At the same moment Jim Nicholson became chairman of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra board in December 2003, he was greeted by stunning news: Almost without notice, the DSO in a single year had rung up a deficit of $1.78 million. The orchestra, which had opened its new Max M. Fisher Music Center only weeks before, was suddenly faced with a cumulative deficit of just more than $2 million. Cash was short, and the DSO found itself staring at the distinct possibility of a shutdown.
That's when Nicholson made what folks who know him call a typical Jim Nicholson move: He went straight to the heart of the problem. He induced the DSO musicians to accept furlough weeks without pay, then imposed the same requirement on all members of the administrative staff. Those cuts combined with the elimination of 15 staff positions and stringent cost reductions immediately saved $4 million on the DSO's budget of $28 million.
The ship was righted in 2004 and put back on a fiscally sound course. The crisis was over. The DSO had been rescued from the brink of calamity.
Looking back on those perilous days, Nicholson denies any heroics on his part. "Those were actions that anybody would take in the same circumstances," he said. "And I had a lot of people in there pitching with me -- Peter Cummings, Al Glancy, Lloyd Reuss, Clyde Wu." All are members of the DSO board. "Everybody came to the party: the board, the staff, the musicians."
But a longtime friend said the DSO was lucky indeed to have Nicholson at crunch time. "Jim is a strong manager with great instincts, the kind of businessman who deals with issues forthrightly," said Norman Bobins, president and CEO of LaSalle Bank in Chicago. "He's never been one to shy away from a problem."
Nicholson and Bobins became pals as fellow graduate students at the University of Chicago's School of Business, where Nicholson earned an MBA in 1967. He also received a BA in economics from Stanford University in 1965 and a Master of Science in economics from the London School of Business in 1968.
Nicholson is president and CEO of PVS Chemicals Inc. in Detroit. Before joining PVS in 1972, he worked for the First National Bank of Chicago in London and Dublin.
A man of many business and community parts, Nicholson also serves on the board of the Handleman Co., and he's a past chairman (as well as current board member) of the Wayne County Airport Authority, Detroit Public Television, the McGregor Fund, the Michigan Chapter of the Nature Conservancy and the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit
He is chairman of Metro Detroit's Tourism Economic Development Council and serves on the executive committee of Detroit Renaissance.
"Jim's a very generous guy who serves on more boards and writes more checks than anybody I know," said David Brandon, chairman and CEO of Domino's Pizza. "He's an absolute class act. He's all about integrity and ethics both in business and in his personal life. Jim puts his reputation in front of everything he does."
Born in Detroit, Nicholson and his wife, Ann, live in Grosse Pointe Farms. They have four sons, James, Timothy, David and John.
Sustaining his far-flung commitments, he said, "is only possible when you're surrounded by very good people like those at PVS -- people to do the work I'm not doing."
Nicholson's heroic efforts on behalf of the DSO have continued. He and his wife recently joined two anonymous donors to create a $1.5 million challenge grant to help the orchestra meet expenses over the next three years. He plays down that gesture too.
"My real contribution was to find Anne Parsons," the DSO's new executive director. "She has made a huge difference."
Yet Parsons insists the DSO's real leader is its remarkable board chairman. "Leadership is required more than ever when times are tough," she said. "Jim's ability to be practical and honest brings people to the table. He's such an intelligent and warm and open person. He has demonstrated his belief that this art form is indispensable. He has led by example."
Lawrence B. Johnson
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