McCormick Moves Forward

07-13-2017

On July 1, 2017, Frank M. Yamada, who served as President of McCormick Theological Seminary for six years, will become the new executive director of the Association of Theological Schools.

Now, as it has done for almost two centuries, McCormick moves forward.

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As announced in January, Frank will be succeeded by David H. Crawford, who has accepted the unanimously approved offer of the board of trustees to serve as interim president during the upcoming 2017-2018 academic year. David is a very familiar face around McCormick where he previously served as a member of the board of trustees, chaired the property and facilities committee, and served on the executive committee prior to his joining the staff as Chief Financial Officer at the height of the financial crisis in December 2008. He currently serves as McCormick’s Executive Vice President, Chief Business Officer.

“David has been a leader at McCormick from the day he joined the board in 2004. We are blessed to have the continuity of his leadership as we engage our community in a discussion of how we can build on the progress we have made over the last six years,” said board chair designate, Dr. Melinda Krei. “This is a time of discernment, but not a time to stand still,” added Krei.  

Outgoing board chair, Rev. Dr. Deborah Block, said, “This is an opportune time to involve the McCormick community in a process of active discernment about our future direction. We want to engage the opportunities and challenges before us with thoughtfulness, imagination, and prayer. The concept of an ‘interim’ leader is certainly very familiar to all Presbyterians, and to those of us at McCormick. Over the last thirty years, McCormick has been very capably led by two interim presidents: Jack Stotts and Dan Little. It is our good fortune that David has agreed to follow in this great tradition. As everyone who knows him would agree, David will hit the ground running, and McCormick will move forward as we envision our next generation of mission and leadership,” Block added.

David received his undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his juris doctor degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1986.

He is an ordained elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA), and has served as member of the board of trustees at both Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago and at McCormick. He practiced law at Chicago’s Kirkland & Ellis, served as senior vice president, administration and general counsel for property operations at Equity Office Properties Trust, and chief executive officer of Allied Riser Communications Corporation, a company that he co-founded and took public in 1999. He has served as McCormick’s executive vice president and chief business officer since December 2008.

David and his wife, Elizabeth, have two daughters, Grace and Katherine, and reside in Glencoe, Illinois.