DERBY – TEAM, Inc., the community action agency which does everything from running Meals on Wheels to helping people with home heating payments, announced a new leader Monday (Feb. 2).
Timothy Makris, of Woodbury, will officially start as the organization’s new chief executive officer Feb. 9.
“I am honored to step into this role, and I look forward to working with the staff and our neighbors to ensure they continue to get the support they need to move us forward into the next decade,” Makris said.
Makris is one of the founders of Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit organization focused on school safety, gun violence prevention and legislative advocacy. His child was a Sandy Hook student during the attack on the school, but was not physically hurt, according to The Newtown Bee.
Makris left Sandy Hook Promise in 2020, according to the Bee.
According to a press release from TEAM, under Makris’ leadership, Sandy Hook Promise grew into a national movement, reaching more than 15 million young people across 15,000 plus schools and advocating for legislation, while growing to a combined $18 million annual operating budget.
Makris is also founder of Woodstock Partners, a consulting firm where he advised nonprofits, startups, and other organizations on strategic planning, fundraising and program development.
Makris’ previously worked at Thule, and Procter & Gamble.
Makris replaces TEAM’s former CEO David Morgan who left in January after a decade at the helm to take a job with the state as deputy commissioner of Connecticut’s Office of Early Childhood.
TEAM is the Valley’s private, nonprofit human services agency that serves economically disadvantaged and vulnerable, at-risk people in the Valley towns, as well as Bethany, Milford, Orange and Woodbridge. Services and programs include early childhood programs, food and Christmas toy collections, job training, diaper distribution and more.
“My entire life I’ve always given back to my community, and when I saw this opportunity with TEAM, it spoke to me,” Makris said. “I made up my mind that I wanted to get back into nonprofit leadership. From the second I read the job description and learned about the work that David Morgan and TEAM had been doing, I knew this is where I want to be.”
Morgan said TEAM will be in good hands.
“Tim is awesome and I am really excited to see him take the helm at TEAM,” Morgan said. “He’s going to take the work we have done at TEAM and take it to the next level.”
Makris said his first priority on the job is to simply listen.
“I want to listen to the staff, the partners and the community and I want to understand what’s working and how we can best support what we’re doing each day,” Makris said. “It’s about building upon what David (Morgan) and TEAM put in place and looking to the future to see what’s coming at us and how we can be ready for changes over the next decade to continue to meet the needs of the community.”
Married to his wife, Annie, Makris is the father of two grown children – a son who works as a chef in Providence, R.I., and a daughter who works in Connecticut as a veterinary technician.
Makris said he’s ready to get to work.
“I am eager to work alongside this exceptional team, learn from community partners and bring my nonprofit and private-sector experience to help ensure TEAM continues to deliver meaningful, mission-driven impact for the hundreds of thousands of people who call this region of Connecticut home,” Makris said.
Brian Fonck, chairman of TEAM’s board of directors, said in a press release that Makris was chosen out of a pool of more than 150 applicants. The board worked with a national search firm, the Moran Company, that specializes in hiring for nonprofits to find its new leader.
“Tim emerged as the clear choice to lead TEAM into its next chapter,” Fonck said.
Fonck also thanked TEAM’s chief financial officer, Wendy Rodorigo, for acting as interim CEO during the search process and transition.The annual starting salary for the CEO position was publicly advertised as $160,000 based on education and experience, according to the job posting on the Moran Company’s website.