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NAPLES — Steve Akin, a former executive with Fidelity Investments and Sprint, among other entities, has been named chairman of Gulfshore Playhouse's Next Stage Capital campaign.
The campaign is centered on Gulfshore Playhouse's new headquarters and theatre facility project, a $45 million planned development in downtown Naples. Plans for the new Gulfshore Playhouse complex include a 50,000-square-foot building on two acres and a 400-seat main-stage proscenium theater with sloped stadium seating. A separate studio theater will offer seating for more than 150 patrons and there will also be a grand airy lobby, bar, gardens and an exclusive patron lounge. (Gulfshore's current home, the Norris Community Center on Eighth Avenue South, has some 200 seats.)
Akin is currently on the Gulfshore Playhouse board of directors, according to a statement. He was also chairman and remains a trustee emeritus of the Boston Lyric Opera, the largest and longest-operating full-staged opera in New England. Akin also served on the board of the New England Conservatory and was president of the Kansas City Lyric Opera and Mansfield Ohio Symphony.
On the business side, Akin was president of Fidelity Personal Investments, the retail, mutual fund, and brokerage division of Fidelity Investments, the release states. Prior to Fidelity, Akin was president of Sprint's long distance consumer services group and a senior vice president of Sprint's national customer operations unit. He also held top posts at Colt, a London-based Pan-European telecommunications company, including president and CEO.
“We truly appreciate Steve's experience, dedication, generosity and wisdom,” says Kristen Coury, Gulfshore Playhouse Producing Artistic Director. “His leadership will bring the new Gulfshore Playhouse to life.”
Final architectural renderings for the project will be unveiled March 26 at the Bubbles, Baubles and Broadway Gala at The Ritz-Carlton, Naples. For more on the project, see the feature story in the latest Business Observer.
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