Ronald Perelman, Penn trustee, steps down as Carnegie Hall chair
Ronald Perelman, billionaire investor, philanthropist and Wharton alumnus, announced today that he will step down next month from his position as chairman of the Carnegie Hall board instead of running for re-election.
Perelman — whose donations have funded the upcoming Perelman Center for Political Science, the Perelman Quadrangle and other aspects of the University — has been a trustee at Carnegie Hall since 1988, a member of its executive committee since 2010 and vice chairman since 2012. He succeeded Sanford I. Weill as chairman of the board earlier this year in May.
Perelman brought his time on the board to a halt because of his grievances with Carnegie’s governance. He had written to his fellow trustees earlier on Wednesday accusing Carnegie’s well-respected executive and artistic director, Clive Gillinson, of a “troubling lack of transparency” and the board of failing to take action. He complained that the board failed to hold up its promise of hiring a lawyer to look into Perelman’s concerns after he attempted to briefly suspend Gillinson last month.
On Thursday, Perelman announced that he believed some of the rules of nonprofits were not being followed at Carnegie and was frustrated that his concerns, which included Carnegie’s methods of overseeing deals that proposed conflicts of interest, were not addressed.
The board has now hired a lawyer to look into the issue. Perelman will still be completing his term as chairman.
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