The New Hanover Community Endowment announced today William Buster is resigning from his position as president and chief executive officer.
The endowment’s Board of Directors accepted his resignation and appointed Executive Vice President Lakesha McDay as an interim leader while the board searches for a new CEO.
Buster led the endowment through its first two rounds of funding after starting the job more than 2 years ago. Under his leadership, the endowment has bestowed $34 million in direct contributions to local nonprofits, with $20 million more to be dispersed in the county in coming years.
Buster issued a brief statement through the Endowment but did not give a reason for his departure.
"It has been a privilege to help take this organization from a vision of the board to a functioning organization poised to create change. I have been honored to work alongside this community and team in doing so. I believe the work I led set the foundation for significant change within New Hanover County. I am proud of the path we set and look forward to seeing the endowment fulfill its promise to the community," Buster said.
WHQR contacted several Endowment board members directly and all deferred comment to Chair Bill Cameron, who told WHQR through a spokesperson that he would not be making additional comments beyond those in the press release.
“William helped lead the endowment through two rounds of community impact investments that led to $34 million in direct contributions to more than 140 nonprofits within our community and the commitment for an additional $20 million in funds that will be dispersed into New Hanover County beyond 2024. We are grateful for his leadership, and he laid the foundation for success during his time at the endowment. We wish him well as he seeks new endeavors. We are totally focused on finding our new CEO, who will also be part of making transformational change within New Hanover County," Cameron wrote in the release.
The Endowment was established from the sale of the county-owned New Hanover Regional Medical Center to Novant Health in 2020. From its sale, the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners invested nearly $1.3 billion to form the Endowment to benefit the community.
The organization is set to give away $60 million or more annually in the coming years.
Kelly Kenoyer: So Ben, we got a press release today that says New Hanover Community Endowment CEO William Buster has resigned from his position. And I think it’s easy to say it was a shock, because the entire newsroom gasped when you shared the news.
Benjamin Schachtman: On the one hand, yes, it was a shock that it happened right now, just as the Endowment is really ramping up its grant making. On the other hand, we’ve heard rumblings for over a year about friction between the county, the endowment, and Buster and his staff.
KK: But there’s been limited on-the-record conversation about this. So, walk us through what we know.
Related: Deep Dive: The New Hanover Community Endowment's uneven path to 'transformational change'
BS: OK, so, the community endowment was created during the sale process of New Hanover Regional Medical Center to Novant. $1.25 billion from that sale went into the Endowment – which was set up to have some independence from the county, but also to hew pretty closely to the county’s strategic plan.
KK: And you’ve reported on some of that tension. County manager Chris Coudriet actually reached out to William Buster at one point and asked the Endowment to update their website’s ‘about us’ page to make that more clear.
BS: That, from my reporting, seemed like a clear symptom of a deeper disconnect.
KK: Yeah. This had to do in part with comments Buster, and former endowment board Hannah Gage, had made about the endowment money being locked up inside New Hanover County — even though the hospital had been funded by patients from many other less affluent, more rural counties.
BS: Exactly. And those chickens came home to roost for Gage last year when she and Dr. Virginia Adams were replaced by former Republican county commissioners Pat Kusek and Woody White. That was a decision made by the New Hanover County Commissioners. There was some public outcry from the public — in part because the Endowment was supposed to, by design, be set apart from politics. And given the party-line vote by GOP commissioners that led to this, many felt this was highly political. White declined to comment at the time, but Coudriet told us it was philosophical, not political — that because White and Kusek were basically there in the room as commissioners during the hospital sale when the Endowment was dreamed up, they would be better stewards.
KK: This also caught the attention of Attorney General Josh Stein’s office — which was concerned that Adams, the county’s only black appointee to the endowment, had been removed.
BS: Although Stein didn’t take any action.
KK: Beyond that, there was also some tension around communication between the Endowment and the county.
BS: Definitely. For example, at one point, Buster had announced the Endowment was going to shift from one grant cycle every year to two — but then walked that back. Some county leaders were caught off guard by this and, though it wasn’t a deal-breaker, it definitely highlighted the need, from the county’s perspective, for better communication. And then there was the latest Endowment grant cycle — which was conspicuously lacking when it came to homelessness and affordable housing. This was more about communication with the public in general — but, as we saw at the community meeting after the grants were announced — it definitely didn’t always reflect well on Buster.
KK: And it’s notable that housing advocates were angry after they didn’t get funding, but calmed down with promises from Buster and other staff that housing is next on the docket. With Buster now gone, I’ve already gotten calls from housing advocates who have lost all faith in the endowment’s willingness to fund homeless services and affordable housing.
Yeah, during that meeting — we saw some things that made it clear that the board and Buster weren’t always on the same page. I recall that, during their Q&A session, someone asked whether the rejected grant applicants could be made public to create some transparency — and opportunities for collaboration from people who were working in the same areas. Buster immediately said yes, and Board Chair Bill Cameron immediately walked that back and said no.
BS: It’s not the only time the board has walked back Buster’s comments. He has a kind of Silicon Valley view on endowment funding: move fast and break things — including things like the traditional grant application process. At the end of the day, he wanted to take big swings to make transformational change in New Hanover County. But what, exactly, that means seems to have been a source of discord.
Now, here, I’ve had a lot of off-the-record conversations, and heard a lot of speculation. A lot of that reporting just isn’t ready for primetime, so to speak. What I can say is that, in many areas, not just affordable housing, the Endowment struggled to articulate its vision. For some of the more conservative voices I’ve heard — the vision ought to really just be an extension of the county’s strategic plan. For others, it was supposed to be a revolutionary philanthropic organization that broke with institutional routine and orthodox approaches to social issues.
KK: Do you think that’s why Buster left?
BS: I can’t say for sure. The Endowment has been very tight-lipped, aside from a generic statement from Buster and Board Chair Bill Cameron. But I can say in my conversations with Buster he didn’t like someone who wanted to play an auxiliary role to the county.
KK: And with Buster now gone, it seems like the board can find a replacement who does want to follow the county’s paradigm, if that’s their will.
BS: But, in the meantime, it’s hard to really say what’s next.
KK: Well Ben, thanks for laying what you can for us.
BS: You’re welcome.
