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The Newfields Board of Trustees announced Thursday its strategy to find a successor to Colette Pierce Burnette, the CEO of the art museum and gardens from August 2022 until an abrupt and unexplained departure in November 2023.
Seven board members will launch the recruiting process in conjunction with Chicago-based search firm Koya Partners.
Anne Sellers, the board’s vice chair, will serve as the search committee chair. Sellers was managing principal of Indianapolis-based audio-visual tech firm Sensory Technologies from 2006 to 2020, when the company was acquired by Diversified.
Newfields has provided no explanation for Burnette’s exit, citing a policy of not discussing the details of internal employment matters.
Newfields representatives have declined to be interviewed. Attempts to reach Burnette for comment have been unsuccessful.
Six board members stepped down in the weeks before and after the announcement of Burnette’s exit. The board of trustees, the managing board that holds fiduciary responsibility related to Newfields, decreased in membership from 30 to 24, but the roster presently stands at 26 after two additions.
In January, Burnette joined the board of Indianapolis-based Martin University.
In addition to Sellers, the Newfields board members making up the search committee are: Darrianne Christian, the board’s chair; Michael Kubacki, the interim CEO of Newfields; Alan Mills, Kathi Postlethwait, Ian Rupert and Doug Singleton.
A description of the CEO role will be posted in coming weeks at discovernewfields.org.
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So some of the board members who have been whispered to be the problem and the cause of the last CEO ouster and other board members leaving…. are in charge of the search? This is like watching the entire OpenAI debacle but unfolding over 100x the timeline and with an art museum
An organization does not have a fiduciary duty to share personnel matters outside the organization. There is a reason why nobody involved is talking publicly about it.
I hereby submit my application for this position. My No.1 qualification: I pledge to never apologize to people who seek to destroy the institution I lead.
It’s always fun to watch the touchy feely virtue signaling crowd do the dance. While we won’t get to see the dance, we get to see the outcome, which will most likely be strained, forced, and contrived….and likely the same result and as it can be nothing else. i suspect that the reason she was let go was the same reason NFL coaches get terminated. Its a bottom line world. Follow the money.