Position: President and chief executive officer
Organization: Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center
What it does: The Jewish Community Center is a Whitefish Bay-based nonprofit social service agency.
Career: Shapiro has served as president and chief executive officer of the JCC since 2009. Prior to that, he was associate executive director of the organization. He also previously was director of Perlstein Resort and Conference Center in Lake Delton and assistant director of JCC Chicago Camp Chi. He previously owned Cool Runnings, a company that handled wholesale produce transportation around North America.
The challenge
In January, Shapiro happened to be with Jewish community center executive directors from across the country at a conference in Tampa, Florida as news broke that his was among 18 centers that had received bomb threats.
“It was one of the most difficult days of my life to be that far away from my family as it was going through this.”
The threat proved not to be an isolated incident. Between January and March, the organization continued to receive multiple threats.
The resolution
When the initial threat happened, Shapiro decided not to micromanage.
“One of the great moments of my leadership was that the agency managed the first of these disruptions without me even here. I had no choice but to get out of the way.”
In the coming weeks, the organization partnered with law enforcement as it conducted an investigation into the threats. Shapiro wrestled with the idea of sharing too much information with families, fearing they might withdraw their kids from school or decide not to come back to the center. But ultimately, his leadership team decided to be transparent, holding town hall meetings and sharing everything they knew with members.
“We had to learn to trust our customers. We took a risk by being transparent.”
The takeaway
Shapiro learned the value of letting his team members do what they do best, from his chief marketing officer steering membership communication, to the JCC’s early childhood teachers shielding students from anxiety created by the threats.
One of the more profound pieces of feedback Shapiro received was from the mother of a young student following the threat.
“She said, ‘My daughter came home today as innocent as when I dropped her off.’ The staff didn’t panic, even if they might have felt it.”
Shapiro also learned the importance of letting the “experts be the experts” – in this case, letting law enforcement conduct an investigation without interference.
“Sometimes CEOs think they’re experts on things that they are not experts on. This was one of those stark reminders that, to truly lead, you have to remember where you’re an expert and where to partner with someone who’s much smarter than you.”
