Sandra Gajic is Overture Center’s New President and CEO
Overture Center for the Arts, the Overture Center Foundation Board of Directors and the CEO Search Steering Committee announced today the appointment of Sandra Gajic as President and CEO through an international search process guided by Arts Consulting Group. Gajic will be joining the Overture staff as President and CEO effective Monday, September 24, 2018.
“It is such an exciting time at Overture,” said Overture Center Foundation Board Chair Betty Harris Custer. “We feel that Sandra fills many of the traits we found to be critical—decisive leadership, collaborative style with senior leaders, skilled in diversity and inclusion, experienced in attracting millennials in a similar albeit larger market and experience with Resident Companies.”
Gajic has nearly 40 years of management experience in the private and public sectors, most recently as Director, Vancouver Civic Theaters where she was responsible for development and successful implementation of a new business model for four theatres owned and operated by the City of Vancouver, established stronger partnerships with resident companies, and doubled revenues while containing expenses. Gajic has broad experience from early career experience in furniture manufacturing in Yugoslavia to public health administration in the United Kingdom and later career accomplishments in producing and presenting at leading cultural organizations in Canada. Her expertise in the arts arena includes 16 years as Operations Manager at Canadian Opera Company, as General Manager and interim CEO at Arts Commons in Calgary, and as CEO of the Edmonton Opera.
“I’ve spent the past 20 years in arts and culture, most of it involving management in the performing arts,” said Gajic. “I look forward to engaging and becoming an integral part of the Madison community while bringing management cohesion to the relationship among the resident organizations and revitalizing the arts programming.”
Gajic steps into the position formerly held by Ted DeDee, past President and CEO of the Overture Center of the Arts, who retired in May 2018.