ASPCA hires president from within

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  May/June 2013:

NEW YORK,  N.Y.––The American SPCA on May 2,  2013 promoted 12-year staff member Matthew Bershadker to succeed Ed Sayres as president,  effective June 1.   Bershadker,  formerly senior vice president of anti-cruelty programs,  and before that,  vice president of development, appears to be the first ASPCA staff member ever to ascend directly to the presidency.  Only one other ASPCA president, Sydney H. Coleman,  who served from 1930 until his death in 1951,  is known to have worked for the ASPCA at any time before becoming president.  Coleman between stints with the ASPCA headed the American Humane Association. Sayres,  64,  announced in June 2012 that he would retire upon selection of a successor.  Sayres led the ASPCA for 10 years,  after previously heading the San Francisco SPCA,  PetSmart Charities,  the AHA animal protection division,  and St. Hubert’s Giralda,  in New Jersey,  founded by Geraldine Dodge Rockefeller in 1939 with his father Edwin Sayres Sr.,  as first shelter director.  Now called St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center,  the organization today operates two shelters and the ASPCA Behavioral Rehabilitation Center,  which Bershadker was “instrumental” in creating,  according to the ASPCA announcement of Bershadker’s promotion.