Orchestra replaces development director

TAMPA - In a major management change, the Florida Orchestra announced Monday that it has appointed Donald S. Keel to replace development director C. Edwin Davis, who held the job since 2001.

Also Monday, the orchestra promoted assistant director of operations/personnel manager Cynthia Pickett Steele to director of operations, succeeding Jeff Bram, who is leaving to be artistic administrator of the Utah Symphony.

Keel joined the orchestra about a year ago as a consultant in charge of developing a $20-million endowment campaign, which has yet to be officially announced. His appointment consolidates all fundraising efforts, including the annual campaign that is responsible for as much as 50 percent of the orchestra's budget of $7.5-million.

"It was just a need to go in a different direction," executive director Leonard Stone said of Keel's appointment. "Don is probably the most experienced person we could get."

Keel, 58, a University of North Carolina graduate with a bachelor's degree in philosophy, has managed fundraising for the YMCA of Greater Providence, R.I.; Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C.; the University of Texas at El Paso; Converse College in Spartanburg, S.C.; and other nonprofit institutions.

"I think this is a real threshold year coming up for the orchestra," Keel said. "I'd like to hit the ground running with a comprehensive plan in the fall."

Terms and compensation were not released. Davis was paid $110,439 plus $6,626 in benefits per year, according to the orchestra's most recently available tax return.

The orchestra's fiscal year ends Wednesday, but it will be a month or so, Stone said, until final figures can be reliably estimated. There will be an audit in August. Last year, the orchestra had a deficit of almost $500,000.

Steele, 30, has been on the orchestra staff since 2002. A flutist with a master's degree in performance from the Boston Conservatory, she has been assistant orchestra manager with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and professional services assistant with the American Symphony Orchestra League.

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