Santa Barbara, CA. (August 10, 2021) – The Santa Barbara Symphony has elected three new members to join its Board of Directors: Nancy Golden, Palmer G. Jackson, Jr., and Simon Knight. These appointments reflect the shared commitment of the entire organization to expand its community impact and deliver on the Symphony’s mission to bring joy, engagement, and connection through symphonic music.
Golden returns to serve on the Symphony’s board of directors. Originally from Southport, CT, Golden graduated from Russell Sage College with a degree in English. She worked in London for three years for an American publishing consultant and then held various management positions at Time Inc. for 21 years.
In 1987, Golden and her husband moved to San Francisco, at which point she established a fundraising consulting business, from which she retired in 2019. She worked with a wide range of San Francisco Bay area clients including the California Symphony, CAL Performances, Merola Opera Program, and the Philharmonic Baroque Orchestra. She served on the Opera Santa Barbara board for many years and as board chair from 2016-2018. She previously served on the Santa Barbara Symphony board from 2014 until 2016, and she is a member of the League of American Orchestras.
Golden has driven for Meals on Wheels since 1998 and encourages students from K-4th grade to read in the summer through the Santa Barbara Public Library programs. She is also a member of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club and the Santa Barbara Club.
Jackson is a fourth-generation Santa Barbara native. A graduate of Yale University and UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, he has spent his career in consumer marketing, high technology, nonprofit management, and fundraising.
Jackson currently serves as Executive Chairman of the Granada Theatre. He also serves as Managing Trustee of the Ann Jackson Family Foundation. As an active member of the Santa Barbara business community, Jackson helped found American Riviera Bank in 2005 and served as a director until 2009.
He has also spent countless hours volunteering and leading nonprofit boards in Santa Barbara. He spent 11 years as a Trustee of the Lobero Theater Foundation and served as Chairman from 2007 to 2010. He has served as a Trustee of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History since 2006, as Chair from 2011 to 2013, chaired its successful $20 million capital campaign, and was designated a Life Trustee in 2018. Jackson has also served on the board of the Santa Barbara Foundation Roundtable since 2016, as chairman of the board from 2018 to 2020, and chaired the organization’s annual summit, The Partnership For Excellence Conference, since 2016. Jackson joined the board of the Granada Theatre in 2014, served as Chairman from 2017 to 2018, and Executive Chairman beginning in 2019. He is a former Trustee of the Santa Barbara Foundation, Cate School, Crane Country Day School, and the Santa Barbara Boys & Girls Club.
Knight is the Founder and President of Satya Analytics, a provider of innovative marketing and psychographic analytics to multiple industries and economic development organizations. Satya Analytics is gaining attention nationwide for its ability to understand the ‘why’ behind buying decisions. The Satya Foundation, an offshoot of Satya created to support organizations that cannot afford the high costs of big data, also provides analytical information and insights to local non-profits such as Women’s Economic Ventures.
Knight is a graduate of the Warwick Business School, with an MBA focusing on data science. He has over 30 years of global information technology experience including working as US president of Jensen and Partners International, building ground-breaking software development tools. Later, as global CIO of IKON Office Solutions, he implemented enterprise Business Intelligence and data analytics tools, led international operational reorganization initiatives, and was responsible for strategic relationships with major corporate accounts in the IT industry.
In his musical life, Knight studied with Kerry Camden, the bassoon professor at the Royal College of Music, and currently plays in amateur orchestras and chamber groups. He is a board member of the Santa Barbara Chamber Music Society and a co-founder of the Garage Chamber Orchestra, a group created during the pandemic to provide performance opportunities for local musicians while fundraising for non-profits.
The Santa Barbara Symphony was founded in 1953 on the belief that a special city deserves a special orchestra, the Santa Barbara Symphony is consistently lauded for its innovation, artistic excellence, commitment to delivering dynamic music education programs, and is widely recognized as one of the region’s premier cultural institutions. Under the artistic leadership of charismatic Israeli conductor and Santa Barbara resident, Nir Kabaretti, since his appointment in 2006, the Symphony is one of the few orchestras in the nation who found ways to bring the orchestra together for a full season of live broadcasts. Its mission of bringing joy, engagement, and connection to the community was amplified during the pandemic when it was needed the most. As the only music education program tied to a Symphony orchestra in the region, Its award-winning programs serve more than 10,000 students throughout Santa Barbara County each year.
