Familiar Face Named RiverCenter Director

After a months' long search for a new director, the Red Bank RiverCenter Board of Trustees found it didn't have far to look — no farther than the desk of James Scavone, director of the operations for the downtown alliance.

Scavone, chosen out of 60 candidates, has been on the RiverCenter job since the end of 2010, he told Patch Tuesday evening. He was one of a short list of 10 interviewed to take over the job that was Nancy Adams' until her abrupt departure at the end of March. The search for a new director began in April.
 
"I love Red Bank," Scavone said. "So, when Harriet Cook left the director of operations job two-and-a-half years ago, the chance to continue my career in non-profit management in a town I love seemed like the perfect fit. I'm even more thrilled that, a couple of years later, I have been chosen as director of RiverCenter."

And Dorothy Whitehouse, chairwoman of the board's Executive Director Search Committee said that while the choice ultimately the obvious perfect one, the search committee took its job seriously.

"We spent many hours looking at the role of the Executive Director, reviewing resumes and conducting interviews," she said in a released statement. "In the end, our candidate was standing right in front of us." 
Scavone came to RiverCenter with 25 years of experience in non-profit management, the last eight of which were with Cerebral Palsy of Monmouth and Ocean Counties.

As RiverCenter's director of operations, he oversaw day-to-day operations of Red Bank's special improvement district creating policies, procedures and programs, updating technology and developing relationships with property owners, business owners, government officials and volunteers.

In addition to the feeling that "James stood out as a spark" among all candidates, Whitehouse said that he "filled the role with grace and class and made the job look easy" and the positive working relationships he has already forged with officials, business leaders and property owners cinched the director's appointment.

What's on Scavone's agenda for the future?  "I'm looking forward to working with the board on longterm goals and figuring out how to implement them most effectively," said Scavone, who has lived in Red Bank since 2002. "There are a lot of great things in place now, so I think we can really focus on the big picture. I'm very passionate about this town, so it truly is a labor of love."