June 7, 2007, San Francisco—The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) announced today that Charles R. Schwab will assume the position of chair of the Board of Trustees on July 1, 2007. He succeeds Steven H. Oliver, who has led the Board since 2004.
“I am delighted Chuck has accepted this position, and I look forward to the future of SFMOMA under his leadership,” says SFMOMA Director Neal Benezra. “Chuck’s combination of business acumen and great enthusiasm for art will be tremendous assets as we head toward the Museum’s 75th anniversary in 2010, and his vision for growth will strengthen our standing as one of the world’s leading modern and contemporary art museums.”
States Schwab, “I am honored to be elected SFMOMA’s new chair and am looking forward to working with the Museum staff, Board, and public. It’s been my good fortune to have been involved with SFMOMA for more than 20 years, and I have been delighted to see it grow and become one of the great treasures of San Francisco for visitors and residents alike. I believe we can continue that progress so the Museum touches the lives of an even larger audience with the power of modern and contemporary art.”
Schwab has been vitally involved with SFMOMA since 1987, serving as a member of the Board of Trustees from 1987 to 1994. In 1989 he served as treasurer of the Board, and in 1990 he was chair of the Board Marketing Committee, a committee he served on for several years. Schwab also has served on the Finance, Compensation, and Strategic Planning committees, and he chaired the Investment Committee from 1988 to 1989, and again from 1999 to the present. From 1999 to 2000, he chaired the Endowment Campaign, which raised more than $60 million.
Schwab’s financial contributions to SFMOMA have been numerous in scale and scope, ranging from exhibition sponsorships to accessions funding. With his wife, Helen, he has supported such recent SFMOMA exhibitions as Brice Marden: A Retrospective of Paintings and Drawings; The Surreal Calder; The Art of Richard Tuttle; Gerhard Richter: Forty Years of Painting; Sol LeWitt: A Retrospective; Image, Body, Text: Selected Works by Gary Hill; and The Anderson Collection, as well as the upcoming exhibition Take your time: Olafur Eliasson. His brokerage firm, Charles Schwab & Co. Inc., also has supported the Museum, helping to fund such exhibitions as Diane Arbus Revelations and Alexander Calder: 1898–1976, as well as programs such as kidstART, which offers free Museum admission for children under 12.
Helen Schwab served as an SFMOMA Trustee from 1993 to 2007. In 2005 she chaired the Museum’s largest fund-raising event, The Modern Ball, raising more than $2 million for SFMOMA’s exhibitions and programs.
Charles Schwab attended Stanford University, where he received a BA in 1959 and an MBA in 1961. He is founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of the San Francisco–based securities brokerage Charles Schwab Corporation.