Early this week, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the organisation that runs the de Young Museum and Legion of Honor, announced that Dede Wilsey, the 20-year president and four-year CEO of its board, would step down.
Wilsey was at the center of a controversy involving a former employee, chief financial officer Michele Gutierrez, who was recently awarded $2m in a lawsuit that claimed Wilsey fired her for exposing the board’s decision to spend almost a half million dollars on a former employee, Bill Huggins. Wilsey was said to have authorised a $450,000 loan to Huggins, who had retired due to a heart condition. He, along with his wife, the museum's registrar, died shortly thereafter.
In April, FAMSF said the loan would be repaid by anonymous donors. “After several years of serving as president and CEO, and with a competent director of museums in place, (Wilsey) believes it will serve the museums better for her to now focus on other areas where her skills and expertise will have a positive impact,” a spokesman for FAMSF told the San Francisco Chronicle.