For Immediate Release
November 20, 2020
Information: Sarah Sidman | 206-788-3051 | sarahsidman@artsfund.org
ArtsFund, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives & Communications
ArtsFund Announces New Board Leadership
SEATTLE, WA—Today ArtsFund announced leadership transitions among its Board of Trustees as well as the appointment of two new members. Long-term Board member Sung Yang, Partner at Pacific Public Affairs, has stepped into the role of Board Chair. Jackie Jones of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Tom Leonidas of Wood Harbinger join the 29 member board of the Seattle-based nonprofit.
Sung Yang is a partner and principal of the public relations firm, Pacific Public Affairs, in Seattle, Washington. He has nearly two decades of experience managing complex public policy issues, legislative advocacy, communications, and campaigning. He has a particular passion to promote arts and culture, and has led many arts & culture initiatives including establishing the first voter approved cultural access program in Washington state, developing cultural facility capital funding programs in King County, and successfully advocating for a permanent funding source for county-wide arts, culture and heritage programs.
Prior to joining Pacific Public Affairs, Yang was Deputy County Executive and Chief of Staff for King County Executive Dow Constantine. He also held senior positions in the administrations of Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and Governor Gary Locke. Before his public posts, Yang was an attorney with a downtown Seattle law firm and taught at Seattle University. In addition to his role at ArtsFund, Yang is a member of the Community Development Roundtable and serves on the Boards of the Downtown Seattle Association, Seattle Center Foundation, CulturePAC, Seattle Academy (SAAS), Eastrail and the YMCA Youth In Government program. He received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Washington.
Yang stated, “As ArtsFund launches into its second half century, I am honored to step into the role of Board Chair, and to lead ArtsFund as we continue to support the arts and cultural sector in this critical time of need and into the future.”
Jackie Jones is the Deputy Director of Strategy, Planning, and Management for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Gender Equality portfolio. She is accountable for strategy definition, implementation, and operations for Gender Equality, which seeks to unlock the potential of women in the most marginalized settings and to be actors in the economies. Prior to joining the foundation, Jones spent over a decade as an executive at Accenture, the global management consulting firm, with expertise in innovation growth strategy, organizational effectiveness, and social impact strategy. Jones earned two MBAs—one from London Business School and one from Columbia Business through a joint-Global Executive MBA program. She has undergraduate degrees in Art History and Business Administration from the University of San Diego. In 2020, Jackie was selected as one of Fortune Magazine’s “40 Under 40” in Health, and in 2019, Jackie was selected as a Fortune Most Powerful Women ‘Next Generation’ delegate, singled out as the next generation of leadership approaching the C-suite.
Tom Leonidas is President and CEO of Wood Harbinger, a Bellevue based multi-discipline engineering firm. Leonidas is a professionally licensed electrical engineer and has a 39-year career in the building design and construction industry, designing electrical and technology systems for buildings both locally and nationally, and with a specialization in healthcare facilities. A native of Seattle, he attended the University of Washington where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, and then attended Seattle University where he earned his MBA. Leonidas is a member of the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club and currently serves on its Board of Directors. He also volunteers on committees and as an occasional guest lecturer at the UW College of Engineering. He is active in his church at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Seattle, having served as Parish Council President and he continues to serve in various leadership roles.
These members step into their roles following nomination and election at the Annual Meeting of the ArtsFund Board of Trustees on November 11, 2020. At the same time, the ArtsFund Board confirmed the new slate of Board Officers for 2020-2021: Anthony R. Miles, Immediate Past Chair; Erin Hobson, Chair Elect; Patrick Evans, Vice Chair; Karen Bergin, Secretary; and M. Thomas Kroon, Treasurer. A full list of ArtsFund Board members can be found at artsfund.org/leadership/boards/.
This year, ArtsFund is focused on supporting the arts and cultural sector through Relief, Recovery, and Reimagination. Founded in 1969, the Seattle-based nonprofit has been building community through the arts for over 50 years and is one of the nation’s leading United Arts Funds. ArtsFund was originally established as the United Arts Council of Puget Sound to bring corporate and civic leaders together to help grow and sustain our region’s arts and cultural institutions. 50 years later, ArtsFund has supported 240 arts nonprofits with nearly $89 million in grants and provided valuable leadership and advocacy. ArtsFund is advancing the conversation and boldly reimagining how we might rebuild our arts and cultural sector around values of equity, sustainability, and innovation. For more on ArtsFund, visit artsfund.org.
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