Big Gail, Vicki (and Doron and Ron and....)

Since the first days of Howard Rieger's service as UJC's "President and CEO" (call him, that's how he is self-described on his VoiceMail), those most senior professionals who pushed back against policies or programs with which they disagreed faced humiliation and ostracism -- unprofessional treatment unbecoming a Jewish organization.

Gail Hyman was the first senior professional to resign after being treated in an unprofessional and demeaning manner by the "Rieger Administration." She would not be the last. "Big Gail" (who garnered the nickname not because she was, in fact, "big" only because she was "bigger" than her professional counterpart, "Little Gail" Reiss) was a consummate marketing professional. She was first hired away from the New York UJA-Federation where she had served as the CPO Marketing during the UJA "era" and she brought her talents at communications and marketing to, first, the national campaigns, and, then, in an attempt to "build (and defend) the United Jewish Communities brand" after the merger. She had built an annual Federation Marketing Conference into a critical date on the calendar of federation marketing executives, and, annually, assured an effective generic "Case for Giving" video in which federations partnered. Big Gail wasa great team player...and she had a loyal group of creative professionals working with her at UJC. Rieger, apparently ill-equipped to understand the value of national marketing and communications, ignored and isolated Gail. She was ordered to report through Rieger's chief bean counter; told there was a hiring freeze yet watched as other areas (including the CFO's) hired at will; told to "find a secretary to promote" when she needed new professional assistance; and found Rieger's son lurking about the Marketing and Communications field. Asking only to be treated as the senior professional she was, she was shunned. In 2005, she resigned. (Through year-end 2007, Big Gail had not been replaced. The once generic Campaign video [which allowed participating federations to insert their own leaders and message] had become, by 2007, a vehicle for Rieger's self-promotion. [He appeared in the 2008 campaign piece no less that 4 times -- this was evidence of the "cult of the non-peronality."])

The circumstances facing Vicki Agron were all the more humiliating and unprofessional. Agron, as a lay leader from Denver, was a past Chair of the National Young Women's Leadership Cabinet, had been hired by the Dean of Federation and UJA Executives, Stanley Horowitz, as a senior United Jewish Appeal pro, she had been the professional head of Campaign/Development since the UJA time, as well. She was a remarkably creative professional, having led the UJA through a masterful strategic planning effort, and collaborated in the creation of the Campaign Chairs/Campaign Directors annual Mission, the National and International Lion of Judah Conferences and the Jewish Leadership Forum. She directed the UJC National FRD Study and had the widest of followings among federation Campaign Executives. The largest federations' Executives with the most influence on Rieger saw no value in a major national campaign office and experienced little return on that investment -- the value to them being small, they failed to see or care about the value to others.

Soon after becoming CEO Rieger began his own "campaign" -- one of professional humilation and exclusion -- to force Agron's resignation. Rieger began meeting less and less, if at all, with his "SMT" -- his Senior Managers; instead, he created a smaller "team" and without consultation with Agron appointed the National Young Leadership chief professional, who herself reported to Agron, to it. He constantly berated Agron for "not being a team player" when she would push back or offer her own ideas in response to his. The Campaign/Development Budget became a "bank" from which Rieger and his leadership would withdraw funds to finance other programs and schemes. Agron was helpless; she was told that if she enlisted her lay leadership, she would be fired.

Then in late winter 2007, the situation worsened. Rieger and Kanfer, behind closed doors, concocted a "reorganization" for UJC. This "organizational strategy" became the raison d'etre for UJC's very existence -- although it proved to be but moving around the deck chairs on the Titanic. But, for Agron and the Development Department this reordering had dire consequences -- Development would no longer be an independent part of the national team, but would report through professionals with no background in Campaign or Development. Agron would be "reorganized" out of existence. While Rieger and Kanfer would argue time and again that the focus of the reorganization was "raising more dollars and donors," they had to be the only two UJC leaders who possibly could have thought so. Vicki dug in, determined to prove she was a team player. Rieger ignored her efforts. She resigned effective January 2008.