Motley, the board members who are heading up the search committee, will not be candidates.
From the world of business and nonprofits:
— Beth Chandler, CEO of YW Boston
— Travis McCready,former CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center and former Boston Foundation executive
— Mo Cowan, General Electric executive, former US senator and chief of staff in the Deval Patrick administration
— Deval Patrick, former governor and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.
— Michael Curry, deputy CEO of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers and former president of the Boston chapter of the NAACP
— Michele Courton Brown, CEO of Quality Interactions, a training company to reduce health disparities, and former Bank of America executive with philanthropic experience
— Rahn Dorsey, formerly of the Barr Foundation and former chief of education for the City of Boston.
The names on this list are nearly all people of color. Compiling it was a way for me to note the incredible pipeline of talented female and minority leaders we now have in Boston. No longer can anyone say we can’t find a woman or a person of color for a top job. They are here. They are visible.
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Now it’s up to the rest of the city to see them.
Shirley Leung is a Business columnist. She can be reached at shirley.leung@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @leung.