PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island Foundation’s board of directors today named Neil D. Steinberg, campaign director and vice president of development at Brown University since 2004, to take over as president and CEO effective Aug. 15.
He replaces Ronald V. Gallo, who departed in November after 15 years at the nonprofit’s helm. (READ MORE)
“I am honored to accept this position and look forward to working with the board and staff, as well as our generous donors and the foundation’s many partners in Rhode Island,” Steinberg said in a statement today.
“There is no question that, at this time in the state’s history, philanthropy is key to building stronger communities,” he added. “The foundation is poised to build on its history, mission and leadership to increase its impact in Rhode Island, to address critical challenges in areas including affordable housing, public education and health care.”
A longtime civic leader, Steinberg is a member of the advisory boards of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce and the United Way of Rhode Island, and a director of the Business Development Company of Rhode Island and the Urban League. He also chaired the group that reviewed the Providence Public Library’s finances in 2006 and is a former director of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, the Providence Performing Arts Center and the Providence Foundation.
Inducted into the Brown Hall of Fame last year, he was also named the Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce’s Corporate Leader of the Year in 2004.
Before joining the development staff at Brown – where he has led the Boldly Brown academic enrichment campaign for the past three years, helping raise nearly $1.2 billion toward its $1.4 billion goal, including Warren Alpert’s $100 million contribution to the medical school – Steinberg had served as chairman and CEO of the former Fleet Bank-Rhode Island.
He had joined the bank – then known as Industrial National Bank – immediately after graduating from Brown in 1975, rising to vice president and manager of the New York loan production office, before leaving to work at a local investment banking firm for six years. He joined FleetBoston Financial (now Bank of America) as senior vice president in 1990, rising to president of Fleet Bank-Rhode Island in 2001 and chairman and CEO in 2003.
His selection by the Rhode Island Foundation concludes a four-month national search.
“We were fortunate to see a number of truly extraordinary candidates,” said David Hirsch, a board member since 2003, who chaired the eight-member search committee. Besides Hirsch, the search panel included George Graboys, the foundation’s chairman and acting president; board members Maureen McKenna-Goldberg, Cynthia Garcia-Coll and Peter Damon; former director Walter Stone; entrepreneur Lorne Adrain; and Grow Smart Rhode Island’s executive director, Scott Wolf.
“It was eminently clear to us that Neil would bring to the Foundation a wonderful ability to translate vision, values, and mission into action,” Graboys said. “We could not have asked for a more qualified new leader.”
The Rhode Island Foundation, founded in 1916, is one of the nation’s largest and oldest charitable organizations serving a specific geographic community. To learn more about the foundation or the programs it administers, visit www.rifoundation.org.
