We have exciting news! After a rigorous search process, we are thrilled to announce that Omar Butler will be Tess Reynolds’ successor as CEO of New Door Ventures. The New Door Board of Directors unanimously voted to offer him the position, which he enthusiastically accepted, effective November 18th.
Omar is an experienced, dynamic leader with deep roots in the Bay Area communities that New Door serves and more than 20 years of professional experience holding leadership roles in youth-serving organizations. He comes to New Door Ventures from College Track, which he joined in 2007 and led its programmatic expansion into San Francisco. He briefly left the Bay Area to serve as Chief of Programs for the Harlem Educational Activities Fund in New York City but returned to College Track in 2016. Since then, he has served as the Northern California Regional Executive Director, leading programmatic, operational and fundraising efforts across four communities in Northern California – Oakland, San Francisco, East Palo Alto, and Sacramento.
We couldn’t be more excited about the future of New Door Ventures under his leadership.
Omar is a San Francisco native and a graduate of McAteer High School and California State University Long Beach. As a first-generation college graduate, he is heavily influenced by his personal journey. He is passionate about equipping youth with the tools and resources that they need to become agents of change within their communities and committed to disrupting structures and systems that foster and support inequality. Omar is an American Express Leadership Fellow at the Campaign for Black Male Achievement. He has been recognized as the KQED Local Hero and also earned the State Farm Community Achievement Award.
Omar shares:
“The opportunity to become the CEO of New Door Ventures is an opportunity of a lifetime. New Door believes ‘One Job Can Change Everything,’ and I firmly believe that. My first job through the San Francisco Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment Program definitely changed everything for me, giving me a sense of hope and possibility for a promising future, and activating the dreams and passions that continue to fuel my journey every day. My journey has now come full circle, as the opportunity to join New Door as the next CEO can be traced back to those opportunities I had as a young person growing up in public housing in San Francisco. I look forward to working with New Door’s staff, a group of passionate, committed, and talented professionals to advance the mission of connecting disconnected youth with educational and employment opportunities that will put them on a path to social and economic mobility.”
We are thrilled to have a new leader who brings such robust experience in youth development and who shares our passion for creating a world where all young people can successfully transition to independent adulthood.
Retiring CEO, Tess Reynolds, adds:
“I am so excited to pass on the New Door leadership baton to Omar. He brings a depth of understanding of youth and our communities’ needs and embodies New Door’s values of relationships, inclusion, equity and social justice. He will continue to evolve and strengthen the important work New Door is doing.”
Tess will remain on staff through the end of the year to help ensure a smooth transition and will be available to Omar on an advisory basis afterward.
Thank you for your continued support of New Door through this important transition. We look forward to an opportunity for you to get to know Omar. We are sure you will share our excitement for, and anticipation of, New Door’s next great chapter.
