FOUNDATIONS & PHILANTHROPY
DIANA SIEGER
President Grand Rapids Community Foundation, Grand Rapids
Diana Sieger has been in her current role for 33 years. Under her leadership, the foundation’s assets have grown from $35 million to $360 million. Her professional and community activities include currently serving on the boards of the Office of Foundation Liaison for the governor’s office and on the Grand Rapids Downtown Development Authority. Sieger also is a former board and executive committee member for the Council on Foundations and past board chair for the Council of Michigan Foundations. Some other honors include being named one of the “50 Most Influential Women in West Michigan” six times by the Grand Rapids Business Journal as well as one of Crain’s Detroit’s 100 Most Influential Women in Michigan in 2016.
HEALTH CARE
LA JUNE MONTGOMERY TABRON President, CEO W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Battle Creek
EDUCATION: Western Michigan University (B, M) INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE: “We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated.” Maya Angelou HOBBIES: I have collected many pieces of contemporary art. I enjoy going to art fairs and galleries around the world. TOUGHEST CHALLENGE: When I started here in 1987, I was determined that I wouldn’t make mistakes, which was my first mistake. FAVORITE DESTINATION: Italy, I’ve traveled there eight times. FAVORITE ATTRACTION: Grand Rapids Art Museum and Frederik Meijer Gardens PLAY YOU IN A MOVIE: Bette Midler or Goldie Hawn
MARK VAN PUTTEN President, CEO The Wege Foundation, Grand Rapids
Prior to joining The Wege Foundation, Mark Van Putten spent 13 years as president of ConservationStrategy LLC, a philanthropic advisory firm specializing in environmental and natural resources. He previously had served for 21 years on the staff of Washington D.C.-based National Wildlife Federation — America’s largest membership-based conservation organization — including nearly eight years as president and CEO. Van Putten also was the founder of the University of Michigan’s Environmental Law Clinic. On the 30th anniversary of the federal Clean Water Act, he was recognized as one of 30 people nationwide named “Clean Water Heroes.”
DR. KENNETH BERKOVITZ Senior VP/Ministry Market Executive Ascension Michigan
EDUCATION: Calvin College (B), University of Michigan School of Law (J.D.) FIRST JOB: Busboy/dishwasher at Ponderosa Steakhouse BEST ADVICE: My grandfather told me, “Nothing’s as easy as it looks and everything takes longer than you think.” FUNNIEST WORK EXPERIENCE: Giving a lecture on the first day of classes to two students who, like me, had misread the schedule and went to the wrong classroom. LESSON LEARNED: There is no such thing as loyalty to institutions, only to other people. FEW PEOPLE KNOW: I worked for several years as a carpenter. FAVORITE BOOK: “Midnight’s Children” by Salman Rushdie
54 THE GRAND RAPIDS 200
After 26 years of promotions at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, La June Montgomery Tabron began as president and CEO in 2014. The Kellogg Foundation has the most assets of any foundation in West Michigan, reporting $8.25 billion in 2017. It has funded numerous organizations and initiatives in Michigan, the U.S., Latin America, the Caribbean and southern Africa. Among those grants are $24 million total in 2017 to organizations to help fight racism in Michigan and across the country. EDUCATION: University of Michigan (B), Northwestern University (M) FIRST JOB: Attendance taker at a summer program in Detroit at age 14, making $2.75 per hour BEST ADVICE: Early in my career, Norm Brown, previous Kellogg Foundation president, coached me after a meeting by saying, “Think about your approach.” We’d just come from a meeting where I was very direct, maybe too straightforward for the Ph.D.s in the room. He encouraged me to think about the group and their interests, and keep the focus on what we were trying to accomplish. Norm helped me to see that an approach is critical to getting the work done. LESSON LEARNED: If we want our children to have the communities they deserve, the racial equity journey is an essential process.
Dr. Kenneth Berkovitz is responsible for leading Ascension Michigan’s 16 hospitals and hundreds of related health care facilities that together employ over 22,000 associates. Ascension Michigan provided over $270 million in community benefit and care of persons living in poverty in fiscal year 2019. Prior to this role, Berkovitz served as president of Ascension Medical Group in Michigan. “As a leader, there is a big difference between being truthful and being trusted,” Berkovitz said. “Earning trust is an ongoing and active process and requires much more than being honest. It requires the investment of time to develop a relationship.” Before coming to Ascension Michigan, Berkovitz served as CEO of the Cardiovascular Institute of OSF Healthcare System in Peoria, Illinois, where he was responsible for strategy and execution, staff development, finance and management of the system’s cardiovascular service line (CVSL). Previously he held a similar role with Summa Health System in Akron, Ohio. EDUCATION: Purdue University (B), Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (MD) FIRST JOB: Working at a gas station that had a car wash. Back then, the tax was not included in the pump price, so we had to calculate the total amount in our heads. FAVORITE QUOTE: “Perfection is not attainable, but if you chase perfection, you can catch excellence.” Vince Lombardi