Torres Out at Kaitz
By Multi Channel News Staff -- Multichannel News, 3/11/2003 6:15:00 PM
Walter Kaitz Foundation president Art Torres resigned his position Tuesday as part of a major restructuring and cost-saving move.
California Cable and Telecommunications Association president and Kaitz founding director Spencer Kaitz will take over as president in an "unpaid" role, reflecting the organization's desire to cut nearly 70 percent of its approximately $1 million annual operating budget.
The foundation's San Francisco office will close at the end of the month and move into the Oakland, Calif., offices of the CCTA.
The foundation will also cut three of its five employees -- including Torres -- and will instead rely on the work of industry "volunteers," much like other industry organizations, according to Kaitz.
The foundation will continue to run its annual fund-raising dinner, as well as distributing financial grants to industry organizations promoting diversity.
"Given the continued consolidation in the cable industry, Art believed that we should reduce the overhead costs of the foundation so that more dollars could flow to our diversity organizations, which champion the very work [Kaitz] seeks to promote," chairman Glenn Britt said in a prepared statement.
The charismatic Torres joined the foundation two years ago amid criticism from industry observers that Kaitz was not doing enough to place qualified minorities in upper-management cable positions.
Last year, the foundation switched from a placement outfit to appropriating close to $700,000 in financial grants to organizations like the National Association for Minorities in Communications, the Emma Bowen Foundation and the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing to further support their respective diversity efforts.
But sources said Torres himself came under major scrutiny from industry leaders for splitting his time between running the organization and maintaining a leadership role within the California Democratic Party.
"By refocusing The Walter Kaitz Foundation as an institution whose primary mission is to support the work of other cable-industry diversity organizations, Art has accomplished a lot in a relatively short period of time," NCTA president Robert Sachs said in a statement.
"The direction he has set for The Kaitz Foundation will serve industry diversity efforts well," he added.
No related content found.
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
