The Gheens Foundation in Louisville, Kentucky, has named CARL THOMAS as executive director. Thomas, who recently retired as chair and CEO of Commonwealth Bank & Trust after thirty-three years in the banking industry, has served as chair of Housing Partnership Inc. and Home of the Innocents, as well as on the board of Spalding University. He will succeed James Davis, who will retire December 31 after heading the foundation since 1984.

The Pittsburgh Foundation has named GEORGE A. DAVIDSON JR. as board chair, and PETER F. MATHIESON and ROBERT B. WEBB as board members. Davidson, a board member and retired board chair of Dominion Resources, is a director of the Goodrich Corporation and PNC Bank Corporation, and was previously chair and CEO of Consolidated Natural Gas Company. He has served on the foundation's board since 1990, and also serves on the boards of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, the United Way of Allegheny County, and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Mathieson, managing director and executive vice president at Guyasuta Investment Advisors, a Pittsburgh asset management firm he helped found, is a director of the Buhl Foundation, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, and the Mentoring Partnership of Western Pennsylvania. Webb, adjunct professor at the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University, previously worked for the Allegheny County government, most recently as county manager. He is also an official scorer for Major League Baseball.

The Reno-based Community Foundation of Western Nevada has named JENNIFER SATRE as president. Satre, wife of Harrah's chairman and chief executive Phil Satre, joined the foundation's board after the couple made a donation through the foundation. She replaces Jim Webster, who has led the foundation since he helped establish it in 1997.

The NewSchools Venture Fund in San Francisco has named THEODORE MITCHELL as CEO. Mitchell, who will step down as president of Occidental College, has served on the organization's board since 1998 and has held senior leadership roles at Stanford University and UCLA, where he was dean of the school of education. He also served a three-year term as senior education advisor to Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan, and currently chairs Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Advisory Committee on Educational Excellence. He replaces Kim Smith, who founded the organization in 1998 and will continue as executive chair of its board.

The Formosa Foundation in Los Angeles has named TERRI GILES as executive Director. Giles, vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and a longtime expert on Asia, formerly served as economic development director for Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV) and was director of Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign in West Virginia. In addition, she initiated the West Virginia Forum on Technology and Innovation, helped create the West Virginia Venture Connection, and is a founding member of the West Virginia chapter of the Japan-America Society.

In other news, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has named MELODY KANSCHAT as president. Kanschat has served in key positions in the museum's membership, development, and external affairs departments for sixteen years. As part of a restructuring, the presidency will become the second-ranking job in the institution, reporting to the director, a position currently held by museum president and director Andrea Rich, who plans to retire in November.