New Chairman at Lincoln Center Katherine Farley Is Poised to Make Her Mark

	The new chairman of Lincoln Center, Katherine Farley, with her husband Jerry Speyer. Photo/Amanda Gordon

A senior managing director at Tishman Speyer, Katherine Farley, will take the reins as Lincoln Center's chairman in June 2010, the performing arts center's board announced today after its annual meeting. She will be the second woman to hold the position; Beverly Sills served from 1994 to 2002.

For the next year, Ms. Farley will serve as chairman designate sharing responsibilities with the current chairman, Frank Bennack, elected in 2005; he is chairman of Hearst. The organization, with an annual budget of around $135 million, oversees a vast physical plant and offers programming such as the Lincoln Center Festival, Midsummer Night Swing, the American Songbook, and Lincoln Center Out of Doors. This fall Lincoln Center's educational wing, the Lincoln Center Institute, will open a charter school in the South Bronx.

Ms. Farley's ascent has been lightning quick by New York power board standards; she joined the Lincoln Center board in 2003 and became a vice chairman in 2005, during a period of significant board expansion. (Mr. Bennack, in contrast, had served on Lincoln Center's board since 1994.) Clearly she has proven herself, with Lincoln Center's most ambitious undertaking since it began 50 years ago: its redevelopment. Since 2006, Ms. Farley has served as chairman of the Lincoln Center Development Project, currently a $1.2 billion effort that includes the extremely well-received renovation of Alice Tully Hall and the renovation underway of the newly named David H. Koch Theater. She will retain the position once she becomes chairman of Lincoln Center.

Given the timing of the appointment, Ms. Farley has an opportunity to make a very lasting impression on the cultural landscape in New York, well beyond the fashionable figure she cuts at the city's top galas: Not only is she charged with the completion of the redevelopment, -- what happens to Avery Fisher Hall is still a matter in flux, among other issues -- but she will also be the one to steer the direction of the new Lincoln Center. In addition, there is the impact of the recession to consider. Careful and creative decision making, as well as a commitment to accessibility of the arts, are expected to mark her tenure. It will also be refreshing to have a woman at the helm.

Ms. Farley, 59, seems well prepared for the role. Both she and her husband, Jerry Speyer, the chief executive of Tishman Speyer (the pair, married in 1991, met at the company) have put their talents to work on behalf of New York's cultural institutions. Experience in building has been particularly relevant: Mr. Speyer, an art collector who the day of the announcement was attending Art Basel in Switzerland, oversaw the Museum of Modern Art's renovation and expansion, which was completed just as Ms. Farley dug in to tackling Lincoln Center's major construction projects (he is now chairman of MoMA). But her experience goes well beyond the nuts and bolts of construction. She led Tishman Speyer's global expansion -- today she is in charge of emerging markets in Brazil and China -- and also serves on the boards of International Rescue Committee, Brown University, and the Alvin Ailey. The last time she served as a chairman of a nonprofit board was from 1998 to 2001, when she led Women in Need, which, with an annual budget of $36 million, helps women find housing and employment.

One of the challenges at Lincoln Center is balancing the needs of the complex with those of the artistic companies in residence there: not only are there different facility and budget concerns, but also different, and sometimes overlapping, donor pools. It helps Ms. Farley that she has served on Lincoln Center Theater's board and on the executive committee of the New York Philharmonic, two of Lincoln Center's 11 constituents.