CEO Ya!
Teach For America co-CEO Matt Kramer has announced that he is ‘stepping down.’ His partner in crime, Elisa Villanueva-Beard, will be promoted to sole CEO. I expected some kind of top-level shakeup and predicted six months ago that one of them was on the way out.
When Wendy Kopp resigned and they took over in March of 2013, TFA’s stock was at an all time high. There were over 6,000 new corps members, TFA alumni like Michelle Rhee, Kevin Huffman, and Cami Anderson were shaking things up at StudentsFirst, Tennessee, and Newark. Like a giant ship with a lot of momentum, it seemed like it didn’t matter who was steering it — just keep your foot on the gas (not sure that ships have gas pedals, but surely they have something that serves that purpose) and don’t make any sudden movements with the steering wheel.
I found the co-CEO arrangement very odd. For a company bringing in over $300 million a year, the person, or people, in charge need to relocate to the city of the home office, in this case New York City. Yet Kramer remained in Minnesota and Villanueva-Beard remained in Texas. Whereas Wendy Kopp made around $400 thousand as the sole CEO, Kramer and Villanueva-Beard made, combined, over $700 thousand as co-CEOs.
I started monitoring their activity right after their appointment. I then met up with them on their ‘Listening Tour’ and gave them a piece of my mind (Don’t worry, I had plenty to spare). Kramer was much more friendly to me than Villanueva-Beard was. He told me that he liked reading this blog, which I appreciated. Then over the next year and a half I really didn’t see much substance in either of them in their public appearances.
I didn’t expect much from Kramer. He’s never taught. The only time he ever sees a school is when he is some kind of honored guest where the kids are on their best behavior (the CEO Ya! | Gary Rubinstein's Blog:
