The Board of Trustees of The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens is assembling a committee to find a successor for former President Laura Skandera Trombley, who abruptly resigned on Tuesday, Apr. 4.
A statement that day from The Huntington, which was released by Anne Rothenberg, chair of the Board of Trustees, claimed Trombley had left the post to “give priority to her scholarship as she immediately starts her next book-length study of Mark Twain.”
“We wish Laura well in all her future endeavors and scholarship and appreciate all her fine efforts on behalf of The Huntington,” the statement read.
Susan Turner-Lowe, The Huntington’s vice president for communications and marketing, told The Tribune on Wednesday that “there is no specific timeline” to find a permanent replacement for Trombley. Dr. Steve Hindle, the W.M. Keck Foundation Director of Research, was named the acting president last Tuesday.
“We are really pleased that Steve has jumped into his role with a great deal of enthusiasm,” said Turner-Lowe. “He has a strong grasp of the culture, so this is not particularly urgent. We will find a successor inside a suitable time frame. The energy is great and we are all very excited. We are really super excited to see Steve leading the institution’s collections-based, mission-oriented programming.”
Turner-Lowe said the Board of Trustees will conduct a worldwide search to find a successor and is expected to engage a search firm familiar with the industry.
“It’s a fairly customary process,” said Turner-Lowe.
