Brett Egan
Brett Egan leads the Institute’s team of consultants and teachers in projects on six continents, supporting organizations and executives in every arts industry on a range of short- and long-term concerns, including strategic planning, artistic planning, marketing, community engagement, human resource development, and fundraising.
In the United States, Mr. Egan leads multiyear capacity building initiatives in partnership with the Ford Foundation, supporting community-based organizations from Ajo, Arizona and Anchorage, Alaska to Providence and Miami; a two-year partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies providing training for 261 organizations in Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Boston; regional training intensives in Portland, San Jose, and Grand Rapids; a one-year initiative serving fifteen spoken word organizations in partnership with Youth Speaks; a three-year Fellowship for arts leaders from around the world; and long-term consultancies with a number of private clients.
Under Mr. Egan's leadership, the DeVos Institute has delivered multiyear, first-of-their-kind training programs in Ireland, Croatia, Trinidad and Tobago, Vietnam, and the United Kingdom in partnership with governments and local arts leadership.
His work with private clients includes long-term strategic planning, financial planning, community engagement, human resource development and training, board training, and organizational transformation. On behalf of several clients, he has served as the interim director while permanent leadership is sought.
From September 2011 until December 2012, Mr. Egan served concurrently as Interim CEO of the Royal Opera House Muscat (Oman), working with local leadership to open this first-of-its-kind institution on the Arabian Peninsula. Mr. Egan led the organization through a successful first season with performances by Placido Domingo, Renée Fleming, and Andrea Bocelli; the Mariinsky Ballet, La Scala Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre; the Royal Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra; and four operas including Franco Zeffirelli's Metropolitan Opera production of Turandot and the world premiere of a new Carmen commissioned and produced by the Royal Opera House. The inaugural season enjoyed a diverse audience of Omanis and expatriates with average attendance of 92 percent of seating capacity. In 2013, Mr. Egan again supported the Opera House in its development of the first library of musical arts and education on the Arabian Peninsula.
From 2006 to 2009, Mr. Egan served as Executive Director of the New York-based modern dance company, Shen Wei Dance Arts, which toured an average of two dozen cities worldwide each year, was a Kennedy Center resident company, and was a principal contributor to the 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremonies in Beijing. Prior to 2006, Mr. Egan worked with a variety of cultural organizations including Lincoln Center Theater, New York Theater Workshop, the Annie Leibowitz Studio, and Santa Fe Opera.
Mr. Egan is the co-author, with DeVos Institute Chairman Michael M. Kaiser, of The Cycle: A Practical Approach to Managing Arts Organizations (2013).
Mr. Egan is a frequent guest at national and international conferences, speaking on a range of topics from audience engagement and fundraising in communities of color to the role and impact of new media in arts management today. He has been called upon by a number of regional and national foundations to facilitate discussions amongst divergent stakeholders to identify common interest and deliver strategic direction, often at the intersection of cultural practice and broader civic concerns.
Mr. Egan graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a degree in Cultural and Performance Theory, received the Antarctic Service Medal and a Princess Grace Fellowship (Monaco), and wrote a travel guide on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. He is a trained actor and theater director and, throughout his upbringing in Long Beach, California, studied classical piano theory and performance.