JCCI V.P. Ben Warner to be
next JCCI President & CEO
-Warner hired to replace retiring JCCI President Skip Cramer -
Jacksonville, Fla. - (August 19, 2011)- Jacksonville Community Council Inc. (JCCI) Board of Directors Chair William C. Mason announced the selection of long-time JCCI deputy and vice president J. Benjamin Warner as its new President & CEO. “I could not be happier with Ben’s selection for this vital leadership position. His credentials, locally, nationally and internationally, are impeccable,” said Mason.
Warner will take over officially on September 1st, relieving Skip Cramer, who held the post for the past seven years. Cramer plans to remain in the area and stay active in the community as a volunteer and consultant.
Warner joined JCCI in September 1998 as a senior Community Planner and rose quickly to Deputy Director – the #2 position on the JCCI staff. As a result of board and staff title changes in 2011, Warner became Vice President.
“We conducted a thorough nationwide search for our new CEO and found the perfect person right here,” said Search Committee and incoming JCCI Board Chair, John Hirabayashi. More than 70 national and local candidates were screened using detailed criteria developed by the committee. “As incoming Board Chairman, I am delighted to be working with Ben. He has the intellect, experience, energy and reputation to take this organization to the next level,” commented Hirabayashi.
Warner was graduated from Brigham Young University and received his Master’s in Social Work from Florida State University. He is the past Chair of the National Association of Planning Councils and the international Community Indicators Consortium. He is a graduate of the Class of 2005 of the Northeast Florida Regional Leadership Academy and Leadership Jacksonville’s Class of 2008. Warner has represented JCCI nationally and internationally in the areas of community indicators, citizen engagement, and community visioning. He is the recipient of the National Association of Planning Council’s 2010 Distinguished Service Award and the 1997 Michael R. Wilson Social Justice Award of the National Association of Social Workers.
Warner will be introduced officially at JCCI’s 36th Annual Meeting Luncheon on September 9th at the Schultz Center for Teaching and Leadership. The annual meeting features guest speaker Mayor Julián Castro of San Antonio, Texas, with whom Warner worked in 2010-11, creating a community vision for San Antonio in the year 2020.
Please visit www.jcci.org for more information about JCCI. For questions regarding this release, please contact Amanda Gazaleh at the information above.
###
Jacksonville Community Council Inc - JCCI is a nonprofit civic organization that seeks to improve the quality of life in Northeast Florida. Since 1975, JCCI has convened diverse groups of citizens each year to identify significant community issues for in-depth study. Its goal is to increase public awareness and promote positive action. JCCI’s study process and indicator reports have served as models for hundreds of communities around the world. For more information, visit the JCCI web site at www.jcci.org.
