LOS ANGELES.- The Board of Trustees of The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) has announced its officers for 2004-2005, all elected during the board's annual meeting on September 23. MOCA Director Jeremy Strick also announced today the appointment of Thom Rhue as the new director of development.

Clifford J. Einstein was newly elected as chair. A MOCA trustee since 1994, Einstein is chairman of Dailey & Associates, an award winning international advertising firm based in Los Angeles, which he helped establish 36 years ago as its original creative director. A major contemporary art collector, he currently serves on the Executive Committee and recently was co-chair of the museum’s successful 25th anniversary campaign. Part of a renowned family of writers and performers (his father was a radio dialect comedian, Parkyakarkus; his brother, Bob, a.k.a. "Super Dave Osborne," is a two-time Emmy winner; and brother Albert Brooks is an actor and comedian), he is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, ASCAP, and the Directors Guild of America.

Willem Mesdag was reelected as president. Senior Advisor to Marvin Davis of Davis Companies, and a retired partner of Goldman, Sachs & Co., Mesdag has been a MOCA trustee for four years and a member of the Drawings Committee since 2000. He currently serves on the boards of the Pacific Council on International Policy, Scripps College, the Harvard-Westlake School, the Society of Fellows of the Aspen Institute, and Northwestern University College of Arts and Sciences.

Dallas Price-Van Breda was reelected to serve as vice chair. Price-Van Breda is active in the arts community and also a board member of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Additionally, Susan Bay-Nimoy was newly elected as vice chair. Since 1999, Bay-Nimoy has been active in her role on the MOCA Board of Trustees, currently serving as chair of the Governance and Nominating Committee and as a member of the Acquisition and Collection Committee and the Executive Committee. She recently co-chaired the 25th anniversary campaign with Einstein.

Effective October 11, 2004, Thom Rhue will join MOCA as director of development and supervise all fundraising activities. He comes to MOCA from the University of Southern California (USC) Law School, where he has served as Managing Director of Development since 2002.
In making the announcement, Strick stated, "We are excited to welcome an exceptionally distinguished development professional to MOCA. I look forward to working with Thom as he takes MOCA’s fundraising activities to a new level. His strengths in this area make him an invaluable asset to MOCA."

Rhue brings an eclectic background and experience to MOCA. A Stanford Ph.D., he worked for fifteen years as an applied sociology research consultant before joining the USC Law School Development Department in 1998. His previous experience also includes serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Budget and Planning, and as Acting Assistant Professor of Sociology and Director of Undergraduate Studies Program at Stanford University.

His participation in community activities includes serving as Chair of “Do the Write Thing Challenge,” an anti-violence competitive essay-writing program for middle school students in the Los Angeles area, and membership in the Crenshaw Chamber of Commerce.