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Douglas F. Kridler
President & CEO
Douglas F. Kridler is the fifth president of The Columbus Foundation, a community foundation serving the central Ohio region since 1943. During 2008, the Foundation awarded nearly $98 million in grants to over 2,000 charitable organizations in such fields as education, health, social services, community development, urban affairs, and the arts. As of 12/31/08, the Foundation’s assets totaled $818 million and are held in 1,716 funds and 30 supporting/affiliated foundations. Donors made over $94 million in contributions to The Columbus Foundation in 2008, and annual giving to the Foundation has averaged more than $83 million over the past eight years; it is currently ranked 10th of America’s community foundations in asset size.
Kridler is also an Independent Director of Nationwide Mutual Funds, an international asset management firm based in Philadelphia with over $25 billion in assets under management in an array of over 70 U.S. mutual funds. He serves as chair of that board’s Valuation and Operations Committee.
Kridler’s current civic and volunteer activities include being on the Board and the Executive Committee for CompeteColumbus, a leadership group creating a regional economic development strategy, and Chair of its Tourism, Entertainment & the Arts Cluster. Kridler is also Co-Chair of the Image & Marketing Focus Group for the Mayor’s 2012 Commission. He is a past member of the Board of First Community Church in Columbus, past Chair of the Greater Columbus Convention and Visitors Bureau, and, in 1996, he spearheaded a campaign to raise support for a proposed downtown arena and soccer stadium, raising $57 million from the private sector in six months to get that issue on the ballot.
Kridler’s professional volunteer activities include serving as Vice Chair on the Community Foundations Leadership Team of the Council on Foundations, Chair of its Legal & Regulatory Standing Committee, and Vice Chair of its Public Policy Committee. He is a member of the Public Policy Committee of the Independent Sector and is on the advisory board of the Center for Effective Philanthropy. Kridler is also a member of the Advisory Committee of PRI Makers Network, a network of leading private, corporate, and community foundations devoted to using mission investing in the foundation sector. He served as the chair of the 2004 Annual Meeting of the Larger Community Foundations.
Prior to joining The Columbus Foundation as President & CEO in February 2002, Kridler served for eighteen years as the President of the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts (CAPA), during which time he oversaw the expansion of CAPA from one theater in Columbus to owning/operating six theaters in Columbus, the Chicago Theatre in downtown Chicago, and the legendary Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut.
Before his selection as CAPA’s President, Kridler was Tour Manager of The Cleveland Orchestra as well as Concerts Director for Blossom Music Center, its 18,000 seat summer home. He is a past chair of the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA), an international organization of leading arts professionals from more than 50 countries in every region of the world. He is a past chair of Ohio Citizens for the Arts, the statewide arts advocacy organization.
Kridler’s honors include: #1 Civic CEO, CEO Magazine, April 2005; an Honorary Doctorate in Humanities from Capital University in December 2004; The Huntington’s Disease Society of America’s Central Ohio Chapter’s “Distinguished Leadership in the Arts” award in September 2001; The Public Relations Society of America 1997 Prism Award for “Citizen of the Year”; and the 1995 Governor’s Awards for the Arts by the Ohio Arts Council in the category of Arts Administration.
Kridler earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Arts Management from the University of Utah in 1979 and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1977. He is married and the father of two sons and one daughter.
To reach Doug, e-mail dkridler@columbusfoundation.org.
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