White Oak Associates

White Oak Associates assembles planning and design teams specifically for each project. Led by White Oak’s principal planners John Jacobsen, Jeanie Stahl, and Victor Becker, and supported by White Oak’s office associates and our Leadership Task Force, White Oak teams draw on our roster of over 20 top museum professionals to orchestrate specialty design, strategic planning and operations expertise as needed.

John W. Jacobsen, White Oak’s president, was associate director of the Museum of Science in Boston in the ’80’s, leading the Theaters and Marketing Division, and he was also executive producer of their highly successful $24 million Hall Wing and Mugar Omni Theater. During Jacobsen’s tenure and under Dr. Roger Nichols’ leadership, overall Museum attendance grew from 950,000 to 2.2 million visitors per year. Since then, Mr. Jacobsen and White Oak have led strategic planning and marketing initiatives for many of America’s new science centers, history museums, children’s museums and other family learning centers. As Executive Producers, White Oak formed the Ocean Film Network to provide financing for The Living Sea, an Oscar®-nominated film in the IMAX® Hall of Fame. Mr. Jacobsen was the principal planner for new, expanding and re-invented community museums in Wichita, Des Moines, New London, Calgary, Richmond (VA), Anaheim, Rochester (NY), Hartford, Denver, Edmonton, Peoria, Ottawa and other communities. Through conference sessions and publications, Mr. Jacobsen has contributed new models for the museum and special format theater fields that respond to evolving social and economic conditions. Jacobsen’s BA and MFA are from Yale University.

Jeanie Stahl
Vice President

Jeanie Stahl, vice president, joined White Oak full time in 1989, bringing to the firm her expertise in research and finance. She has since developed White Oak’s extensive database on museums and has worked closely with White Oak’s clients to develop attendance projections and business plans that are sustainable and realistic. Her expertise in interpreting and analyzing operating performance is acknowledged in the museum field. She has been and continues to be an advisor to several museum associations in developing questions, definitions and key performance indicators for their member surveys. She also developed the key performance indicators and associated explanatory reports for the Association of Children’s Museums’ on-line Benchmarking Calculator. Working with Mr. Jacobsen, Ms. Stahl was the co-executive producer of the Oscar®-nominated giant screen film in the IMAX® Hall of Fame®, The Living Sea. Prior to joining White Oak, Ms. Stahl was head of finance at a major New England audio-visual and communications company and previously was a research analyst for an international consulting firm. Ms. Stahl is a Wellesley graduate and an accomplished musician and recording artist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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