Press Release
Harriet Ivey retiring
Founding CEO and president of Arizona/Indiana foundation is retiring
Harriet Ivey, the founding CEO and president of the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust, is retiring after leading the foundation during its first 15 years.
Ms. Ivey, 64, will remain at the Trust through January 2014. A nationwide search for her successor will begin in late June.
The Trust has an endowment of approximately $370 million. During Ms. Ivey’s tenure, it has awarded more than $216 million in grants. A board of three Trustees governs the Trust. It has a staff of 18 and maintains offices in Indianapolis and Phoenix.
In collaboration with the founding Trustees, Ms. Ivey designed and brought to life the Trust’s organizational and management structure and shaped the Trust’s mission statement and grant program priorities.
Its three giving areas of Helping People in Need, Protecting Animals and Nature and Enriching Community Life were inspired by the values and interests of Nina Mason Pulliam who died in 1997, leaving the majority of her assets to establish the Trust. Mrs. Pulliam worked alongside her husband Eugene C. Pulliam to establish Central Newspapers, Inc., which owned and operated The Indianapolis Star and The Arizona Republic until the sale of the newspaper group to Gannett in 2000.
In 2001, the Trust established the Nina Mason Pulliam Legacy Scholars program, which has brought the dream of a college education to more than 500 nontraditional students at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis and Ivy Tech Community College-Central Indiana Region in Indianapolis and Arizona State University and Maricopa Community Colleges in Phoenix. The program, about to begin its 13th year, has been a forerunner in demonstrating how to help older, head of household adults, foster care youth, and persons with physical disabilities succeed in college.
Earlier this year, the Trust announced major multiyear animal welfare initiatives in both Indianapolis and Phoenix and an important new effort in Arizona to help young adults aging out of foster care. Both are examples of how the Trust is intensifying its work in partnership with nonprofits, other funders and government to create lasting significant change for the better.
“Harriet has been a gifted and inspired leader in helping create this Trust,” said Carol Peden Schilling, chair of the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. “She has given it a living, breathing presence in our two states, and she has made it a magnificent legacy not only to its benefactor, Nina Mason Pulliam, but, in a sense, also to herself and the years of tender care she has devoted to the Trust. We will miss her.”
The Trustees have retained Spencer Stuart, a national executive recruitment firm, to conduct the search for Ms. Ivey’s successor. For information regarding the search please send inquiries to NMPCT@SpencerStuart.com.