“Less than two weeks after the retirement of its previous chief, Kathy Carroll, the Toledo Symphony Tuesday announced Zak Vassar as its new president and chief executive officer,” writes Mike Pearson in Wednesday’s (7/13) Toledo Blade (Ohio). “It’s a homecoming of sorts for Mr. Vassar, 36, who grew up in the Old Orchard neighborhood, and attended St. John’s Jesuit High and Academy before leaving Ohio to attend Boston College. For the past decade he has worked as a marketing consultant for such Fortune 500 companies as American Express, IBM and Home Depot, and also nonprofits like the Detroit Symphony.… In his new position, which begins Monday, Vassar will face several immediate challenges, including increasing the subscriber base, generating new endowments for various orchestra chairs … replacing principal conductor Stefan Sanderling, who will leave at the end of the 2016-17 season, and increasing the visibility of the orchestra on both the local and national levels.” In his new job Vassar “will oversee a $6 million annual budget and a staff of 16 full-time and 10 part-time employees, in addition to 57 musicians.”
Posted July 13, 2016
