Michael Marsicano (born 1956) serves on the boards of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Leon Levine Foundation. He is the former president and CEO of Foundation for the Carolinas, retiring in January 2022. In 2017, Marsicano was named No. 1 on the list of 50 Most Powerful People in Charlotte by Charlotte Magazine. [1]
Marsicano received his Bachelor of Science, Masters of Education and Doctor of Philosophy from Duke University. [2] He served as Executive Director of the Durham Arts Council in Durham, North Carolina, from 1982-1989. In 1989, he left to oversee the Arts & Science Council in Charlotte. While at its head, the united arts fund became the nation's highest in per capita annual giving, and the Arts & Science Council became one of the largest endowed arts councils in the United States.
In 1996, with Marsicano at head of ASC, controversy erupted around a Charlotte Repertory Theatre production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Angels in America . [3] Local evangelical leaders protested the themes of the play and the onstage nudity, [4] citing public funding via the Arts & Science Council as the core of its argument. Marsicano stood by ASC’s decision to fund, and the Mecklenburg County Commission responded by removing $2.5 million in funding to ASC. [5] After four of the five commissioners who voted to strip the Arts and Science Council of its resources lost their seats in the next election, funds were restored and increased. [1]
In 1999, Marsicano was tapped to lead Foundation for the Carolinas, only the third head of the organization in its 60 years. [2] During his tenure, FFTC has grown from assets of $240 million [2] to more than $2.5 billion in 2017, [6] and approximately $4 Billion by his retirement in 2023. FFTC grew from the 35th [1] largest community foundation in America to sixth [7] largest. Marsicano has helped raise more than $3.5 billion [1] in philanthropic gifts for cultural, educational and social-economic initiatives in the Mecklenburg County region. He serves on the boards of Duke University, Duke University Health System, Charlotte Chamber of Commerce and Charlotte Center City Partners. Marsicano has chaired the boards of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, the National Assembly of Local Arts Agencies (now Americans for the Arts) and guest panels at the National Endowment for the Arts.
Marsicano received the Vision Award from Charlotte Center City Partners [8] in 2016, the Arc of Triumph Award from Johnson C. Smith University in 2011, the distinguished service award from the University of North Carolina – Charlotte in 2010, was named Innovator of the Year in 2008 by the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce [9] and won the Philanthropy [10] Campeon Award in 2005 from the Latin American Coalition. In 2018, Marsicano was named to the NonProfit Times’ 21st -annual Power and [11] Influence Top 50 List, highlighting the nation’s top philanthropic leaders. In 2022, he won the Citizen of the Carolinas award from the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, the Distinguished Alumni Award from Duke University and was inducted into the Order of the Longleaf Pine, North Carolina’s highest civilian honor.
Michael is married to Leslie Marsicano, [12] the Director of the Preyer Scholars Program at Queens University of Charlotte. They have three children. On March 5, 2023, one of his children, Jamie, was arrested at the site of a music festival connected to the Stop Cop City campaign.
Charlotte is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 15th-most populous city in the United States, the seventh-most populous city in the South, and the second-most populous city in the Southeast behind Jacksonville, Florida. The city is the cultural, economic, and transportation center of the Charlotte metropolitan area, whose 2020 population of 2,660,329 ranked 22nd in the United States. Metrolina is part of a sixteen-county market region or combined statistical area with a 2020 population of 2,822,352.
Davidson is a suburban town located in Iredell and Mecklenburg counties, North Carolina, United States, on the banks of Lake Norman. It is a suburb in the Charlotte metropolitan area. The population was 10,944 at the 2010 census, and in 2019 the estimated population was 13,054. The town was founded in 1837 with the establishment of the Presbyterian Davidson College, named for Brigadier General William Lee Davidson, a local Revolutionary War hero. The land for Davidson College came from Davidson's estate, a large portion of which was donated by his son.
Uptown Charlotte, also called Center City, is the central business district of Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. The area is split into four wards by the intersection of Trade and Tryon Streets, and bordered by Interstate 277 and Interstate 77. The area is managed and overseen by the Charlotte Central City Partners, which is one of the three Municipal Service Districts in Charlotte. Uptown Charlotte is the largest business district in Charlotte and the Carolinas.
The Mint Museum, also referred to as The Mint Museums, is a cultural institution comprising two museums, located in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Mint Museum Randolph and Mint Museum Uptown, together these two locations have hundreds of collections showcasing art and design from around the globe.
Olympic High School is located in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is a high school in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) system. Olympic opened in the fall of 1966, in what was then the rural outskirts of Charlotte. It joined the Coalition of Essential Schools in 2005 and was split into five smaller, theme-based schools. Olympic was consolidated back into one high school the 2018–2019 school year. Today Olympic is a single comprehensive high school.
Levine Center for the Arts on South Tryon Street in Charlotte, North Carolina, includes Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, the Knight Theater, and the Mint Museum Uptown. It was named for Leon Levine, whose foundation provided financing.
Carolina Actors Studio Theatre (CAST) was an independent non-profit theatre company located at 2424 North Davidson Street in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was founded in 1992 by Charlotte acting instructor Ed Gilweit as an actor's teaching school. In 2000 Gilweit's company partnered with a video and stage production company run by Michael Simmons called Victory Pictures, Inc., and then with the fledgling theatre group Another Roadside Performance Company run by Robert Lee Simmons, Michael Simmons' son. Through this series of mergers, Gilweit and the Simmons' became the founders of the Carolina Actors Studio Theatre. After Gilweit's death in 2002, Michael Simmons became the Managing Artistic Director.
Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans was an American heiress, activist, politician, and philanthropist. She was the granddaughter of Benjamin N. Duke and the great-granddaughter of Washington Duke, both tobacco and energy tycoons who helped start Duke University. Semans is remembered for her support and work towards promoting the arts and humanities through various philanthropic entities.
James Eugene Rogers Jr. was an American businessman and author. He was president and CEO of Duke Energy, the largest electrical utility in the U.S., from April, 2006 until July 1, 2013. He stayed on as Chairman of the Board until retiring the following December. His book, Lighting the World, which explores the issues involved in bringing electricity to over 1.2 billion people on earth who lack it, was published August 25, 2015, by St. Martin's Press. The book asserts that access to electricity should be recognized as a basic human right.
The Lynx Blue Line is a light rail line in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. Opened in 2007, it was the first rail line of the Charlotte Area Transit System, and the first major rapid rail service of any kind in the state. The 26-station, 19.3-mile (31.1 km) line extends from its northern terminus at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in University City through NoDa, Uptown, and South End, then runs along South Boulevard to its southern terminus just north of Interstate 485 at the Pineville city limits. The line carries an average of over 27,700 passenger trips every day and offers connections to the CATS' CityLynx Gold Line which opened in 2015.
Rupert Hordern Myer is an Australian businessman and philanthropist. He is a member of the Myer family, which, in 2014, was the sixth wealthiest family in Australia, with a net worth of more than $2 billion in properties and a diversified investment portfolio. The largest investment portfolio is managed by The Myer Family Company, where Rupert Myer was chairman until 2012.
Jennifer Roberts is an American politician, businesswoman and former diplomat who served as the 58th mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina. She was elected on November 3, 2015 having previously served four terms on the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners. In 2012, she was the Democratic nominee for the United States House of Representatives in North Carolina's 9th congressional district.
Spirit Square, also called Spirit Square Center for the Arts, is located in Charlotte, North Carolina. Its McGlohon Theater in the former First Baptist Church on North Tryon Street, named for Loonis McGlohon, is now part of North Carolina Blumenthal Performing Arts Center.
Stephen B. Heintz is an American nonprofit executive and public policy expert. Since 2001, he has served as president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a family foundation with an endowment of approximately $1.2 billion that advances social change for a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world. Heintz coined the term “acupuncture philanthropy” to describe his philanthropic approach of leveraging modest financial assets to trigger larger systemic change on critical issues.
Jean Emily Fairfax was an American educator, civil rights worker, community organizer, and philanthropist whose efforts have focused on achieving equity in education, especially for poor African Americans. She served as Director of Community Services of the NAACP from 1965 to 1984.
DeAndrea Salvador is a Democratic member of the North Carolina Senate. She has represented the 39th Senate district since 2021. She is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Renewable Energy Transition Initiative (RETI), a nonprofit that educates communities and leaders about energy conservation and affordability. She was a 2018 TED Fellow. Elected at age 30, Salvador is the youngest Black woman ever to serve in the North Carolina General Assembly.
The Foundation for the Carolinas is a donor-advised charity with a non-exclusive focus on North Carolina and South Carolina.
Elizabeth "Libby" Schmoke Randolph was an American educator. She was a leader on school desegregation in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in the 1970s, and president of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, a national professional organization. She was also a regional director of Alpha Kappa Alpha. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools administrative headquarters is named the Elizabeth Schmoke Randolph Building, in her memory.
Sally Dalton Robinson is an American philanthropist and civic leader. She was a key figure in the founding of the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, North Carolina and served on the board of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, the Charlotte Nature Museum, the Charlotte Arts and Science Council, and the McColl Center for Art + Innovation. Robinson is an active member of the Junior League and the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina. She was inducted into the North Carolina Women's Hall of Fame in 2009.