The Community Foundation of the Ozarks is launching a national search for its next president and chief executive officer.
Current President and CEO Brian Fogle announced to the CFO Board of Directors and staff earlier this year his intention to retire in late 2023 or early 2024. The executive search process is the next step in a planned succession to ensure a smooth leadership transition for the region’s largest public charitable foundation.
The search process is being conducted by Scion Executive Search under the direction of the CFO’s governing officers, led by Board Chair Dean Thompson. Scion was selected after directing a previous successful leadership search process for the CFO.
Details of the position announcement are available at cfozarks.org/careers. The CFO is seeking a highly qualified individual with experience at a community or other foundation or relevant management level; financial and investment expertise; a record of community leadership and collaboration; and a commitment to place-based philanthropy that is the core of a community foundation’s mission. The CFO is currently the 69th largest of about 900 U.S. community foundations. It holds assets of about $415 million in some 3,600 funds held on behalf of donors, nonprofit partners and a network of 53 regional affiliate foundations.
Fogle, who will be 67 at retirement, joined the CFO in 2008 as its third president, following the late Jan Horton and Dr. Gary Funk. He brought experience from his career in banking, higher education and community development. His tenure has emphasized the growth of the CFO’s nonprofit partnerships to more than 700 today, the launch of the mission-related investment program, and a broad array of local, regional, state and national leadership activities.
“We are extremely fortunate to have had Brian’s business acumen and his natural instincts to build relationships and partnerships for the past 15 years,” said Thompson, a vice president at Springfield City Utilities and currently a loaned executive at the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce. “But we respect his desire to move into his next phase of life as the CFO also starts its new chapter after celebrating its first 50 years in June. We are fully confident he has laid the foundation for a successful transition to the CFO’s next leader.”
Founded in 1973, the Community Foundation of the Ozarks serves a network of donors, 53 regional affiliate foundations and nonprofit partners across central and southern Missouri through its mission of resource development, community grantmaking, collaboration and public leadership.
