Rev. Dr. R. Lamar Vest, the executive vice-president of the American Bible Society, will serve as the organization's next president beginning January 1, 2009, according to an announcement this past week.The announcement of Vest's acceptance of his new position comes five months after the Board of Trustees determined not to bring back former president, Dr. Paul Irwin, whose contract was set to expire on June 30, 2008. Irwin had been suspended amid an investigation of possible financial irregularities at the organization.
[www.christianpost.com]
2 comments:
One has to wonder how much change will come to this organization after the Paul Irwin scandal. When Paul Irwin was being "vetted" for the ABS presidency, Lamar Vest was the chairman of the Board of Trustees and Dennis Dickerson chaired the presidential search committee. About seven months later, Dr. Vest steps down from his position as chairman to accept a newly creative Executive Director postion reporting to Dr. Irwin. He's not even required to move to NY. Mr. Dickerson steps in as chairman of the Board of Trustees. In politics, this is called patronage. Someone needs to turn over this rock to see what is going on.
Here's another jewel: after announcing to the staff that a forensic audit would be conducted of business activity under Dr. Irwin, the staff was then told (only after being asked) that the audit was completed, but the results would not be released due to "legal reasons." In other business circles, this is called "circling the wagons." Someone really needs to turn over this rock to see what is going on. I nominate Tomas Kellner over at Forbes Magazine.
Doesn’t ABS get any credit for taking care of the Irwin incident immediately after it happened? I’ve been following this organization and from what I gather they did three things right:
1.) Immediately handling Irwin
2.) Commissioning the first independent audit (came out clean)
3.) Commissioning a SECOND independent audit specifically about Irwin business dealings (came out clean)
I sympathize with the organization. No indiscretions were found by the external auditors on Vest or any of the current leadership. Seems to me they did the right homework and should be able to move forward and get the Bible into people’s hands.
Also, they recently were added to top charity lists on Forbes and The Chronicle of Philanthropy, so I think they’ve made steps in the right direction in hiring Vest, a proven leader who (if you follow his career or ever hear one of his interviews) has a true passion for the Bible and always emphasizes Christian integrity. You can’t find anything on him, so give him a chance.
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