The Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) has announced the newest members of its Board of Trustees for 2018-19: Richard De Schutter, Norman A. Kurland, Nicholas Mutton and Merrill Wasserman Sherman.

SBMA also announced that Gregg Hackethal has been recognized by the board as a life honorary trustee, an honor offered in appreciation of his valuable service as a trustee from 2003-09, and then as he continued for two more terms until 2017.

The new trustees, whose terms begin July 1, will serve under the leadership of Betsy A. Hannaford, the new board chair.

Following is information about the trustees:

De Schutter began his business career after graduating from the University of Arizona with degrees in chemical engineering.

Following assignments with the Monsanto Company, he was named CEO of Chicago-based G.D. Searle Company in 1995. Searle is the wholly owned pharmaceutical subsidiary of Monsanto.

After Monsanto’s merger with another company in 2000, De Schutter served as CEO/chairman of Dupont Pharmaceutical Company until its sale to the Bristol Myers Squibb Company in 2002.

In the time since and preceding, De Schutter has served as a director or trustee on commercial and nonprofit boards, including Monsanto, Ecolab, Incyte, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Northwestern University, the Chicago Symphony, and the Northshore University Research Institute.

He and his wife Melanie, a fine arts photographer, live in Montecito.

Kurland graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Business School and began his career in New York with Screen Gems, the television arm of Columbia Pictures in New York.

In 1964, he moved to Screen Gems in Los Angeles, where he was associate producer and then assistant to the executive producer a number of successful television series. He then worked for Kirk Douglas’ production company, Bryna Productions, at Paramount Pictures.

In 1970, Kurland joined Major Talent Agency, a literary agency that represented writers and directors in television. In 1973, he founded The Norman Kurland Agency, where he sold screenplays, such as Romancing the Stone and The Bodyguard.

The Kurland agency expanded to The Broder/Kurland Agency, then to The Broder/Kurland/Webb/Uffner Agency, where he was president. Kurland retired from the agency in 2002 to become senior advisor to the president of the J. Paul Getty Trust in London from 2001-06.

A collector of Chinese Six Dynasties art, Kurland returned to educational life in 2007, first to the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London earning two MA degrees in the history of art and archeology, then another at the Courtauld Institute.

He was previously a member of the Board of Trustees at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (1997–2001) and Trustee of the National Museums Liverpool (2007–14), and is currently on the collections committee (Asian Art section) at the Harvard University Art Museums.

Mutton has recently retired after working for 35 years of his hospitality career with Four Seasons Hotels and Resort. He spent 17 years with the company in hotel operations and service innovation as a general manager and regional vice president.

In 1997, Mutton was promoted to corporate office as senior vice president, operations, Americas with additional responsibilities for various global roles including operating profitability, quality standards, technology, corporate training, pricing and yield strategy, as well as spa operations.

From 2003 until December 2014, Mutton was executive vice president reporting to the CEO and he board, based at the company’s home office in Toronto.

Mutton also held volunteer board positions with organizations such as the Canadian Opera Company, Mount Sinai Hospital, Metrolinx, United Way, and Cornell University.

As former president and CEO of Bancorp Rhode Island, Inc. and its subsidiary, Bank Rhode Island, Sherman was Rhode Island’s only female CEO of a publicly held bank.

She spearheaded the founding of the bank in 1996 and during her tenure, Bank RI became a leading commercial bank with 16 branches and a lending capacity to rival that of major national banks.

In January 2012, Bankcorp RI merged with Brookline Bancorp and she now sits on the Board of Brookline Bancorp. Prior to Bank RI, Sherman successfully served as CEO of two other community banks, where she utilized her years of prior experience practicing corporate law.

Sherman has been ranked as one of the 25 Most Powerful Women in Banking by U.S. Banker Magazine, and in 2011, was named one of Rhode Island’s 25 Most Influential Business Leaders in the past 25 years by the Providence Business News.

In 2008, she was recognized by Women’s Business Boston as a Top Ten Banker in the Region, and in 2007, was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame.

Sherman is the former chairman of the Board of Trustees of Rhode Island School of Design Board and current Chair the Board of the RI Infrastructure Bank, a quasi-public finance agency.

She also sits on the boards of Blue Cross /Blue Shield RI, Preservation Society of Newport Board, and Johnson & Wales University.

Hackethal began his service to SBMA as a guest on the investment committee in 1999 and then as a trustee member from 2003-17, which included being the chair of the committee from 2005-17. He also served continuously on the finance committee from 2003-17.

— Katrina Carl for Santa Barbara Museum of Art.