At its May 25 meeting, the Board of Trustees of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) elected four new members David L. Mahoney, Nicola Miner, Diana Nelson, and artist Robert Bechtle. These new Trustees join four others who were elected earlier in 2006 including Bruce Atwater, Rebecca Draper, Raoul Kennedy, and Catherine L. Post.
Robert Bechtle joins the Board per the recommendation of Director Neal Benezra as SFMOMA’s first Artist Trustee. The Artist Trustee is elected to represent the artist community and give counsel to the Board from the artist’s perspective. The Artist Trustee serves for a fixed term of three years, and the position is nonrenewable. The Artist Trustee is selected from a community of artists who represent the areas of SFMOMA’s collection—painting and sculpture, photography, architecture and design, and media arts.
“We are thrilled to elect Bob Bechtle as SFMOMA’s first Artist Trustee. His history with the Museum, his relationship with the local arts community, and his commitment to the visual arts are a testament to his character, and render him someone we will truly value on our Board,” states Benezra. Bechtle was born in 1932 in San Francisco and is a longtime Bay Area resident. He studied graphic design and painting at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, earning his BFA in 1954 and his MFA in 1958. He has taught visual art at California College of the Arts, the San Francisco Art Institute, and San Francisco State University. SFMOMA presented a major retrospective of Bechtle’s work in 2005, which received critical acclaim.
Bruce Atwater served as chairman and CEO of General Mills Inc. from 1981 to 1994 after beginning his career there in 1958. He has served on the boards of numerous businesses and educational and cultural institutions, including Princeton University, the Walker Art Center, and the Mayo Foundation. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a master’s from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Rebecca Draper has a varied background in business and marketing. She has served on the boards of Zyzzyva and Gateway High School, and for the last few years she has spent her time working for Save the Children as a member of the Economic Opportunities Council, which oversees and advises Save the Children’s work in microfinance around the world. She graduated from Smith College with a degree in art history and from Stanford University Graduate School of Business with an MBA.
Raoul Kennedy is a partner in the firm Skadden, Arts, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, for which he handles civil litigation at the trial and appellate level. Since 1987 Kennedy has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America in both commercial litigation and personal injury defense. In 2005 he was selected as the Trial Lawyer of the Year by the State Bar of California and inducted into the Litigation Section of the Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of the Pacific (1964) and a JD from the University of California, Berkeley (1967).
David L. Mahoney is a private equity investor focused on emerging technology and health care companies and improving the governance of nonprofit and business enterprises. He served as co-CEO of McKesson Corp. from 1999 to 2001, after beginning his career there in 1990, and CEO of iMcKesson, a McKesson subsidiary, from 2000 to 2001. Prior to joining McKesson, Mahoney was a principal with McKinsey & Co. He is currently a director of Symantec Corp., Concept Therapeutics, and Tercica Inc. and a board member of Live Oak School and KQED. Mahoney also has served on the Photography Accessions and Corporate Support committees of SFMOMA. He is an honors graduate of Harvard Business School and Princeton University.
Nicola Miner graduated from Brown University with a bachelor’s degree in history and Columbia University with a master’s degree in journalism. For five years she and her husband, Robert Mailer Anderson, ran Quotidian Gallery, where she featured the work of emerging local artists. She is currently on the board of San Francisco University High School and San Francisco Bay Humane Friends.
Diane Nelson has worked as a marketing professional for companies including Ogilvy and Mather Advertising, The Nutrasweet Company, and American Express Travel Related Services Inc. Her philanthropic commitments include service on the executive committees of the Harvard College Fund and Harvard University’s Committee on University Resources. She is also a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board at the Radcliffe Institute and a trustee of the Curtis L. Carlson Family Foundation. Since 2002 Nelson has chaired the U.S. Board of the World Childhood Foundation, and she is currently a trustee of The San Francisco Day School. In 1984 she graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a degree in art history, and in 1989 she received her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Catherine L. Post is a Bay Area native who has a long history with SFMOMA. She also has been an active volunteer with a number of local organizations, including March of Dimes, San Francisco General Hospital Foundation, and the San Francisco Ballet, as well as the Modern Art Council, an SFMOMA auxiliary, for which she served as president from 2003 to 2005. She is currently vice chair of SFMOMA’s Auxiliaries Review Team. Post spent more than 20 years working in the retail industry, including more than 15 years with Polo/Ralph Lauren.