Special Announcement from SBGR Board Chair, Katherine Busser:
On behalf of the Board of Directors I wanted to share with all of you that our Chief Executive, Rich Schultz, has decided to move forward with his plans for retirement later this year. Rich joined Smart Beginnings as Executive Director on October of 2015. He has admirably served our organization through a series of transformations over the past 5+ years.
During his tenure, a number of incredible relationships and accomplishments have occurred. Too many to list, here are just a few of the highlights:
- Building a strong partnership with our regional coalition of early childhood partners
- Building a partnership with the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation
- Building an organization with strong financials and a future-funded budget
- Building a team of remarkable staff who have accomplished great things even in a pandemic
- Building relationships across the business, foundation, nonprofit, government and civic sectors
- Building a Board of Directors that is diverse in both membership, affiliation, and background
We are delighted that Rich is going to pursue his passion for travel, and we know that wherever he goes, he will always have Smart Beginnings in his heart.
Our Board will search diligently to find the best qualified candidate to succeed Rich as our next CEO. We will welcome support and ideas from all of our partners in the community.
Smart Beginnings has been blessed with Rich’s leadership. We are all truly excited for him as he enters a new chapter in life and will be celebrating his service in many ways during the months to come. Please join me in thanking Rich for his leadership and do take the time to congratulate him on his accomplishments and upcoming retirement.
