Sean Connery Foundation Picks Its First Executive Director

Sean Connery Foundation

Holly Gordon will be the first executive director of this new foundation, which was created from the estate of the actor Sean Connery following his death in 2020. It will primarily make grants for education and ocean conservation.

Gordon was most recently chief impact officer at Participant Media, a production company started by the billionaire Jeffrey Skoll that creates entertainment for social change.

Associated Black Charities

Chrissy Thornton will become its next president and CEO in January. She is currently executive director of the Myositis Association.

Thornton follows Diane Bell-McKoy, who departed over the summer after 16 years of leading the economic-equity organization.

Hershey Trust Company

Leslie Lenzo will become CEO and chief investment officer on January 1; she will oversee an endowment of more than $20 billion for the Milton Hershey School Trust, the M.S. Hershey Foundation, and the Hershey Cemetery Perpetual Care Maintenance Trust.

Lenzo is currently senior vice president and chief investment officer at Advocate Aurora Health in Downers Grove, Ill. She will succeed Janice Bratton, who is retiring after 33 years there.

Open Society Foundations

Georgia Levenson Keohane will now serve as CEO of the Soros Economic Development Fund, the foundations’ impact-investing arm with more than $400 million in investments worldwide.

She previously led the Emergency Cash Assistance Program for New York City, which made emergency grants to 30,000 residents of New York who faced financial hardship during the Covid-19 pandemic. She is also an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School.

More New CEOs

Hal Cato, CEO of the Nashville nonprofit group Thistle Farms, will be the next CEO of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. He will succeed its founder and president, Ellen Lehman, who is retiring at the end of the year. She created the community foundation 30 years ago in her garage; it now has assets of $550 million.

Amika Mota has been named executive director of Sister Warriors, a membership organization for women and trans people who have previously been incarcerated. She was most recently policy director at the Young Women’s Freedom Center.

Christina Vassallo has been appointed director of the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, effective in March. She is currently executive director of the Fabric Workshop and Museum.

Other Notable Appointments

David Ingber, a rabbi and founder of the synagogue Romemu, will join the 92nd Street Y as senior director of Jewish Life, effective January 15. He will also serve as senior director of the Bronfman Center.

Matt Kahn, a philanthropic adviser at the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, has been named senior director of philanthropic services at the Community Foundation of Broward, in Florida.

Tony Walker, vice president of education strategy and innovation at the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, has been appointed senior vice president of academic programs at the Jed Foundation.

Departure

Sean Kosofsky will step down as executive director of the Climate Advocacy Lab on December 31 to focus on his nonprofit consulting firm, Mind the Gap Consulting. He has led the climate group, which began as a project of the Skoll Global Threats Fund and Skoll Foundation, for the past four years. Carina Barnett-Loro, deputy director, will serve as its interim director until a permanent successor is named.

Jan Masaoka, CEO of the California Association of Nonprofits for 11 years, will depart this winter. Read more about her time leading CalNonprofits in the Chronicle.

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