Newfields finds new CEO in Field Museum manager – Indianapolis Business Journal

For the second time in three years, Newfields hired a new director to close a controversial chapter in the history of the art museum and gardens.

Le Monte Booker, chief financial officer of Chicago’s Field Museum, was announced in August as Colette Pierce Burnette’s successor in the role of CEO and president of Newfields.

Burnette’s tenure at Newfields, a 152-acre campus that includes the Indianapolis Museum of Art, began in August 2022 and ended in November 2023 with her abrupt and unexplained departure.

She was hired in the wake of a race-related controversy that led to the resignation of CEO Charles Venable in 2021. Venable left after more than 85 Newfields employees and affiliates signed a letter calling for his resignation in response to a job posting that referenced the company traditional core audience of the “Museum of White Art” and at the same time try to attract guests
all backgrounds.

Burnette became the first black executive and the first woman hired for the position at the institution founded in 1883.

Newfields provided no explanation for Burnette’s exit, citing its policy not to discuss the details of internal employment matters.

Six board members resigned in the weeks before and after the announcement of Burnette’s exit.

Sean Huddleston, president of Martin University, was one of six members of Newfields’ board of trustees who resigned. A Martin spokesperson told IBJ in December 2023 that Huddleston had left the Newfields board in response to Burnette’s departure.

“Given the current climate, her departure represents an unfortunate setback to the progress of our community,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.

Burnette joined the Martin University board of directors in January.

Booker, a graduate of DePaul University in Chicago who earned an MBA from DeVry University’s Keller Graduate School of Management, was scheduled to begin his job at Newfields in late October.•

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