Kirkland Performance Center’s Board of Directors announced the appointment of Daniel Y. Mayer as its new executive director.

KPC Board President Lauret Ballsun said, “We are delighted to discover, after a wide-ranging, exhaustive search, that the very best candidate for this role was in our midst all along. Dan’s passion and experience has been a tremendous asset to us during the past year’s transition, and we are pleased he has agreed to take on a permanent leadership role with us as KPC’s new executive director.”

Mayer, who has worked at Kirkland Performance Center since April 2006 as general manager/development director, looks forward to collaborating with arts and social service organizations, presenting a wide range of programming that both challenges and entertains, and developing Kirkland Performance Center’s identity as a town hall for the eastside, to gather and share in passion for the arts.

Mayer has been KPC’s interim director since the September 2008 departure of former Executive Director Steve Lerian, who is now Director of Cal Poly Arts in California.

Prior to this, Mayer worked primarily in organizational transition and management leadership as a principal of ParkWay II Consulting, serving such Seattle nonprofit arts organizations as Photographic Center Northwest, 911 Media Arts Center, Spectrum Dance Theater, Empty Space Theater, Seattle Jewish Film Festival and On The Boards.

Before returning to his hometown, Mayer was the executive director of Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts in New York, and in Washington DC, he was an Arts Administration Fellow at the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Director of the ArtSave Program at People for the American Way, a national civil liberties organization. He is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland.