Upheaval at Heinz Endowments raises eyebrows

Turmoil is mounting at The Heinz Endowments, the region's second-biggest foundation, with the resignation of its president and reports that the Heinz family's environmental center in Washington is on the brink of closure, members of the nonprofit community say. Robert Vagt on Monday announced his resignation as president of The Heinz Endowments — the fourth key executive to leave this year. Jack Kime, vice president of finance and administration, retired in January, and Caren Glotfelty, senior director of the environmental program at Heinz, and Douglas L. Root, communications director, left in August. Shake-ups of that magnitude raise eyebrows in the foundation community. Sources said this summer that Andre Heinz, son of the late Sen. H. John Heinz and a member of the Endowments board, is exerting control and engineered the departures of Glotfelty and Root when his mother, Teresa Heinz Kerry, became ill. Sources told the Tribune-Review that the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment soon will close...more