"I highly recommend James Abruzzo's Nonprofit Boards and CEO Employment Contracts to any C-suite executive engaged in contract negotiations. It is essential that incoming CEOs are adequately empowered to pursue generative and strategic initiatives without undue concern about punitive consequences. At the same time, boards of directors, in their fiduciary capacity, bear responsibility for safeguarding the organization's reputation and assets. Abruzzo's work offers a nuanced and insightful analysis of how thoughtfully structured employment contracts can serve to protect and align the interests of all parties involved."

"James Abruzzo has been an invaluable partner in helping the Fox Theatre navigate the complexities of executive compensation within the performing arts community. His benchmarking research, analysis, and insights are thorough, relevant, and have served as a critical resource for our CEO, executive team, and board.”

“James has an outstanding knowledge of the non-profit sector and was particularly helpful to our organization in organizing a much needed Compensation Committee of the Board of Trustees, benchmarking salaries and helping the Board to think through the senior professional positions needed for the organization.”

“As a family foundation where the four board members are also the staff, we were concerned that setting our own compensation could be perceived as a conflict of interest. James Abruzzo developed a compensation consulting methodology that removed the conflict and gave us assurances that our compensation was fair and reasonable. We now employ him every three years to review our compensation.”

“When I became chair of the foundation, I had a desire to institute best practices in many areas: we hired James who helped us institute best practices in executive and board compensation. The foundation owned six separate for-profit companies and we were paying employees from each company. James simplified our systems, brought us into compliance and then became a trusted advisor on other challenges as well.”

“The competition for talent is so great, we wanted to insure that we could keep our executive director for as long as possible. James helped us institute some compensation programs that were a strong incentive for our CEO to remain.”

“When I was offered my first museum director position, my major concern was leaving a very safe and prestigious curatorial position for a museum with significant board and management challenges. I hired James to negotiate a contract on my behalf that would protect me and my family and then, when it was clear that I could no longer remain in the position, James negotiated a severance package that allowed me to take my time finding another position.”

“James recruited me to my current position as President of a performing arts organization. When it was time to renew my contract, board wanted me to extend the contract, as did I, but there were many issues, including my demand for a significant increases in salary, which we couldn’t agree on. I hire James, with the board’s knowledge, and he was able to act as a ‘friend of the family’ to get me the increase that I wanted and to satisfy the board chair that the offer was fair and defensible.”

“We had not even heard of Intermediate Sanctions and were not aware of the potential personal liabilities. James helped us come into compliance, develop a compensation philosophy and institute a rational compensation plan for us and our CEO.”

“As a nonprofit executive, I never realized that there were ways in which I could save more for my retirement. James showed me a number of ways which were very helpful to me and agreeable to my board.”

“I have worked with James in his role as a search consultant and compensation expert on more than one occasion and have found him to be insightful, diligent, and resourceful. His knowledge of the sector, its issues, and those within it make him a valuable resource, whom I continue to rely on when I need it.”