Fresh Start Foods
Jonathan Smith, Chairman

Martin Kagan New York, NY

Martin Kagan is a nonprofit executive with more than 30 years of senior management experience leading a variety of nonprofit organizations, primarily in the arts and cultural field. In these positions he has proved his ability to design, develop and implement innovative approaches to leadership, strategic planning, finance, marketing, board relations, consensus building, grant making, fundraising, and administration. He is currently an Adjunct Professor and the Executive Director of Cultural Affairs at Pace University. There he teaches courses in “Managing Creativity” and “Governance and Stakeholders in the Arts” plus oversees the university’s contracting and marketing of all cultural and arts presentations as well as the operation, administration and budgeting of the University’s theatrical venues, including the Schimmel Center for the Arts. Some of his prior positions include Executive Director of the Paul Taylor Dance Company; Senior Director of Development at the Consumers Union (the publisher of Consumer Reports); Managing Director of the John Anson Ford Theatre and the Ford Theatre Foundation, Los Angeles; Executive Director of the Alex Theatre, a 1,400 seat theater in Glendale, California; and Vice President of the Annual Fund of the Music Center of LA County; President & CEO, The Dance Gallery, Los Angeles; and Executive Director, OPERA America Inc., Washington DC. His educational credentials include a Diploma from the Harvard Institute in Arts Administration, a Masters in Environmental Studies from York University, Toronto, Ontario, and an undergraduate degree in geography and planning from Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.