Kansas City, MO, March 21, 2018: The Charlotte Street Foundation is proud to announce that three new members have been added to its already robust Board of Directors. Charlotte Street is happy to welcome Darren Abbott, Cathy Beaham Smith and Jean-Paul Wong into the Charlotte Street organization as they begin serving their three-year terms in 2018.
(Cathy Beaham Smith with CSF Staff member Margaret Perkins-McGuinness at All Tomorrow’s Parties, 2018)
Charlotte Street Foundation would also like to thank departing Board member Dan Maginn of DRAW Architecture + Urban Design for serving his tenure on the Board of Directors excellently. Charlotte Street wishes Dan the best with his future endeavors.
Board of Directors currently serving for Charlotte Street include:
- Darren Abbott, Vice President Creative at Hallmark Card, Inc.
- Ina Anderson, Senior Program Officer at LISC
- Cathy Beaham Smith, Vice President of Corporate Planning at Faultless Starch/Bon Ami Co.
- José Faus, Studio Artist
- Catherine Futter, Director of Curatorial Affairs at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
- Julie Nelson Meers (Treasurer), Senior Vice President at Missouri Bank
- Laura McCray, Vice President at HCAP Search
- Jean-Paul Wong, Owner at PURE Workplace Solutions
- Jon Taylor (President), Founder at REACH Collaborative
- Toma Wolff, Director at Byron Cohen Gallery
ABOUT DARREN ABBOTT
Darren leads one of the world’s largest and most renowned creative and brand development teams, including more than 800 strategists, artists, designers, stylists, writers, editors, and photographers. He leads efforts to strengthen the Hallmark brand by developing and building new capabilities across multiple teams focused on product design, trend forecasting, brand development, brand marketing, marketing creative services, retail experience design, and digital and social content development.
Hallmark is a multi-billion dollar business with greeting cards and other social expression products sold in more than 40,000 retail stores across the U.S. The company manages a portfolio of brands targeted at distinct consumer segments, with products available in over 30 languages and distribution in more than 100 countries around the world. Hallmark’s creative team develops more than 18,000 unique products annually while managing an extensive collection of over one million creative assets.
Since joining the company in 1996, Darren has been an influential leader at Hallmark, from founding director of Hallmark’s award-winning in-house marketing creative team to vice president for creative marketing and digital initiatives. He was promoted to his current role in 2013.
ABOUT CATHY BEAHAM SMITH
Cathy has over 30 years of experience in consumer marketing. She has been with Faultless Starch/Bon Ami Company since 2011. Prior to her current role, she was an account director in the Sunset Custom Publishing division of Time Inc. and developed integrated content for California Travel and Tourism Commission. Prior to that, she worked in Silicon Valley for a database marketing firm.
Cathy attained her B.A. in English from Harvard University before receiving her Masters in Science in Journalism. Cathy has a passion for the arts, and is delighted to live in Kansas City where she enjoys participating in many cultural and artistic events and organizations.
ABOUT JEAN-PAUL WONG
Jean-Paul Wong is the owner of PURE Workplace Solutions, which was founded by Jean-Paul in 1996. The company provides commercial furniture solutions and workplace design for all work environments including office, healthcare, education, hospitality, and government.
He currently serves on the Francis Family Foundation Board since 2015, the Kansas City Ballet Board since 2007 and he is currently the treasurer for the ArtsKC Board of Directors, who he has been with since 2011. Jean-Paul Wong received his Bachelor’s degree of Business Administration from Creighton University, his M.B.A. in Accounting from the University of Kansas. He is also a graduate from University of Kansas’ School of Law, where he received his Juris Doctorate.
ABOUT CHARLOTTE STREET
Charlotte Street identifies the needs and fuels the evolution of an ever-changing multidisciplinary arts ecosystem, acting as its primary provocateur. Charlotte Street cultivates the contemporary, the exceptional, and the unexpected in the practice of artists working in and engaging with the Kansas City art community. Since 1997, Charlotte Street has distributed over $1.1 million in awards and grants to artists and their innovative projects and connected individual artists to each other and to the greater Kansas City community. For more information about Charlotte Street, its awards, programs, and initiatives, visit www.charlottestreet.org.
Read the press release here.
