In an announcement that comes as no surprise (in a good way) and well before the end of her expected interim year, ILTA has confirmed that Joy Heath Rush will assume the position of chief executive officer (CEO) effective immediately. Rush has served as the interim CEO since October 2018.
“When we brought Joy on as interim CEO, it was with the hope that ILTA would become her new home. In her first four months, Joy has demonstrated the skills, leadership and spirit required to lead our dynamic organization,” said Angela Dowd, ILTA board president.
Rush was brought in as interim CEO after a period of deep instability at ILTA and her temporary status was designed to give the organisation a get out of jail free card if the appointment didn’t work out. While four months is not enough time to get under skin of the issues that have long dogged members: from the organisational structure to vendor participation, Rush has shown herself infinitely capable of being a unifying force, and has spent her first four months listening to all of ILTA’s constituents and working with the board, volunteer leaders, business partners and professional staff to stabilize operations, reinvigorate relationships, and design programs to implement ILTA’s strategic goals.
Dowd said: “With Joy’s leadership and contributions from our volunteer leaders, members, professional staff and business partners, ILTA’s future is brighter than ever.”
We agree, but as well as doing a great job of healing the organisation, Rush must help ILTA recognise and act on the need to more closely align itself to the in-house community – it’s biggest competition for the vendor dollar is now CLOC (the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium), which under new president, Google’s head of legal operations Mary O’Carroll, is actively looking at how to involve law firms in the organisation.
