New York or Los Angeles, we could understand. But it seemed odd, to say the least, when General Director and CEO Keith Cerny announced he was leaving The Dallas Opera after more than seven years to lead the opera company in … Calgary, Canada. (You know, the place that’s best-known for its big wild-west rodeo called the Calgary Stampede.) In a Dec. 15 press release, the much-smaller-than-Dallas’ opera company in the province of Alberta said that Cerny would become general director and CEO there in mid-January, but would “not be available for interviews” until then. (Nor did Cerny deign to speak with The Dallas Morning News when it reported his, er, surprising resignation the same day.) The abrupt and unexplained career decision aside, Cerny by all accounts has been a stellar CEO here, using his experience as a business consultant for Accenture and McKinsey & Co. to turn the once-struggling Dallas Opera around. In this in-depth story for D CEO magazine, Thomas Korosec explained in detail how he did it.
