McCormick Steps Down As Y CEO

The pandemic affected every organization in town. Among the hardest hit: the Westport Weston Family YMCA.

In the spring of 2021 — when strict rules still governed the pool, workout and class areas, gym, even the Mahackeno Outdoor Center — Anjali Rao McCormick arrived as CEO.

She had quite a resume. A Harvard graduate, with an MBA in marketing from NYU’s Stern School of Business, she’d worked for American Express and Citibank.

Most recently, she had been COO of the 4-branch Summit Area YMCA in New Jersey.

Anjali McCormick (Photo/Dan Woog)

McCormick saw the Y through its recovery from COVID. They’ve now reached the town-mandated limit on memberships. The place hums with activity 7 days a week, from early morning to night. It’s as vital a part of the community as it ever was in its downtown digs.

Yesterday, the Y board announced that McCormick will step down on August 30. CFO Glen Hale will serve as interim CEO.

“It was an honor to play a small role in this amazing organization’s century-long service to the Westport and Weston community,” McCormick says.

She thanked the “brilliant staff … amazing members and generous donors” for their work for the Y, and support of her. She also cited the Y board.

Last year, the Y celebrated its 100th anniversary, with a fall gala.

The Y was founded by Edward T. Bedford. More than 50 years earlier, he’d been a teenager standing outside the Westport Hotel — a wooden building on the corner of State Street (the Post Road) and Main Street — watching men play pool. He could not go inside, “on account of the saloon.”

Decades later — now a wealthy man, as a broker of lubricating oils for railroads, an executive who helped chemist Robert Chesebrough sell his new product, Vaseline, and a director of Standard Oil — he spent $150,000 providing a “place for boys and young men to congregate.”

It was the perfect location: the Westport Hotel. It was the same spot, in the heart of town, where half a century before he’d been denied entrance.

The Y left downtown in 2013. Today, the Tudor style building is Anthropologie.

1923 was a momentous year in local history. Two other institutions founded that year are also still flourishing: The Westport Rotary Club, and Westport Garden Club.

The Y Board is creating a search committee for the new CEO. For questions about the position, email info@ceoinformationwestportwestony.org.

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