Dallas Symphony Orchestra announces fourth annual C-Suite Christmas

Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Concert to be Broadcast on Bloomberg Media in December 2022

Celebrating the Partnership between Business and Arts and the Transformative
Role of Music for the Dallas Community

Funds Raised at the Event Benefit the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s Education and Community Programs

DALLAS, TX (May 10, 2022) – The Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) announced today the fourth annual A Holly Jolly Celebration: C-Suite Christmas corporate fundraising event, an event and concert that celebrates the partnership between business and the arts. C-Suite Christmas provides meaningful support for the DSO’s educational and community outreach programs. Prominent business leaders from across North Texas will join the DSO on the stage at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, playing artistic roles from conductor to orchestra member to narrator.

2022 C-Suite Christmas Featured Executives include:

  • Jorge Baldor – Founder, Mercado 369 and Latino Center for Leadership Development
  • Anne Chow – CEO, AT&T Business
  • Cynthia “Cynt” Marshall – CEO, Dallas Mavericks
  • Brad Ramsey – President & GM, WFAA and Senior Vice President, TEGNA, Inc.

C-Suite Christmas benefits the Dallas Symphony’s Southern Dallas Residency, Kim Noltemy Young Musicians and Young Strings programs. The Kim Noltemy Young Musicians program, launched in summer 2019, provides free instruments and instruction to students in Southern Dallas in grades 1-5 and has served more than 700 students since its founding. This broad-based initiative is inspired by the El Sistema program, which uses music to further social equity and to nurture the child and his or her entire community. Young Strings, a core DSO education program since 1992, brings free lessons and deeper musical instruction to underrepresented communities in Dallas.

At the event, top sponsors will be able to meet donors and other DFW-business leaders for business development and networking opportunities at an exclusive pre-concert cast reception. Post-concert, attendees will be entertained by live music and an elevated food and beverage experience. Corporate supporters will be treated to a one-of-a-kind client entertainment experience and be able to cheer on a group of Dallas’s most-respected leaders while enjoying the sounds of the holiday season.

“We are thrilled to continue this holiday business tradition here at the Meyerson in December,” said Kim Noltemy, Ross Perot President & CEO of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. “The DSO is proud to celebrate the partnership between Dallas’s vibrant arts scene and the dynamic business community while raising funds for the DSO’s education and community programs. We hope many North Texas businesses will join us on December 7.”

Sponsorship packages include a reserved group of tickets, invitations to an exclusive private cast party to the event and program book recognition. Sponsorships start at $2,500, and individual tickets are $500 each for premium seating and $200 each for General Admission seating. To become a sponsor or learn more about the event, contact Sarah Whitling, Director of Institutional Giving at s.whitling@dalsym.com. To purchase tickets, visit www.dallassymphony.org/c-suite-christmas

A broadcast program of A Holly Jolly Christmas: C-Suite Christmas will be produced to air across the multi-platforms of Bloomberg Media. The 2020 and 2021 C-Suite Christmas programs aired globally throughout the Bloomberg channels, reaching over a million viewers around the world each year.

2022 Featured Executives include:

JORGE BALDOR Jorge Baldor was born in Havana, Cuba, and immigrated to the United States with his family at age six.  His entrepreneurial spirit and relentless energy has resulted in a number of projects and organizations aimed at empowering others and preparing the next generation of leaders, particularly within the Latino community both locally and internationally.

Local youth leadership and educational organizations he has supported include LaRondalla Music school, Puede Network’s Boys and Girls Soccer and Boxing, Girl Scouts of North Texas, education programming of the World Affairs Council of Dallas-Ft. Worth, individual educational grants under his Hatuey Foundation and After8toEducate, a national model for addressing youth homelessness in High Schools and endowment of the Santos Rodriguez Scholarship Fund at the Embry Human Rights Program, SMU.

His international support includes for the democracy building Esquipulas Foundation in Guatemala and the Vicente Fox Presidential Library educational programs in Mexico. 

Additional support for leadership and cultural programs includes Latino Center for Leadership Development (seven alumni elected officials) and cultural initiatives including a major sponsorship of the Dallas Museum of Art exhibit Mexico 1900-1950: Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Jose Clemente Orozco and the Avant-Garde (second highest-attended exhibition in DMA history), Latino Arts Project (pop-up museum), Mercado369 (art, jewelry and artisan pieces representing the culture of Latin America) and Afro-Mexican Celebration: A Shared Cultural Journey, bringing art, music and dance from the remote Costa Chica region of Mexico to the Meyerson Symphony Center for Black History Month 2020. Most recently Jorge Baldor has curated Yanga: Journeys to Freedom – a historic exhibition presented by Latino Arts Project and hosted by the African American Museum of Dallas.

Baldor’s civic engagement work includes chairman ofAfter8toEducate and membership on the boards of the Dallas Regional Chamber, Parkland Foundation, Social Venture Partners, SMU Dedman College Executive Board, SMU Meadows School of the Arts Executive Board, Dallas Mavericks Advisory Council and Dallas Symphony Orchestra. He is immediate past chair of Dallas Housing Solutions of North Texas and World Affairs Council of Dallas-Fort Worth. Baldor has been recognized by Southern Methodist University with their Distinguished Hispanic Alumni Award, Dallas Historical Society with Excellence in Community Service, Dallas Morning News’s Texan of the Year Finalist, Girls Scouts of North Texas as a Man Enough to be a Girl Scout Award, Dallas Morning News Points Person and as a D CEO’s Nonprofit and Corporate Citizenship Awards Finalist. Internationally, he has received the Orden al Mérito Ciudadano presented by Central America Integration System (SICA) for the contribution of the well-being for Central Americans living in the United States and the Ohtli Award, the highest award given by government of Mexico for promoting Mexican Culture presented to individual living outside of Mexico. Jorge Baldor is a graduate of Southern Methodist University with a Bachelor of Arts in History.

ANNE CHOW Anne was appointed Chief Executive Officer of AT&T Business in September 2019. She’s responsible for a $35B operating unit which serves nearly 2.5 million business customers around the world, providing them with communications solutions to enable and transform their businesses. She is the first woman to hold this position and first woman of color CEO in AT&T’s 140+ year history. Recently, she announced her upcoming retirement after more than 32 years of service.

Prior to being named CEO of AT&T Business, Anne was President – National Business, where she led over 12,000 business professionals supporting 95 percent of AT&T’s business customers nationwide. Across all market segments, she oversaw customer experience, management of direct and indirect sales channels, the B2B Sales Development Program, call center support, and DIRECTV for Business. Throughout her career she has held leadership positions across product management, marketing, sales, strategy and planning, customer service and operations, as well as network engineering. She has been a driving agent of positive change, progress and transformation as evidenced by her tremendous impact to her customers, partners, people and communities.

As a founding member of AT&T University’s governing board, Anne actively supports the company’s leadership development imperative over the decades. She’s also involved in many of AT&T’s Employee Groups worldwide and serves as the executive sponsor for AT&T’s Women of Business Employee Network and the Asia Pacific Women’s Organization. She also championed AT&T’s Women of Color Connect Program while also actively serving on the company’s Senior Executive Diversity Council and Corporate Social Responsibility Executive Council. Widely recognized for building inclusive, high performing cultures, Anne coaches, mentors and inspires thousands of readers through her internal blog, which has been voted “best blog” across the company for the past 9 years. Most recently, Anne was named a 2022 LinkedIn Top Voice for Gender Equity. 

She currently serves as Lead Director on the Board of the Directors of Franklin Covey Co (NYSE: FC). Anne is a member of the Dallas Mavericks Advisory Council (D-MAC), the Committee of 100, the President’s Advisory Board at Georgia Tech, and the Business and Community Advisory Council for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. She is the co-author of the best-selling book, “The Leader’s Guide to Unconscious Bias: How to Reframe Bias, Cultivate Connection, and Create High-Performing Teams”.

Her trailblazing leadership and many contributions to business as well as the community are widely recognized. A few of Anne’s awards and accolades include the Gold Stevie Award as Female Executive of the Year – Business Services, Asian American Business Development Council Lifetime Achievement Pinnacle Award, Woman of the Year in Technology by the National Diversity Council, Light Reading’s Most Inspiring Woman in Communications, the National Organization for Women’s Woman of Power & Influence, Forbes 2021 CEO Next List, and Fortune’s 2020 and 2021 Most Powerful Women in Business.

Anne holds a Master of Business Administration with distinction from The Johnson School at Cornell University and a Bachelor of Science degree and Master of Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell. She is also a graduate of the Pre-College Division of the Juilliard School of Music. She lives in the Dallas/Fort Worth area with her husband, two daughters, and their rescued Australian Shepherd.

CYNT MARSHALL Cynt Marshall has been a dynamic force for inclusion and diversity within the Mavericks organization and over a 36-year career at AT&T. When Cynt was hired as new the CEO of the Mavs in March 2018, she set her sights on a culture transformation. Her vision was for the Mavericks organization to become the NBA standard for inclusion and diversity, and brought transparency, trust and her values-based leadership style that evolved the company culture in her first 100 days.\

Cynt’s notoriety began many years ago as a young Officer at AT&T and grew exponentially when she served as Senior Vice President – Human Resources & Chief Diversity Officer at AT&T. There she was responsible for identifying and developing leaders, aligning employees with the company’s vision and priorities, overseeing major business unit HR support, performance development, employee engagement, skills transformation initiatives, EEO and Affirmative Action.

Widely recognized for her visionary leadership and ability to get things done Cynt is the recipient of several honors and awards. In March 2021, Forbes named Cynt one of 15 of the world’s most inspiring female leaders. Cynt received the 2020 Girl Scouts of America Lifetime Achievement award and was touted as one of Adweek’s 30 Most Powerful Women in Sports. In 2019, Cynt was honored with the Women of Power Legacy Award by Black Enterprise and was the recipient of the National ATHENA® Leadership Program Award. In 2017, Cynt was honored by The Network Journal as one of the 25 Most Influential Women in Business and was honored with the ATHENA® Leadership Program Award by the Dallas Regional Chamber. In March 2020 and several times prior, Cynt was selected as one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Corporate America” by Black Enterprise magazine and named to Ebony magazine’s 2016 “Power 100” list. 

Cynt graduated from the University of California-Berkeley with degrees in Business Administration and Human Resources Management and holds four honorary Doctorate degrees. She has chaired a variety of non-profit boards and is currently on the board of Dallas CASA, Dallas Regional Chamber, Texas Women’s Foundation, Texas 2036, T.D. Jakes Foundation, and a member of the Executive Leadership Council (ELC). She is also on the Board of Directors of BGSF Staffing, JELD-WEN, and Blinkcns, Inc.

The fourth of six children, Cynt grew up in Richmond, California, and lives in the Dallas area. She and her husband, Kenneth Marshall, have four adult children. 

BRAD RAMSEY Brad Ramsey is a people-first leader and proven operating executive, responsible for 1,700 team members across 16 U.S. media markets, and with oversight of annual revenue totaling $900M+. He was named president and general manager of WFAA in January 2018, overseeing day-to-day operation of the Dallas-Fort Worth ABC affiliate, which serves more than seven million people monthly across thirty-two North Texas counties. Brad added the title of senior vice president for TEGNA, Inc. (NYSE: TGNA), WFAA’s parent company, in June 2019 and in that role he is responsible for all operations – including people, content development, revenue generation, finance, technology, and compliance – of some of the most storied local media outlets in America, including KHOU (CBS) Houston, KENS (CBS) San Antonio, KVUE (ABC) Austin, KING (NBC) Seattle, KPNX (NBC) Phoenix, and WTHR (NBC) Indianapolis.

Brad is in his second stint with TEGNA after serving as vice president of sales for the company’s 62 local media outlets across the U.S., and serving as president and general manager of the ABC affiliate in Norfolk, VA. In between roles at TEGNA, Brad was vice president of global sales at Boats.com, where he led the transformation of an international sales force serving customers in 106 countries. Since Brad arrived at WFAA in January 2018 the team has received eight of the most prestigious national awards in broadcast journalism, including the 2021 duPont-Columbia Award and the 2020 Scripps Howard Award, both for Verify Road Trip: Climate Truth; the 2019 Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism; the National Press Photographers Association Award for Large-Market Station of the Year in 2018, 2019, and 2021, and National Edward R. Murrow Awards in 2018 (Investigative Reporting) and 2019 (News Documentary). WFAA is one of three finalists for the National Association of Broadcasters 2022 Service to America Award, based on the team’s ongoing commitment to adoption awareness.

As a dual graduate of Virginia Tech, Brad holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies and an MBA from the Pamplin College of Business, and in 2021 he graduated from the Stanford Executive Program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is a member of the board of governors and on the executive committee of the ABC Television Affiliates Association, and a board director of the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, Broadway Dallas, and the Children’s Medical Center (Dallas) Foundation. Brad is also a past member of Virginia Tech’s MBA Advisory Board and was an inaugural member of Nielsen Media Measurement’s “Anytime / Anywhere” advisory board. He lives in Dallas with his wife Chris and sons Alex and Brady, who attend Jesuit Dallas and St. Rita Catholic School, respectively.

ABOUT THE DALLAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra, under the leadership of Music Director Fabio Luisi, presents world-class orchestral music at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, one of the world’s top-rated concert halls. As the largest performing arts organization in the Southwest, the DSO is committed to inspiring the broadest possible audience with distinctive classical programs, inventive pops concerts and innovative multi-media presentations. In fulfilling its commitment to the community, the orchestra reaches more than 243,000 adults and children annually through performances, educational programs and community outreach initiatives. During the pandemic, the Dallas Symphony was one of a few major U.S. orchestras to present socially distanced concerts with live audiences throughout the 2020/21 Season. Furthermore, the orchestra has offered more than 200 outdoor chamber concerts in neighborhoods throughout the Metroplex since the summer.

The DSO continued online music lessons to more than 200 students as part of its Young Strings and Young Musicians programs and increased its online dissemination of concerts through a newly designed website and on social media. The DSO has a tradition dating back to 1900 and is a cornerstone of the unique, 118-acre Arts District in Downtown Dallas that is home to multiple performing arts venues, museums and parks – the largest district of its kind in the nation. The DSO is supported, in part, by funds from the Office of Arts & Culture, City of Dallas.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Denise McGovern | Vice President of Communications | d.mcgovern@dalsym.com | 214.718.7094

Sidney Hopkins | Communications & Media Manger | s.hopkins@dalsym.com | 214.871.4063