Opinion: Why Is Nancy Brinker Still Komen’s CEO?

Ten months after Susan G. Komen for the Cure announced that Nancy Brinker would step down as chief executive, the breast-cancer charity’s founder remains officially in charge, a Washington Post columnist notes.

Komen announced in August that Ms. Brinker would take up another, unspecified management role as soon as a successor is hired, but she is still listed as CEO at the charity’s Web site. Spokeswoman Andrea Rader told Jena McGregor of the Post’s “On Leadership” business column that the Komen board “is doing a very thorough executive search” and “continued to have strong candidates.”

“Perhaps it really does take almost a year to find someone to step in to lead an organization that has been at the center of a political controversy and is experiencing declining participation rates,” Ms. McGregor writes, referring to last year’s flap over Planned Parenthood grants and a slide in fundraising at key Komen events. “Still, it may be that much harder to find and attract incoming CEO candidates when they know the founder will be sticking around in a yet-to-be-well-defined role.”