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Who

Susan Baker is the chair of the New York City Opera.

Backstory

Baker initially wanted to be an English teacher and studied literature at Wellesley. She ended up switching to finance and attended Harvard Business School before taking a job in investment banking. Baker spent 17 years working for Goldman Sachs, Kidder Peabody, and Lehman Brothers, and joined City Opera's board in 1999. In 2003, she devoted herself to the organization full-time when she was named president following the resignation of Irwin Schneiderman. Today she leads the city's second largest opera company and works closely with NYCO's board, which includes Carl Icahn, Joseph Perella, and Daisy Soros, sister-in-law of financier George Soros.

Of note

Baker's major challenge at City Opera is to try to raise the institution's profile at a time when the audience for classical music is shrinking. She's also had to compete with Peter Gelb's efforts to modernize the more staid Metropolitan Opera, which has been wading into turf that City Opera has traditionally had to itself. During her first few years on the job, Baker spent quite a bit of time trying to find the company a new home. At one point, there was talk of moving to a new location at the new World Trade Center site. In 2007, she announced that the company would remain in its current location at Lincoln Center and would renovate the existing facility.

Baker's biggest defeat, however, arrived in 2008. After securing renowned Belgian opera director Gerard Mortier as the company's general manager and artistic director in 2007, Mortier abruptly resigned in November 2008 after the City Opera slashed the budget for 2009-10 season.

Personal

Baker, who describes herself as "terribly shy," met her husband Michael Lynch when they both worked at Goldman Sachs. (He still works there.) They live with three cats, two dogs, and a pet dove in an art-filled apartment on Sutton Place.