Longtime GAR Foundation leader Rob Briggs is handing over the reins of the organization to Christine Amer Mayer after the new year.
Briggs, who has served the foundation for 20 years, including 15 years at the helm, said he has been preparing Mayer to succeed him as president for several years. Mayer is chief operating officer and legal counsel for the foundation.
The private GAR Foundation was established in 1967 as a charitable trust by Galen J. Roush, co-founder and chief executive of Roadway Express, and his wife, Ruth. The foundation has distributed nearly $200 million to nonprofit organizations, including $1.2 million in grants recently announced to 28 area nonprofit organizations. The foundation has assets of about $140 million.
Briggs said he began discussing succession planning in 2006 with the distribution committee, which serves as the GAR board of directors.
The chairman emeritus and former chief executive of Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs LLP said he’s following in the footsteps of his former partner and mentor, Richard “Dick” Chenoweth. Briggs called Chenoweth, a former executive director of GAR, a premier lawyer and “super community guy.”
When Chenoweth turned 70, “he told everybody that while he could continue to do what he was doing, he wanted to pass the baton because he thought it was a great idea…They tapped me to do that. I thought that was a great idea,” Briggs said of following Chenoweth’s lead. Briggs said he just recently “achieved the age of 70.”
“Even though I feel like I could continue to run the foundation, I felt it’s important to make the transition. Christine has worked for Buckingham ever since she was in law school.”
The foundation’s IRS Form 990 filed a year ago showed Briggs was paid $210,000 and Mayer, $160,000 in 2009.
Mayer, 40, joined the foundation staff as a program officer in 2001 after Briggs asked whether she’d like to begin working for the organization part time.
Briggs said he’d rather not call his leaving a retirement, but a transition.
“I keep pretty busy,” he said. “I’m going to spend more time at Buckingham. I won’t go back to practicing law, but more client relations.”
Briggs also has been elected to join the GAR’s five-member distribution committee.
Briggs is also active in many other community organizations and serves on the board of FirstMerit Corp.
Kitty Dindo, chairwoman of GAR’s distribution committee, said Briggs has spent a lot of time mentoring and grooming Mayer.
“When I think of what’s the best thing a leader can do for an organization, it really is finding the right replacement when they decide to leave. Christine is really the right person for our next stage.”
Briggs said he will remain active in local and national pursuits, including as chairman of the board of trustees for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
He is a board member and former co-chairman of OneCommunity; a board member and chairman of Invent Now Inc. – the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation; and founding chairman of the Fund for Our Economic Future, a collaboration of more than 80 philanthropists in Northeast Ohio.
Mayer’s background
In addition to her work at the foundation, Mayer serves on the boards of United Way of Summit County, Leadership Akron, and Milestones Autism Organization. Mayer and her husband, Richard, live in Solon with their three children.
Mayer said she is excited “about the opportunity to help our nonprofit partners as they adjust to the ‘new normal’ through innovation, creative solutions, new efficiencies and strong information-sharing networks.”
“Rob has taught me that big challenges yield big opportunities, especially for optimists who are persistent in finding the upside,” she said. “I see so much potential for our community’s nonprofits to reach out and leverage outcomes for the people they serve. My colleagues at GAR and I are eager to help with this work in any way we can.”
The foundation will host a celebration of Briggs’ career with a reception Tuesday night.
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/blinfisher and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty.
