New York City’s United Way Leader Plans to Retire

The chief executive officer of the United Way of New York City surprised staff members on Thursday by announcing that he will retire in June, reports The New York Times.

Lawrence Mandell made his announcement after an internal investigation was conducted into how the organization managed its assets. The investigation was the second one in a year, after Mr. Mandell’s predecessor, Ralph Dickerson Jr., was found to have used $227,000 of the group’s money to finance personal expenses in 2002 and 2003.

According to an anonymous source quoted by the Times, Mr. Mandell has been cleared of any wrongdoing. Mr. Mandell declined to talk to the newspaper.

Mr. Mandell said his departure was timed for the start of the next phase of the organization’s effort to change its approach. Instead of supporting the same groups year after year, United Ways around the country have been focusing their money on efforts to solve specific problems.

“While we have been successfully focused externally on our community impact strategy, the next phase is to look inward and shore up the systems necessary to support our impact work,” he said.