Valley Community Foundation Leader Announces Retirement

Search begins for new CEO   

      
Derby, CT (July 17, 2012)  The Valley Community Foundation (VCF) today announced that its current leader will retire at the end of the year. As a result, a search will begin later this month for a new Valley Community Foundation President and CEO.

 “I am truly honored  to have had the opportunity to serve as President of the Valley Community Foundation,” said Jamie Cohen. “I am fulfilled at having done the job I was hired to do. I have run my part of the race, and have completed the course.  Because of all of that, I decided to retire at the end of this year 2012.”

Cohen,  who leaves the eight-year old Valley Community Foundation with over $14 million in assets, 120  funds, and a long-term Affiliation Agreement with its philanthropic partner, The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven (TCF), is pleased with the “hard work that has provided an unlimited future” for his organization.

“I  leave knowing that VCF is in a better place than it has ever been, and am confident that it is poised for a bright future. I am  grateful to have had this experience as a capstone to my working life, and  thank the VCF Directors for their confidence in me.

“I look forward to retirement at age 66, after working for 42 years, the first 37 as a practicing lawyer, and the last five with the Valley Community Foundation. Timing is everything in life.  So, in many ways, the  remarkable year of  2011 made my decision easier than it otherwise would have been, and I can go out as VCF continues to move upward and onward.”

Greg Stamos, local attorney and Valley Community Foundation Board chair said, “It is with understanding, support and deep appreciation, that the Board of Directors reluctantly accepts the decision of Jamie Cohen to retire. Jamie's tenure encompassed a remarkable period of growth, maturation, and accomplishment for VCF. Most certainly, his leadership, community contacts and commitment to our mission, played a significant role in achieving a sustained level of success.


“The VCF Board felt that he was the right man for the job five years ago, and that has been affirmed and manifested on many levels. His ability to grow our partnership with the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, and his ‘people’ skills were exemplary.  Above all, however, Jamie's personal and professional commitment to philanthropy and to the Valley made him a credible spokesman and an excellent leader.
 
“We are grateful for his dedication to the Valley Community Foundation,” Stamos continued. “It was more than a job for Jamie, it was a calling, and he ably assisted us  since VCF was founded just over 8 years ago.  We wish him many years of health and happiness. We know that, in retirement, he will continue to be a force for philanthropy in the Valley and a good-will ambassador for VCF.”

A Search Committee has been formed consisting of John Zaprzalka (Vice Chair of the Valley Community Foundation Board of Directors), Susan Coyle (VCF Director), Alan Tyma (current VCF Director and former TCF Board Chair) and Leon Bailey (Senior Vice President at TCF).  

The VCF Board has engaged  National Executive Service Corps (NESC Executive Search), a Greenwich, CT based not-for-profit  organization, to commence executive  search  services later this month, and thereafter present candidates for review and decision.

Established in 2004, the Valley Community Foundation serves five cities and towns in Connecticut’s Naugatuck River Valley:  Ansonia, Derby, Oxford, Seymour  and Shelton, and is  dedicated to making the Valley a better place to live and work.

It informs, encourages and engages people to take a leadership role in improving the quality of life in the region, both now and in the future, in many ways: by making Grants from permanent endowed Funds; by managing  and growing the Endowments of  Valley not-for-profit  organizations; and,  most importantly, by  being the vehicle through which individuals can continue their  philanthropy in perpetuity. Visit www.valleyfoundation.org.

For  more information, call:
Jamie Cohen
203-751-9162 or 203-506-8003