Silicon Valley Community Foundation Begins a New Chapter
It’s a new day at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation with new CEO Nicole Taylor a few weeks into her job. The nonprofit veteran says her biggest goal in this time of transition is to listen. She’s been meeting with staff members, board members, donors and community leaders.
“I’ve been gone for a couple years and some things have changed, and not for the better,” said Taylor, who was most recently a vice president at Arizona State University. “There’s more RVs and campers on El Camino. There’s more tension with people just trying to live and make it here.”
And there was the tension involved with someone new taking over an organization that’s been through a crisis. Last year, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation — the nation’s largest in terms of assets — was rocked by a harassment scandal that resulted in the departure of its top fundraiser, Mari Ellen Loijens, and CEO Emmett Carson, who was accused of covering up for her alleged bullying and sexual harassment of subordinates. Taylor, who spent 15 years at the East Bay Community Foundation, including six as CEO, was hired as Carson’s replacement in November.
Taylor credits interim CEO Greg Avis and the Community Foundation’s board for righting the ship before she even arrived, with the creation of a cultural task force and more open...