February 24, 2013 | Read Time: 8 minutes
Wendy Kopp, the founder of Teach for America, announced this month that she would step down as chief executive and hand the reins to two longtime senior executives at the charity, in one of the most unusual leadership arrangements for a big national nonprofit.
Ms. Kopp, who envisioned a Peace Corps-like program for education 24 years ago in her undergraduate thesis at Princeton University, turned Teach for America into one of the nation’s largest charities, with a $229-million budget and a teaching corps of 10,000 recent college graduates.
To replace her, the charity appointed two people: Matt Kramer will oversee the organization’s recruitment, training, and finances from his home state of Minnesota, and Elisa Villanueva Beard will oversee regional programs from hers, Texas.
Ms. Kopp, who lives in New York, will become chair of Teach for America’s board.
The charity’s leaders say the unusual executive arrangement is a logical extension of the way the group has always worked. But now some management experts are raising the same kinds of questions about the new CEOs that critics have long asked about the charity’s lightly trained teachers: Is Teach for America setting them up to fail?
The new leadership structure is “fraught with problems,” says Mark Lipton, a professor of management at the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy at the New School, in New York, and an expert on the challenges groups face when replacing their founders.
Even when handled carefully, “founder’s syndrome”—the delicate task of replacing a founding CEO who is singularly identified with the organization—can be challenging.
At Teach for America, splitting the CEO job, the absence of the incoming top executives at the charity’s headquarters, and Ms. Kopp’s continuing role as board chair are all “ways of neutralizing power and authority,” says Mr. Lipton.
“Are they truly co-CEOs?” he asks. “Or is Wendy still pretty much running the show?”
Adding Value
Ms. Kopp is leaving Teach for America to devote more time to Teach for All, a separate charity that seeks to spread the mission of Teach for America throughout the world.
Co-founded by Ms. Kopp in 2007, Teach for All has helped social entrepreneurs in 26 countries start similar efforts to get some of their brightest college graduates to commit to two years of classroom teaching.
Ms. Kopp and Sue Lehmann, a Teach for America board member, both say that more than 18 months ago Ms. Kopp began the discussions that led to this month’s leadership change. Ms. Kopp, who has been CEO of both organizations for the past five years, has four children ages 12 and younger.
“Building something is all about asking, constantly, Where am I likely to add the most unique value, and where can others do at least as good a job, and maybe a better job?” says Ms. Kopp. “I don’t want to leave Teach for America. I want to continue to contribute as actively as I do now. What I do that adds value—I can do all of that as chair of the board.”
She adds: “The way to maximize Teach for America’s potential is to empower Elisa and Matt with the full accountability of being our leaders. I’m deeply committed to that.”
‘A Natural Evolution’
Ms. Lehmann, a management consultant who has been on the charity’s board for the past 17 years, leads a board committee that assesses the talent within Teach for America’s senior ranks.
She says the board and Ms. Kopp felt comfortable appointing Ms. Beard and Mr. Kramer without conducting a broader search because the two executives were already managing the internal operations of Teach for America while Ms. Kopp focused on other activities, like raising money.
Ms. Beard has been chief operating officer for the past eight years, leading strong growth in the charity’s regional programs; Mr. Kramer has been president since 2008.
The two executives “were already running” Teach for America, Ms. Lehmann says. “Wendy felt we should try to formalize what was in fact increasingly happening.”
“This is a natural evolution,” Mr. Kramer says, “as opposed to a massive disruptive change.”
The board felt comfortable asking two people to share the CEO position, Ms. Lehmann says, in part because one of the charity’s own board members, Paul Finnegan, is a co-CEO at Madison Dearborn Partners. He believes that splitting the top position has helped his private-equity firm thrive, she says.
The fact that neither Ms. Beard nor Mr. Kramer will work at the charity’s headquarters may seem odd to outsiders. But for at least a decade, the charity has permitted its staff, including senior executives, to work in the locations where they feel most comfortable.
Ms. Kopp says the policy gives the charity an advantage in attracting talented executives, since Teach for America is typically unable to match the salaries that many of its top officers could command from for-profit companies.
‘One Mind’
The dispersed senior leadership team stays in touch via videoconferencing and e-mail, and travels frequently to meet in person. Providing such flexibility, Mr. Kramer maintains, is among the reasons that Teach for America has earned a spot on Fortune magazine’s current list of the Best Companies to Work For.
“I could not be committed to Teach for America if I had to live in New York,” says Ms. Beard, who grew up in the Rio Grande Valley. “I’m a Texas woman.”
Mr. Kramer argues that the increasing complexity of Teach for America makes splitting the CEO position a logical choice.
Mr. Kramer will oversee the recruitment, admission, and training of the charity’s 10,000 teachers, also known as “corps members,” while Ms. Beard will manage its 46 regions, with a special focus on fundraising. (Teach for America raises 80 percent of its funds in the regions where it has programs.) “More capacity is better,” Mr. Kramer says.
Ms. Beard points out that the two have worked closely together for nearly eight years. “We’re two people with one mind,” she says. “We intend to be fully aligned on strategy.”
Potential Rifts
But Mr. Lipton points out that the two might not always agree—and he maintains that any disagreements among the co-chief executives could get ugly fast, especially if the board chair, Ms. Kopp, needs to settle any rift.
“The image that comes to mind is of two kids making their best pitch to a parent,” he says, “with the parent making the final decision.”
But Mr. Kramer says that Mr. Kopp doesn’t fit the mold of some exiting visionary founders who can’t let go of their creation.
“Wendy is remarkably disciplined,” Mr. Kramer says. “She doesn’t lose control of herself the way that some iconic founders do. When she says, ‘I’m going to set Matt and Elisa up to run this operation,’ there’s no reason to worry about whether that’s going to happen.”
He adds that creating a new board position of lead independent director, which will be held by Richard Parsons, a former chairman of Citigroup, should also temper any concerns about who is in charge.
“Wendy brings a lot to the table, but she doesn’t bring independence,” Mr. Kramer says. “We need an incredibly powerful independent director.”
Concerns About Training
The change in leadership comes at a time when Teach for America is facing criticism, even from some of its alumni.
Gary Rubinstein, a former Teach for America instructor who now teaches high-school math in New York, has recently written a series of public letters to school-reform advocates that he knows personally, including Ms. Kopp.
In his letter to her, he called Teach for America’s five-week teacher-training program inadequate and criticized the group for aligning too closely with reformers who tout charter schools as the answer to the country’s education woes. (Ms. Kopp is married to Richard Barth, CEO of the KIPP Foundation, which runs a network of charter schools.)
In a letter responding to Mr. Rubinstein, Ms. Kopp noted that she frequently speaks out “against the idea that teachers or unions are ‘the problem,’” but she nevertheless conceded that the charity could do a better job of highlighting the ideological diversity among its alumni.
She also acknowledged that although Teach for America has “learned a lot and made progress, we have yet to move the needle against educational inequality” over all.
Mr. Rubinstein wonders if his criticism and that of others contributed to the leadership change. “It’s possible that Teach for America has made a strategic change to show that they’re open to different points of view,” he says.
Mr. Kramer’s response: “If the purpose of this change were to respond to criticism, it would be an odd choice, indeed, for Wendy to become the board chair.”
Nurturing Decision Makers
Meanwhile, Teach for America’s efforts to reach its long-stated goal of grooming leaders who eventually become decision makers are beginning to bear fruit. Some 550 Teach for America alumni now serve as school principals, and another 100 serve in district leadership positions.
Kate Casas, a former corps member who directs state policy for the Children’s Education Alliance of Missouri, sent an open letter to Ms. Kopp after learning that she was stepping down.
“The work you have done to ensure that the network of brilliant people dedicated to improving outcomes for kids is deep and broad is an invaluable asset,” Ms. Casas wrote.
Ms. Beard and Mr. Kramer say it is too early to discuss any changes they might have in store. In the next few months, they will begin working on the yearlong process of devising a strategic plan to carry Teach for America through 2020.
The co-CEOs will go on a “listening tour” to at least a dozen regions in the next six months, when they plan meet to meet with staff and corps members, donors, school leaders, and even critics like Mr. Rubinstein.
“We’re totally open to critiques,” Mr. Kramer says. “We ourselves know we need to get better.”
