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Henry Timms Named President/CEO At Lincoln Center For The Performing Arts

Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center (Shutterstock.com)
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NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess) — Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts announced Henry Timms as its next president and chief executive officer.

Mr. Timms will assume his new post at Lincoln Center in May, stepping in for Russell Granat who has been serving as acting president. Timms will be the organization’s 11th president and the third to be appointed to the role of President at Lincoln Center in the last 5 years.

Jed Bernstein, who had extensive experience in the arts and theatrical world, was appointed as president in 2014 but resigned just two years later after it was revealed that he had been in a consensual, but undisclosed relationship with a staff member who had received two promotions on his watch.

Bernstein was replaced by Debora Spar, who came to the role from academia, but departed after just a year, questioning whether the “role was right for her.”

Lincoln Center is one of the most prestigious performing arts centers in the U.S. and serves as a home to prominent performing arts organizations that include the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet and the New York City Opera.

Timms, who is 42, is an atypical choice for leadership of the Lincoln Center. Most recently, he led the 92nd Street YMCA, which has an annual budget of about half that of Lincoln Center.

According to the New York Times, Timms stepped into a leadership role at the Y in the wake of a scandal that saw his predecessor Sol Adler fired amid accusations that he’d had an affair with an employee and after another manager was accused of seeking kickbacks from vendors.

While at the Y, Timms oversaw the organization’s noted concert program and lecture series and played a key role in a successful fundraising campaign to refurbish the property.

“He inherited a very tough, tragic, complicated situation, any way you look at it,” Katherine Farley, the chairwoman of Lincoln Center’s board, told the New York Times. “His temperament is one of collaboration; he seems to have a low ego need.”


His new role at Lincoln Center comes with its own challenges. He will be tasked with overseeing long-delayed renovations of David Geffen Hall while stabilizing the complex’s finances in a challenging time for arts organizations.

“I don’t think you should ever pretend that there aren’t some real, and interesting, management challenges here,” Mr. Timms told the Times. “But I think it’s the case that every constituent’s best interest is served in a collaborative culture.”

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