The Screen Actors Guild Foundation has appointed media marketing expert Cyd Wilson as its new executive director. Wilson, founder and president of Cyd Wilson Entertainment Marketing and long-time creative director of Time Inc’s. Style and Entertainment group of magazines, has forged philanthropic partnerships between the entertainment industry and leading corporations for more than 25 years, producing invaluable awareness and revenue for her clients and several Hollywood supported charities.
SAG Foundation president JoBeth Williams spoke for the Foundation’s Board stating, “Cyd is one of the powerhouses in the industry. She has vision, passion and a drive to create a successful merging of corporate goals with humanitarian needs. We look forward to working together to further the goals of the SAG Foundation.”
During her 20 year tenure at Time Inc., Wilson created and managed such high profile and press worthy annual events as the PEOPLE – Entertainment Industry Foundation SAG Awards Gala as well as InStyle’s Golden Globes, Grammy Fashion and L.A. Film Fest parties. A former hospital administrator, Wilson began her career in philanthropy in 1989, spending five years helping to establish the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation where she created the “A Time for Heroes” fundraiser, helping to put that organization on the map.
Of her new role, Wilson says, “My career in nonprofits began in Hollywood and coming to the SAG Foundation gives me an opportunity to return full circle and focus solely on the act of giving back to performing artists. It is at once a challenge and a privilege to take the helm of an expanding philanthropic organization that is committed to providing an unrivaled level of career-enhancing programming and emergency assistance for working performers as well as advancing the cause of children’s literacy.
Wilson succeeds nonprofit veteran Jill Seltzer who served as executive director since 2011 and leaves the Foundation ready for its next chapter.
“I’ve very much enjoyed [my time at the SAG Foundation] and taken great pride in opening a new office and building the Actors Center in New York, taking the Performers Programs on the road to actors throughout the country, increasing the amount of online programming, stewarding the first-ever million dollar grant and putting an organizational structure in place. All of these accomplishments are the basis for the SAG Foundation to flourish as the national organization that it now is,” said Seltzer. “Having achieved these goals, the timing seems right to return to the broader philanthropic agenda that has been the focus of my work in the past.”
