A proposal to hold the Managing Director seat through the transition ahead, while designing and running the search for the permanent leader. Structured as a partnership. Bounded to four to five months. Oriented toward what SFBATCO needs long after the engagement ends.
SFBATCO is at an inflection point. Twelve years in, the artistic voice is proven, the community footprint is real, and the programming has grown into a full ecosystem of mainstage productions, Creators Lab, MAPA, youth programs, and community partnerships. What is happening now is a change in the seat that holds all of the operational and financial scaffolding that supports the artistic vision.
Leadership transitions in nonprofit theatre are fragile moments. Institutional knowledge lives in one person's head. Grant reporting cycles do not pause. Payroll runs regardless. Board relationships need to feel continuous. Funders need to feel confident. Staff need to feel steady.
The traditional interim MD model is designed to hold the scaffolding steady while a permanent hire is found. That is essential, and it will happen here. But the transition window also holds an opportunity that is rarely available: a defined period where an experienced operator can look at the organization with fresh eyes, identify what is working well enough to protect and what could be strengthened, and hand the permanent MD a stronger starting position than the one they would otherwise inherit.
The proposal is structured in two parts, sharing one through-line.
Part One is an interim partnership. A four-to-five-month appointment as Interim Managing Director, holding the full chief executive scope in partnership with the Artistic Director. Not just holding the seat — using the window to strengthen the systems, processes, and infrastructure that support the artistic vision.
Part Two is an executive search. A rigorous, transparent process to find and place the permanent Managing Director, with the role designed based on what the interim window reveals about what SFBATCO actually needs from this seat.
The through-line is a stewardship posture. Every deliverable is built to outlast the engagement. Every relationship built during the window belongs to SFBATCO. The work is oriented toward the organization's long-term health, not toward the interim leader's continuation.
The shape of the engagement, and what SFBATCO gets out of it.
Download this page as a one-sheet PDF ↓ — ideal for printing or sharing with the board.
Joseph is an operations executive with more than a decade of leadership spanning operations, human resources, marketing, brand strategy, and consulting — built across Marriott, Hilton, and luxury independent hotel brands, and independent consulting engagements with global brands including CNN, Lego, and NBC.
Currently General Manager of The Historian Hotel, a Q1 2027 Marriott Tribute Portfolio opening in Madison, WI. Previously earned #1 Hotel in Iowa by U.S. News & World Report in 2024 and 2025 at The Warrior Hotel (Marriott Autograph Collection), plus AAA Four Diamond and Chamber Business of the Year within nine months of arrival at Hotel Julien Dubuque.
Carnegie Mellon–trained in theatre. Served as Director of People & Operations at SFBATCO during the company's founding years, from 2013 to 2015 — helping build the organizational infrastructure, patron experience, HR foundation, and production budgeting that carried the company into its early growth, and contributing to early brand development including the visual identity work.
The full case for fit — including the honest naming of the nonprofit MD experience question and why the parallel capacity with The Historian is realistic rather than aspirational — is detailed in the business plan.
The interim work moves through a proprietary three-phase framework developed and refined across a decade of executive leadership. It is disciplined enough to run against any organization, and flexible enough to honor the specific character of the one being served.
The output that outlasts the engagement is the Living Organizational Document — a durable, evolving body of institutional knowledge that captures what has been learned and built, and stays with SFBATCO permanently as operating memory.
The permanent MD search runs alongside the interim work, structured to deliver an accepted offer by mid-to-late January and a clean transition to a strong start.
The role is designed based on what the Learn phase surfaces about what SFBATCO actually needs from this seat — not on a generic template borrowed from a peer organization. A formal Search Committee is convened at the start of the engagement, and every candidate is evaluated against consistent criteria in a transparent process.
Sourcing combines public posting through TCG ArtSearch, Theatre Bay Area, and LORT networks with direct outreach to candidates already succeeding in adjacent roles — with active attention to networks that reach candidates from underrepresented backgrounds, in alignment with SFBATCO's mission to center artists of the global majority.
The full search timeline, committee structure, sourcing strategy, evaluation framework, and transition plan are detailed in the business plan.
Three depths of the same story. The one-sheet is the quick summary, the business plan is the full pitch, and the CV is the supporting record. Engage at any depth.
The proposal is offered as a service to an organization I have known since the beginning. If the shape of this partnership fits what SFBATCO actually needs at this moment, it would be an honor to serve.