The board of the August Wilson Center has named developer Michael Polite as its new chair.
Mr. Polite, who has been on the board since August 2015, will take over as board chair from Maxwell King, president and chief executive officer of the Pittsburgh Foundation. Mr. King will remain on the board, along with the heads of the Heinz Endowments and the Richard King Mellon Foundation.
The Center was bankrupt and nearly sold to be developed as a hotel in 2014 when the foundations and governmental organizations stepped in to keep it as a standalone African-American cultural organization.
The other members of the six-member board are Richard Taylor, CEO of ImbuTec, and Tracey McCants Lewis, assistant clinical professor and pro bono coordinator at Duquesne University School of Law.
The Center, which opened in 2009, is searching for its first executive director since it was rescued from bankruptcy, with applications for the position due March 3.
“The next two years will be critical as we bring on an executive director and map out the Center’s future,” Mr. Polite, majority owner of Ralph A. Falbo, Inc., said in a press release. “While I’m taking over the helm, the work of the Center will always be the joint effort of our board and the Center’s supporters from the wider community, including public- and private-sector representatives.”
First Published: February 23, 2017, 5:09 p.m.
