May 23, 2016
Shop Talk
Tower Hill seeks to become New England's botanical garden
Suzanne Mass, interim CEO at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, stands next to the new garden that the nonprofit will open in June.
On May 2, Suzanne Maas took over as interim CEO of Tower Hill Botanic Garden from Katherine Abbott, who had run the organization since 2012 and put an increased emphasis on making the Boylston horticulture facility a destination for tourists and the preeminent New England botanic garden. Maas is not interested in the permanent CEO position, as her company – Leadership Transitions – advises Central Massachusetts nonprofits during executive changeovers. Maas filled a similar role for the Higgins Armory Museum starting in 2010 and eventually oversaw the integration of that organization into the Worcester Art Museum.
What does an interim CEO do?
Serving as an interim, you are serving as a CEO. You are driving all projects forward. You are keeping the momentum going. You are also working with the whole staff and board to prepare for the incoming executive. I will serve until the handoff to the next CEO.
How long will that take?
Maybe 12 months. The average would be about eight months.
How is this different from Higgins?
This is an organization that is on a trajectory to grow further. Higgins was at a time where they were realizing they had come to the end of their runway. They had a tremendous run for 84 years of providing incredible experiences and learning opportunities, and they were not able to go forward for lack of an endowment. My role there was all about working to find a partner to integrate with, to preserve the collection intact, transfer as much of what we called the Higgins DNA of how we engaged the audience with the objects, and for the transfer to be transformative, and not just a transfer of objects.
What is the trajectory of Tower Hill?
Tower Hill has experienced extraordinary growth in the last three and a half years – attendance, members and the garden shop sales. It is maintaining all that momentum. We have a new garden opening in June. We have our 175th anniversary coming up Sept. 17.
We have this wonderful master plan that has been in place, and we are updating that. There will be a new garden that will be built behind us. It is a new project called The Ramble, and all of these projects have to be kept moving along with all of the staff and trustees and committee engagement.
How will Tower Hill become New England's botanic garden?
We have a balance of Worcester people on the board, but we will reach out to other regions as well to build our networks. We have to reach out to bring tourism to Central Massachusetts, so there are multiple levels.
One of the things that is special about Tower Hill is our vantage point overlooking the reservoir.
What are some of the growth areas?
We would like to do more education and interpretation. There has been a huge burst of programming here, which has helped drive all the increased figures. There is room for more engagement.
Will you seek donations from the businesses community?
Absolutely. It is a key part of the CEO role. It takes a large percentage of the time. For all the plans here for the gardens, there is money that needs to be raised to endow it, so you aren’t building a garden and having no endowment to maintain it.
As with any large institution, there are sponsorships that have been very well supported here, but there are many more opportunities to reach corporations. We also need to reach farther afield. Worcester has always been a primary supporter of the gardens, but this is growing into New England’s botanical garden, so we have a lot of outreach to do to other businesses.
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