KANEKO has hired David Thompson as its new executive director. Originally from Bellevue and a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Thompson has lived and worked in Chicago for the last 25 years.  Since 2009, Thompson has worked as a consultant focused on helping non-profit organizations take an integrated approach to strategic planning, program development, and communications.  Previously Thompson was the Director of Development & Strategic Initiatives at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Chicago-Kent College of Law.

After completing his undergraduate degree at UNL and his master’s degree at Oxford University on a Marshall Scholarship, Thompson completed his Ph.D. in comparative literature at the University of Chicago, with a focus on English and French culture of the early modernist period, and his J.D. at Northwestern University, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Northwestern University Law Review.

KANEKO is a 501(c)(3), non-profit located in three historical warehouses in the Old Market at 1111 Jones Street, Omaha, NE. Established in 1998 by international artist Jun Kaneko and his wife Ree, KANEKO is dedicated to exploring the elusive nature of creativity in the areas of Design, Performance, Ideas, and Innovation, encouraging people to explore and experience the creative process that is essential to all human activity.

For more information, visit thekaneko.org.