(June 30,1999) — The Metropolitan Museum of Art today announced a number of senior administrative promotions, all to become effective with the start of its new fiscal year on July 1.
Emily K. Rafferty, who has served for more than 14 years as, respectively, Vice President, then Senior Vice President for Development and Membership, will become Senior Vice President for External Affairs; Sharon H. Cott, the Museum's Secretary and General Counsel, will be promoted to the position of Vice President, Secretary, and General Counsel; and Jeff Russian will become Chief Planning & Budget Officer.
Museum Director Philippe de Montebello described the changes as "representing both an acknowledgment of notable performance and an effort to enhance further the successful, day-to-day and long-range management of the institution."
Emily K. Rafferty
Sharon H. Cott
Jeff Russian
Emily K. Rafferty
Emily Kernan Rafferty joined the Metropolitan Museum in 1976 as Administrator for Corporate, Foundation, and Individual Fundraising. She served as Manager of Development from 1981 to 1984, and then from 1984 through 1996 as Vice President for Development and Membership. In 1996 she was promoted to Senior Vice President.
In her new role as Senior Vice President for External Affairs, Ms. Rafferty will continue to manage all development, sponsorship, and membership aspects of the Museum. She will also serve as staff liaison to the new External Affairs Committee of the Board of Trustees, which is to be chaired by Trustee Michael Bloomberg. Ms. Rafferty will also continue her management of the Museum Internet Task Force, which has worked for more than a year to create a vastly expanded World Wide Web home page for the Metropolitan that will be inaugurated this fall. She will continue reporting to Museum President David E. McKinney.
"Emily Rafferty contributes to the life of this institution in ways that transcend her primary responsibility in fundraising," Mr. de Montebello noted in announcing her new title. "She is a principal advisor on matters of policy relating to our many publics, and has moved decisively and most skillfully to build a new and expanded means of reaching increased audiences through the Internet. We believe her new title more fully reflects her broader responsibilities and extraordinary success in all of these vital areas."
Ms. Rafferty, a resident of Manhattan, is a cum laude graduate of Boston University, and a former program coordinator for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a special assistant to David Rockefeller, Jr., and an education official with the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. Among her many voluntary activities are service on the Board of Trustees (former Chairman) of the Convent of the Sacred Heart, the presidency of the Blue Hill Troupe Gilbert & Sullivan Repertory Theater; and the vice presidency of the Independent School Chairmen Association.
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Sharon H. Cott
In her new role as Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel, Sharon Cott will assume responsibility for an array of legal issues involving the Museum, including art purchases, gifts, and bequests, and a comprehensive updating of the Metropolitan's acquisitions policies.
She will be responsible for management of all litigation involving the Museum, working in consultation with Ashton Hawkins, the Executive Vice President and Counsel
to the Trustees. In addition, expanding her responsibility for the Museum's ethics policies and guidelines, Ms. Cott will become Chairman of the Professional Practices Committee. She will continue to report to the President of the Metropolitan, David E McKinney .
"Sharon Cott's wise and informed judgment has consistently proven an exceptional asset for the Metropolitan over the years," Mr. de Montebello commented. "In expanding her role at the Museum, we will be benefiting greatly from her expertise, her knowledge of the law, and her counsel."
Ms. Cott joined the staff of the Metropolitan Museum in 1988 as Assistant Secretary and Associate Counsel responsible for tax and corporate law issues, including contracts. In 1992, she was promoted to Secretary and General Counsel.
A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Virginia, Ms. Cott earned her law degree from the Yale Law School, where she served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal. A certified public accountant, she has lectured on non-profit tax, trustee governance, and ethical issues. She is a member of the Art Law Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. She is also Chairman of the Planning Committee for the American Law Institute/American Bar Association Conference on Legal Problems of Museum Administration, to be held in Boston in March 2000.
Ms. Cott is a resident of Manhattan.
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Jeffrey Russian
Jeffrey Russian, newly named Chief Planning & Budget Officer for the Metropolitan, served from 1994 as the Museum's Deputy Chief Planning & Budget Officer, and earlier, from 1991 through 1994, as Associate Manager of Planning & Budget.
Before joining the Metropolitan he was Director of Budgets and Planning for the School of Public Health at Harvard University, and prior to that, worked at the Harvard
University Art Museums as Financial and Personnel Officer. Mr. Russian is a graduate of Middlebury College, and received his M.A. in Arts Administration from the University of Wisconsin.
As Chief Planning & Budget Officer, he will be responsible for developing and managing the Museum's $130 million annual operating budget, its capital budget, and its long-range financial plan. He will continue to report to Deborah Winshel, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
Commented Ms. Winshel: "Jeff Russian has played an instrumental role over the past year in working with senior management to examine our financial policies and to identify creative ways to strengthen the financial position of the Museum. His knowledge of the institution's operations and finances make him an invaluable member of the finance team and a respected colleague of so many at the Museum."
Ms. Winshel said that Carl Koivuniemi, who has served as Associate Manager for Planning & Budget for the past 10 years, would be promoted to the post of Deputy Chief Planning & Budget Officer, also effective July 1.
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