Still no definitive word on the story behind the story of Steven Schwager’s abrupt resignation as CEO of one of American Jewry’s largest charities, the $362-million-per-year American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC).
But there are some hints.
Last Friday, the JDC announced that Schwager, the 10-year CEO of the organization, would be resigning effective June 30. With just six weeks’ notice, the JDC probably will have to appoint an interim CEO until a new one is selected, complicating the transition process.
[UPDATE: On Tuesday, JDC announces that Darrell Friedman, former CEO of Baltimore’s Jewish federation, The Associated, will serve as interim CEO starting July 1.]
The abruptness of the move raises obvious questions.
"I’m sure it does," Penny Blumenstein, the president of the JDC, acknowledged to me. "A lot of this is privileged. He felt this was the right time to do this. We are going through some transitional stages. That’s about all I can tell you. I believe this has to be a coordinated expression of what is happening at the JDC.
"There will be more news coming out; it’s only been a few days," Blumenstein went on. "I really want to be very confidential about what’s going on here. There’s no big secret. I don’t want to be seen as the person who is speaking too much about JDC at this point in time."
Schwager, in explaining his decision to step aside now, told me he had been contemplating the move for a while and talked about his eagerness to spend more time with his family.
That’s usually code for "illness, sex or money" issues, one JDC board member told me.
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So far, however, no indications that any of those are the precipitating reason — though Schwager did cite his heart attack a year and a half ago and his father’s death from heart disease at age 69 as a reason for calling it quits now. He’s 64.
More likely, it’s that Schwager and Blumenstein, who became JDC’s new president in January, are not eager to work together. Both declined to offer any details, but several JDC board members I spoke to said they were surprised by the sudden announcement.
The word on the street had been that Schwager was planning on retiring in a couple of years, when the JDC celebrates its 100th anniversary. Schwager denied that specific timetable, but in his conversation with me made clear that he and the JDC board had been in discussions about when he would retire and who might succeed him.
"Given that they wanted to do a full search with a lay committee, I didn’t want to be a lame duck, and so I concluded that it was best for me and best for the organization that I step aside," Schwager said.
When I asked Schwager about the nature of his agreement with Blumenstein and the details about his pension package, he referred me to Blumenstein.
So, who comes next?
When Schwager’s predecessor, Michael Schneider, left the organization, it took the JDC little more than a weekend to decide on Schwager, who had been at the JDC for 13 years.
This time, however, indications are that the hire will come from outside the organization. Officially, the No. 2 at the JDC is COO Gideon Taylor, who returned to the JDC three years ago after nearly a decade at the helm of the Claims Conference. But Taylor’s time at the Claims Conference was marred by his failure to detect a massive fraud that preceded his tenure and ran unimpeded during his leadership. So far, the FBI and Claims Conference have discovered about $60 million in fraudulent claims obtained from Germany via the Claims Conference.
When I pointed out to Schwager back in November that it might seem ironic to have Taylor oversee the JDC’s budget given his experience at the Claims Conference, Schwager said: "It is what it is." Taylor used those exact same words when I asked him about it a few weeks earlier.
In any case, the JDC will be looking outside the organization’s offices for its next leader, conducting an international search.
"That doesn’t mean people within the organization aren’t going to apply for this position," Blumenstein said. "We want to get the broadest possible perspective. We’re going to have an open, very transparent search. It is a hard job to fill, but it’s also a great opportunity for someone. I believe this is the best organization in the world, and we have the best mission and the best services, and we have the best staff. I’ve never had as many excellent people at my back."
