FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Great Barrington, Mass.—The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center’s Board of Directors has made several updates to the organization’s leadership over the course of 2020, including the addition of four new board members: Katie Cliff Burns, Jane F. Greenman, Lawrence Rutkowski, and Allison Wintner.
New Members
Katie Cliff Burns is an academic by training, with a doctorate in English literature focused on English Renaissance poetry. Cliff Burns and her family lived in Europe for ten years, first in London, then in Basel, where she did some teaching. Currently, she is treasurer of the Geoffrey C. Hughes Foundation.
Jane F. Greenman is a retired attorney and human resources (HR) executive. She was a partner and chair of the Employee Benefits practice at Hughes Hubbard and Reed, after which she served as Vice President/Deputy General Counsel, HR of Honeywell International; Vice President Compensation, Benefits and Labor Relations of Tyco International; Executive Vice President Global HR of Barr Pharmaceuticals; and Vice President Global HR of Commvault Systems. She held leadership positions in advocacy organizations, was a frequent lecturer on HR related topics and testified before Congress. She was also a faculty member at New York University School of Law, Brooklyn Law School and Hofstra Law School.
Greenman has extensive nonprofit management experience, including her current role as Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of New York City Outward Bound Schools, an organization that runs over a dozen unique New York City public schools. From 2014-2018, she served as President of the National Executive Service Corps (NESC), which provides management consulting services to other nonprofit organizations, primarily through retired executive volunteers, and remains a member of NESC’s advisory council and is on the advisory council of Citizens Committee for Children, an advocacy organization on behalf of New York City’s children and families. She is also a board member of SPIN Global Holdings, a privately held entertainment company.
Greenman holds a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and a Juris Doctor and Master of Laws in labor law from the New York University School of Law.
Lawrence Rutkowski is a partner in the New York City and Washington, D.C. law firm of Seward & Kissel LLP. He has been serving in that role since 1992 though his legal career goes back longer, having been a partner in the firm of Hill Betts & Nash and an associate at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft prior to that. He has specialized in corporate finance with a focus on the international shipping industry, where his work has run the gamut from IPOs to negotiating with Somali pirates.
In addition to Rutkowski’s work with Seward & Kissel, he is an adjunct professor at the Charleston School of Law in Charleston, S.C. Rutkowski is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., and a graduate of the Law School of Columbia University in the city of New York.
He has served on many boards and committees, including the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Columbia Golf & Country Club (Claverack, N.Y.), Seafarer’s & International House, Norwegian-American Chamber of Commerce, Holy Cross Lawyers Association, and New York Maritime, Inc.
Allison Wintner, a retired corporate tax attorney, has volunteered extensively in her daughters’ public school system in Chappaqua, N.Y., including serving as President of the Chappaqua School Foundation (CSF), President of the six-school (K-12) Parent Teacher Association (PTA) Executive Council, President of the elementary school PTA, and as a member of the school district’s finance advisory committee. As president of CSF, an organization created to fund innovative projects beyond the scope of the school district budget, she supervised regular grants processes and fundraising endeavors and spearheaded CSF’s partnership with the school district to create tech-rich, flexible learning spaces and related curricula in the schools.
Other Updates
Board of Directors member Alan Lafer was appointed Treasurer. Elected to the Mahaiwe board in December 2019, Lafer recently retired from Neuberger Berman LLC after 39 years as an investment portfolio manager. Previously, he was Executive Vice-President and Co-Founder of Lafer Management Corporation, where he was Co-Portfolio Manager of an opportunistic and event-driven value strategy. He has served as past Chairman of The Luther Rice Society of The George Washington University, which encouraged philanthropy by newly graduated students with matching grants for annual senior class giving; board member of The Sovereign Coop; and former board member of New Dramatists. He was a guest speaker at the 13D Active/Passive Conference.
Board Chair Margaret Deutsch, Vice-Chair Mandy Victor-Pieczarka, and Clerk Ron Ashendorf were re-elected to their roles.
Janis Martinson was officially appointed the Mahaiwe’s Executive Director. Martinson served the organization as Director of Advancement starting in 2017 and was appointed Acting Executive Director at the start of 2020. Martinson is an experienced leader with a proven track record of managing teams, developing boards, facilitating strategic planning, directing brand strategy, and overseeing marketing, communications, and fundraising functions. Before joining the Mahaiwe in 2017, she served as Vice President of Institutional Advancement at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass., where she sat on the President’s Cabinet and answered for multi-million-dollar returns in annual giving, major gifts, and corporate and foundation fundraising. She also served an extended tenure as Chief Advancement Officer, a member of the senior leadership team, at Miss Hall’s School in Pittsfield, Mass., where she completed two successful capital campaigns and began a third, while significantly growing the Advancement team, developing a robust event program, and enlisting a substantial volunteer corps. Her career path also includes earlier stints in fundraising for educational and performing arts organizations, and some years teaching English and Drama in New Jersey public schools. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English (Certificate in Theater and Dance) from Princeton University and a Master’s in Business Administration from the Isenberg School of Management at UMass-Amherst. Her past board service includes Berkshire South Regional Community Center (Vice-President), Town of Egremont Planning Board (Chair), and National Coalition of Girls’ Schools. She currently serves as Clerk of the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce.
“It is a great pleasure to lead a Board of Directors that is perpetually leaning forward with high hopes for and firm faith in the Mahaiwe’s future,” says Deutsch. “Rather than hesitate in this moment, we are pushing ahead with strong, new executive leadership in Janis, and these wonderfully able new colleagues on the board”
About the Mahaiwe
Located in downtown Great Barrington, Mass., the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center is the year-round presenter of world-class music, dance, theater, classic films, Live in HD broadcasts, and arts education programs for the southern Berkshires and neighboring regions. The intimate jewel box of a theater opened in 1905. Since 2005, the performing arts center has hosted over 1,500 events and welcomed over half a million people through its doors. More than 22,000 students from 73 different schools have benefited from the Mahaiwe’s school-time performances and residencies. For more information, see mahaiwe.org.
Images:
Katie Cliff Burns
Jane F. Greenman
Lawrence Rutkowski
Allison Wintner