The Granada and the Santa Barbara Center for the Performing Arts announce the election of Sarah Schlinger Chrisman as president and Daniel Burnham as vice president of the board of directors.
Chrisman has been a board member for seven years, serving as vice president and treasurer. Burnham is chairman of The Granada Development Committee, taking the reins from longtime director Michael Towbes, who remains an active board member. Other continuing officers include vice president Marla McNally Phillips, treasurer Roberta Griffin and secretary Peter Brown.
The announcement comes a month after The Granada celebrated Towbes’ 80th birthday at a party that raised nearly $1.2 million for The Granada.
“We are blessed with outstanding people like Sarah, Dan and Michael, who have dedicated themselves to the beautiful restoration of this Santa Barbara landmark,” Executive Director Peter Frisch said. “A deep debt of gratitude must also go to former president Susan Miles Gulbranson and Joan Rutkowski, the project founders instrumental in guiding the organization during its formative years.”
Chrisman and husband Roger co-founded a Silicon Valley telecommunications company in 1982 and took it public in 1986. It now trades on the NYSE. Chrisman served as CFO and treasurer.
She serves on the board of Opera Santa Barbara, and is the CFO of the Warren and Katherine Schlinger Foundation. Sarah and Roger Chrisman are also joint directors of the Schlinger Chrisman Foundation.
Burnham is the retired CEO and chairman of Raytheon Company. Before Raytheon, he served as vice chairman for Allied Signal Inc., now Honeywell.
He previously was president of Allied Signal Aerospace, Allied’s biggest unit and the world’s largest supplier of sub-systems to the aerospace industry. He is chairman of the UCSB Foundation.
The historic Granada reopened in March 2008 after an extensive restoration initiated in 1998 by the nonprofit SBCPA with the mission to preserve and enhance the 1924 theater and provide a world-class performing arts center. The 1,550-seat venue is a year-round multipurpose space for music, theater, dance, opera, musicals, lectures, conferences and community events.
— Vince Coronado is the marketing director for The Granada.