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SFMOMA Announces Board of Trustees Leadership Transition and Appointment of New Trustees and Honorary Trustees

Robert J. Fisher Succeeds Charles R. Schwab as Chair

Diana L. Nelson Becomes President and Charles M. Collins Becomes Vice Chair

Julie Mehretu Joins Board as Artist Trustee

Kathryn A. Hall, Komal Shah and Gina Peterson Join as Trustees

Collectors Vicki and Kent Logan Named Honorary Trustees

Released: May 31, 2018 · Download (375 KB PDF)

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (May 31, 2018) — The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) today announced a major leadership transition on its Board of Trustees. Charles R. Schwab, who has served as Board Chair since 2007, will be succeeded as Chair by Robert J. Fisher, who previously served as President. Diana L. Nelson will assume the role of President from her current role as Vice Chair and Charles M. Collins will assume the role of Vice Chair. These changes will be effective as of July 1, 2018. Fisher and Nelson currently serve as Trustee Advisors to the museum’s five-year strategic planning project.

“The museum board has selected new leadership whom I know embrace the thrill and innovation of modern and contemporary art, and how it can help everyone see the world in fresh new ways,” said Charles Schwab.

“Chuck has been a tremendous role model, leader and friend for the past decade. His enthusiasm, support and commitment have taken us from a very good museum to one thriving on the global stage,” said Robert Fisher. “He leaves big shoes to fill, and I hope I can add to his legacy as the next Chair of SFMOMA, as well as continue the dedication and love of the institution that began with my parents.”

Additionally, the museum announced the appointment of Julie Mehretu to the Board of Trustees as Artist Trustee. Mehretu joins artists Rosana Castrillo Díaz and Jeff Wall as Artist Trustees serving three-year terms. In 2017, Mehretu’s monumental commission HOWL, eon (I, II) went on display in the museum’s Walter and Evelyn Haas, Jr. Atrium.

Collectors Vicki and Kent Logan, who have given SFMOMA over 330 works since 1997, including pieces by some of the most important artists of our time as well as works by young emerging artists, join the Board as Honorary Trustees. In 2012–13, the museum presented an exhibition featuring highlights from the Logans’ gift, entitled Don’t Be Shy, Don’t Hold Back: The Logan Collection at SFMOMA.

Kathryn A. Hall, Gina Peterson and Komal Shah will also join the museum’s Board of Trustees as of July 1, 2018.

“It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with Chuck Schwab for the past 10 years. From his spearheading two capital campaigns, his oversight of our endowment, leadership of our board and his thoughtful participation on countless board committees, to the impact that he and Helen have had on our collection through their very generous gifts of important works of art, it’s hard to imagine something that Chuck hasn’t touched at SFMOMA,” said Neal Benezra, the Helen and Charles Schwab Director of SFMOMA. “His collegial, warm and engaging nature encouraged participation and created a gravitational pull that attracted terrific people to participate in SFMOMA. Bob and Diana are key leaders in the next generation of the cultural life of San Francisco, and will continue the great work that was begun by Chuck. We are so fortunate to have this depth of exceptional leadership at our institution.”

The Schwab Legacy

With over 30 years of enthusiastic support for SFMOMA as a donor, lender and art lover, Charles Schwab has served as Board Chair since July 2007 and led the institution through a decade of major growth and expansion culminating in the opening of the newly expanded museum on May 14, 2016. Serving as chairperson of SFMOMA’s Expansion Campaign, Schwab led the effort to raise over $610 million to fund the building’s construction costs, fortify its endowment and cover operational expenses for three years of temporary closure. Supported by 100 percent participation by the museum’s trustees, the campaign’s endowment provides free admission for all visitors aged 18 and younger in perpetuity. Schwab served as chair of the architecture selection committee that chose internationally renowned architecture firm Snøhetta to design the museum’s expansion. A new 460,000 square-foot addition nearly tripled the museum’s galleries and provided new education, performance and administrative spaces, making SFMOMA the largest museum of modern and contemporary art in the United States. In its first year in the expanded space, the museum welcomed over 1.2 million visitors.

Schwab’s involvement in SFMOMA was not limited to the museum’s physical expansion. In 2009, working closely with Don and Doris Fisher, Schwab was instrumental in crafting the museum’s landmark partnership with the Fisher family to bring the renowned Fisher Collection’s 1,100 works to SFMOMA through an innovative century-long agreement, presenting the collection to the public in spacious, specially designed galleries in the new expansion. During his tenure, the museum’s multiyear Campaign for Art also garnered over 3,000 exceptional works, which were gifted by collectors around the globe to strengthen and expand SFMOMA’s permanent collection. Schwab and his wife Helen provided lead gifts of artworks by Jackson Pollock, Vija Celmins, Francis Bacon, Jasper Johns, Brice Marden, Pablo Picasso and Chuck Close.

Schwab’s contributions to SFMOMA have been numerous in scale and scope, ranging from named positions and spaces, and exhibition sponsorships to accessions support. In 2016, the Schwabs endowed the Helen and Charles Schwab Director position currently held by Neal Benezra. They also endowed Helen and Charles Schwab Hall in the expanded museum, creating a new central gathering space for visitors in the museum’s free zone.

Schwab will remain on the board as a Trustee and will continue to chair the museum’s Investment Committee.

Robert Fisher and Diana Nelson will transition to their new roles as Board Chair and President, respectively, on July 1, 2018. Among their immediate projects will be the rollout in fall 2018 of the new five-year strategic plan that will determine the museum’s institutional priorities.

About Robert J. Fisher

Robert J. Fisher has served as President of the Board of SFMOMA since 2010 and has been a trustee of the museum since 2003. Fisher currently serves on the Audit, Committee on Trustees, Digital Experience, Education and Public Practice, Executive, Exhibition Support, Finance, Governance, Human Resource, Investment, Main Accessions, Marketing, Communications, Visitor Experience + Membership, and the Photography Accessions Committees. He was a member of the Architect Selection Committee, the Collections Campaign Committee and Capital Campaign Committee for the new SFMOMA expansion. He also played a leadership role in forging the landmark partnership between the Fisher family and SFMOMA.

Fisher is Chairman of Gap Inc., and has served on the company’s board since 1990. He spent his professional career at the retailer, leading in operating capacities including COO and President of Gap brand and Banana Republic. He was interim CEO in 2007. Fisher was responsible for launching Gap’s online business in 1997, and has played an important role in the company’s sustainability work.

In 2009, Fisher and his wife Randi founded the Pisces Foundation, focusing on environmental education, water resources and climate and energy. Fisher was appointed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009 as the public member of the Strategic Growth Council (SGC) and was appointed as Vice Chair of the organization in 2014 by Governor Jerry Brown. The SGC brings together agencies and departments within the California state government to support sustainable communities, emphasizing strong economies, social equity and environmental stewardship. Fisher also serves on the Board of Trustees for Conservation International as a member of the Executive Committee.

A passionate photography collector, Fisher was born and raised in San Francisco. He attended Princeton University, where he earned a BA in English Literature, and Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where he received an MBA.

About Diana L. Nelson

Diana L. Nelson was elected to the SFMOMA Board of Trustees in 2006 and currently serves as its Vice Chair. Nelson serves on the Committee on Trustees, Executive, Finance and Main Accessions Committees, and has previously served on the Education and Corporate Support Committees. She also served as the Vice Chair of SFMOMA’s Expansion Campaign Committee.

She serves as Chair of Carlson, a privately held company that owns Carlson Wagonlit Travel, the world’s largest travel management company. She is the third person to serve as Chair in the company’s 80-year history.

Nelson possesses extensive board governance and leadership experience through her work with multiple for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. In addition to her role on the Carlson board of directors, she serves on the board of governors of Carlson Holdings, Inc., and on the advisory board of Prime Group, a San Francisco-based real estate equity, debt, investment and operating platform. She is a trustee of the Carlson Family Foundation and former Chair of the U.S. World Childhood Foundation, a global organization dedicated to protecting children at risk from trafficking, abuse and poverty, and a board member for Common Sense Media, a not-for-profit dedicated to helping kids thrive in a world of media and technology.

Nelson regards education as a vital path to opportunity and has dedicated significant time and resources to enable access and equity. She formerly served as Vice Chair of the Harvard University Board of Overseers and served on the advisory board of the Harvard Art Museum. She is a member of the Committee to Oversee the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and has worked to expand Teach for America and the KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) charter school network.

Raised in Minnesota, Nelson graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College where she majored in Art History and holds an MBA in Marketing from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

About Charles M. Collins

Portrait of Charles Collins; courtesy Charles Collins

Charles M. Collins is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the YMCA of San Francisco, which serves over 183,000 children and adults in 14 major branches in San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties, and over 120 other off-site program locations. From 1983–2002, Collins was President and Chairman of WDG Ventures, Inc. and its affiliated companies, which are engaged in the investment and development of commercial and residential real estate projects, including The Metreon and the Four Seasons Hotel and Condominiums in San Francisco.

He has practiced law, was a former Deputy Secretary of the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency for the State of California, and authored a comprehensive study that resulted in the Downtown Plan for the City and County of San Francisco.

In addition to serving on the SFMOMA Board since 1991, Collins is also a member of the San Francisco Arts Commission, and a former trustee of Williams College, The San Francisco State University Foundation and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.

Collins received a BA with honors from Williams College, an MS in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. He is the author of The African Americans (1993), and senior editor of A Day in the Life of Africa (2002).

In his new role as Vice Chair, Collins joins SFMOMA’s Executive Committee with fellow officers Bob Fisher, Diana Nelson, Mimi Haas, Vice Chair, and Dennis Wong, Secretary/Treasurer.


JULIE MEHRETU JOINS BOARD AS NEW ARTIST TRUSTEE

Continuing in the tradition of previous Artist Trustees Robert Bechtle, Yves Béhar, Vincent Fecteau, Ed Ruscha and Larry Sultan, who each served a non-renewable term of three years, Julie Mehretu has been elected artist trustee effective July 1, 2018. In this position, she will represent the artist community and provide counsel to the board from the artist’s perspective. SFMOMA’s Artist Trustees are selected from the community of artists who represent the areas of SFMOMA’s collection: painting and sculpture, photography, architecture and design and media arts. Rosana Castrillo Díaz and Jeff Wall currently serve as Artist Trustees.

About Julie Mehretu

Portrait of Julie Mehretu; © Julie Mehretu; photo: Tom Powel Imaging, Inc.

Born in 1970 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Mehretu conjures the sublime incomprehensibility of our ever-changing world through abstraction. In September 2017, SFMOMA debuted a monumental commission by Mehretu, HOWL eon (I, II), currently on view in the museum’s Haas, Jr. Atrium.

Mehretu studied at Kalamazoo College in Michigan (BA, 1992) and at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal (1990–91). She received an MFA in painting and printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design (1997). Mehretu has participated in numerous international exhibitions and biennials including the Sharjah Biennial 12: the past, the present, the possible, UAE (2015), and Documenta (13) in Kassel, Germany (2012). She has received international recognition for her work, including the US Department of State Medal of Arts Award (2015) and the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship (2005).

In 2009 and 2010, Mehretu exhibited a cycle of large paintings in Julie Mehretu: Grey Area at the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin, which then travelled to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. She has had solo exhibitions at the Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit (2007), Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Spain (2006) and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2003).

Recent shows in 2016 include Julie Mehretu: The Addis Show, a solo exhibition at the Modern Art Museum Gebre Kristos Desta Center, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, organized in conjunction with the Desta Center and the United States Embassy and curated by Dagmawi Woubshet (PhD), and Hoodnyx, Voodoo and Stelae at Marian Goodman Gallery, New York.

A solo exhibition of Mehretu’s work organized by Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, Portugal, opened in May 2017 and traveled to Centro Botín, Santander, Spain, in October 2017.


NEW TRUSTEES

About Kathryn A. Hall

Portrait of Kathryn Hall; courtesy Kathryn Hall

Kathryn A. Hall is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Hall Capital Partners LLC, which she founded in 1994. She is a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and Investment Review Committee. Previously, Hall was a General Partner of Laurel Arbitrage Partners, a risk arbitrage investment partnership, a General Partner of HFS Management Partners (predecessor to Farallon Capital Partners), HFS Partners I and Hellman & Friedman. She began her career at Morgan Stanley.

Hall currently serves as the Chair of the Board of Trustees of Princeton University, on the Board of Trustees of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and is a member of the Federal Reserve Bank’s 12th District Economic Advisory Council. Additionally, she is a member of the Investment Committees of SFMOMA and the Smithsonian Institution, and serves on the Board of Directors of NextGen Climate Action, NextGen Climate America, The McEvoy Group and The San Jose Earthquakes, a professional major league soccer team.

Hall graduated cum laude from Princeton University with an AB in Economics and earned an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

About Gina Peterson

Portrait of Gina Peterson; courtesy Gina Peterson

Gina Peterson serves as Chair of SFMOMA’s Collectors’ Forum and is a member of the museum’s Main Accession Committee. She chaired the Modern Ball 2016, the museum’s biennial fundraiser, and served on the event committee for the Modern Ball in 2012. Gina and her husband Stuart are members of SFMOMA’s Director’s Circle.

Peterson is President of the Peterson Family Foundations, a member of the Sterne School’s Board of Trustees and a former board member of Tipping Point Community.

About Komal Shah

Portrait of Komal Shah; courtesy Komal Shah

Komal Shah has been a member of SFMOMA’s Director’s Circle since 2014 as well as a member of the museum’s Main Accessions Committee, and its Contemporaries and Collectors’ Forums. She is a member of the Tate’s North American Acquisition Committee and a former trustee for the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.

Shah was an engineer at Yahoo! and previously held positions at Oracle and Netscape. She earned an MA in Computer Science from Stanford University and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley.


HONORARY TRUSTEES

About Vicki and Kent Logan

Vicki and Kent Logan are prominent collectors of contemporary art and active supporters of SFMOMA, having donated over 330 works of contemporary art to the museum since 1997. Vicki Logan served as Trustee from 1998–2009.

The Logans began actively collecting contemporary art in 1993 with the idea to give the works to a public institution where they could provide a forum for critical appraisal and discourse. The Logan Collection includes pieces by some of the most important artists of our time—Ai Weiwei, Chuck Close, Marlene Dumas, Philip Guston, Anselm Kiefer, Kerry James Marshall, Bruce Nauman, Gerhard Richter, Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman and Andy Warhol. It also includes artists Jean-Michel Basquiat, Francesco Clemente, John Currin, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Cady Noland and Jeff Koons, which bolstered the museum’s holdings of artists working in New York in the 1980s. Groundbreaking collectors of contemporary Chinese art, the Logans’ gift has established SFMOMA as a leader in this area. Works by the “Young British Artists,” European and Japanese artists complete their gift.

SFMOMA has produced six exhibitions centered on the Logan Collection between 1998 and 2008, including: A Portrait of Our Times: An Introduction to the Logan Collection (1998–99); Looking at Ourselves: Works by Women Artists from the Logan Collection (1999); The Darker Side of Playland: Childhood Imagery from the Logan Collection (2000–01); Supernova: Art of the 1990s from the Logan Collection (2003–04); Half-Life of a Dream: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Logan Collection (2008); and Don’t Be Shy, Don’t Hold Back: The Logan Collection at SFMOMA (2012–13).

A former investment banker with roles at Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Paine Webber, Barclays and Montgomery Securities, Kent retired in 1999. He is a member of the Denver Art Museum’s Board of Trustees and previously sat on the boards of the Clyfford Still Museum, the Aspen Art Museum, California College of the Arts, Vail Valley Council and the Capp Street Project.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
151 Third Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

SFMOMA is dedicated to making the art for our time a vital and meaningful part of public life. Founded in 1935 as the first West Coast museum devoted to modern and contemporary art, a thoroughly transformed SFMOMA, with triple the gallery space, an enhanced education center and new free public galleries, opened to the public on May 14, 2016. In its inaugural year, the expanded museum welcomed more than 1.2 million visitors.


Jill Lynch 415.357.4172 jilynch@sfmoma.org
Clara Hatcher Baruth 415.357.4177 chatcher@sfmoma.org