Feather Houstoun to step down as William Penn Foundation president

Feather O. Houstoun is resigning next year as president of the William Penn Foundation, which, under her five- year watch, has been a force of civic engagement in Philadelphia and the region.

Houstoun, 64, said she planned to step down by midsummer. She intends to stay long enough to provide a transition for her replacement. David Haas, chairman of the foundation, said a committee had begun searching for a new president.

The William Penn Foundation is the charitable arm of the heirs of Otto Haas, a cofounder of Rohm & Haas Co. With a $1.9 billion endowment, it is one of the region's largest foundations.

It is currently led largely by the grandchildren of Otto Haas, but a fourth generation of the family is beginning to take its place on the stage.

Recognition of the coming generational turnover played a role in Houstoun's decision to step down, she said.

"The foundation is moving on to a new chapter," she said. "It is a chapter that is going to be multiple years long. I was not ready to make that kind of commitment."

She said she did not know what she would do next.

"What I have found is the unexpected is often the best," she said. "Even if I had some idea now, I would probably wait and see. There is plenty of time."

Haas called her "the right leader at the right time."

"She has worked tirelessly with our staff to refine the organization's approaches in a variety of areas, most notably, our ability to effect significant change in the policies and institutions that shape life in Greater Philadelphia," he said.

Under Houstoun's leadership, the William Penn Foundation leveraged its resources to play a significant role in the region's civic development as well as continue as a major funder of arts and culture.

From pressing for greater vision and planning for the Delaware waterfront to finding innovative ways to reduce the city's high school dropout rate, Houstoun and the William Penn Foundation have been at the forefront of progressive change in the region.

"From our point of view, her term has been transformative," said Harris Steinberg, executive director of Penn Praxis, a nonprofit development arm of the University of Pennsylvania's school of design.

"The work she led to ultimately fund the work on the Central Delaware waterfront has been a game changer in how we think about planning and development in Philadelphia."

He was referring to the 13 months of public meetings and planning sessions that led to a master plan for developing the city's Delaware River waterfront.

Before coming to the foundation, Houstoun served as Pennsylvania's secretary of public welfare, New Jersey's treasurer, and chief financial officer of SEPTA.

Her public service informed her work at William Penn.

"She was one of those rare systems entrepreneurs who understood how things worked and used that knowledge to try and make things better," said Laura Shubilla, president of Philadelphia Youth Partnership, whose Project U-Turn is funded by William Penn and seeks to reduce high school dropout levels.

Jeremy Nowak, president of the Reinvestment Fund, shared the same view.

"Because she had been in both the private and public sector, she had an interest in seeing that we help the city and the region do a better job in public planning and management," he said. "She has done a remarkable job in that."

Another fan is Anne Ewers, president and CEO of the Kimmel Center, which benefitted from William Penn's help in clearing its capital debt.

"In my career, I have never met anyone who has led a foundation with such care for those she is funding, but also holding you to task," she said. "She has been a marvelous steward of the foundation."

Asked to assess her term, Houstoun said she was most proud of what she called "the power of collective action."

"If you look at what we accomplished, it was always with others," she said. "Whether it was retiring the Kimmel Center debt, with other funders, or the Central Delaware Waterfront process with 4,000 citizens as well as the city and state - it was with others. It is that collective power that we have taken to a high place."