In February 2014, Jewish Federation President and CEO Todd Stettner announced his intention to retire in September 2015, giving the leadership approximately 18 months to make plans for a future without him. But sometimes the best laid plans don’t come to fruition, and the person tapped to replace him chose to remain in her current community instead of relocating to the Kansas City area. So an interim plan has been put in place.
Late last week in a joint statement, Jewish Federation Chair Patricia W. Uhlmann and Stettner announced that he had agreed to continue to serve the agency’s chief executive until a successor has been found.
In a phone interview earlier this week, Uhlmann said, “Todd’s going to stay on for a while, thank goodness.”
“During this time, Todd will continue to provide professional leadership for the Federation and will work to strengthen our Jewish community,” she continued.
Uhlmann’s term as Jewish Federation chair ends Sept. 8. {mprestriction ids="1,3"}She said having Stettner stay on in the interim will be very helpful as John Isenberg takes over as the organization’s new board chair.
“I believe we’re doing great now. But it will certainly be nice to have that continuity as John comes on,” she said.
In the coming months, the search committee, led by Barbara Atlas and Ward Katz, will continue to work with the Jewish Federations of North America to seek candidates with the highest qualifications, and ultimately to ensure that a talented successor is identified and secured for the president and CEO position,” Uhlmann and Stettner said in the joint statement emailed to various leaders in the community last week.
The search committee is working in partnership with JFNA’s Mandel Center for Leadership Excellence. The center provides resources and expertise to identify, recruit, develop and retain the highest quality professional and volunteer leadership for the Federation system.
“It’s been a very labor intensive undertaking and we’ve had a marvelous search committee, which is very representative of all parts of the community,” Uhlmann explained.
“The search committee is working very hard to find an excellent candidate. Hopefully they will have some candidates to interview very, very soon,” she continued. “They have and will continue to do a magnificent job.”
Uhlmann also praised JFNA’s CEO Jerry Silverman, who she said has taken a personal interest in helping the local Jewish Federation find its new executive.
“Jerry Silverman is a wonderful friend of our community,” she said. “That’s great because he has far-reaching relationships and we are very grateful for his input.”
So for now, Stettner has put his retirement plans on hold. He hopes his successor will be on board by spring.
In the original succession plan, Stettner said he would have some overlap time with the new executive of at least 30 days. Since his tenure has now been extended, he doesn’t know if the overlap plan will continue to stay in place.
Fortunately for the new hire, at this time Stettner has no plans to leave the community, so he will be easily accessible.
“As the job rolls on, I’m sure the new person will have questions,” Stettner said. “I’m sure there will be phone calls and we’ll have lunch or coffee from time to time to talk about things. Even if there is a 30-day overlap you just can’t transmit all that knowledge in such a short time span.”
Uhlmann is confident the Jewish Federation will find a new executive to fit what the agency’s stakeholders have said they are looking for in a leader.
“It’s been a busy couple of weeks. We are very pleased with where we are and where we are headed and we hope to have some good news soon. We are going to continue to conduct this search with great due diligence and attention to what the stakeholders of the Federation have said they are looking for in our next years of leadership. It’s exciting.”{/mprestriction}
