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Englert CEO Sean Fredericks is moving on

By Gigi Wood

They don’t know their destination yet, but they’ll be leaving soon.

Sean Fredericks, CEO of the Englert Theatre, and McKinze Cook, director of member services for the Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce, are joining the Peace Corps and leaving Iowa City. Each has been named to the Corridor Business Journal’s Forty Under 40.

The couple, which married in September, expects to know by next month where they will be headed.

“It will hopefully be sometime in early 2010 when they let us know,” Fredericks says. “They don’t give you a ton of notice, but we could find out a little more any day, but what we do know is it will be a little bit before April.”

The couple is looking forward to their new adventure, he says.

“It’s a long-term process when you apply to the corps, it’s not something you can do today or tomorrow, it’s something we applied for a year ago,” he says. “You don’t know if you’re going to be accepted, so you have to be patient and you have to be flexible, and then we found out we were going, obviously it’s exciting. In a way, it’s kind of a bummer because I really like my job and I really like the Englert and I like Iowa City.”

They decided to take the opportunity while they can.

“There’s a whole other world out there and there never would be a good time to go if you sit around and wait for it, because if you’re part of a good organization like the Englert, there will always be something exciting, there will always be something you’re building for and there would never be a good time to leave,” Fredericks says. “But you have to make a personal decision about what you want to do in your life, and Peace Corps is something that Iowa City can’t offer. So the opportunity to go overseas for two years in a developing country, it’s a potentially life-changing event.”

A search for a new Englert CEO will begin in the coming months.

Meanwhile, the Englert is seeking the completion of funding for a $10,000 marketing grant from the Iowa Department of Economic Development to finish a campaign to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the theater building. The campaign will allow people to send in their stories about the Englert to share on a web site.

“It’s something we’ve started and are looking to continue,” Fredericks says.