Getty Trust CEO: Expect staff reductions

Date: March 6, 2008

To: All Getty Staff

From: Jim Wood

Subject: J. Paul Getty Trust Budget Process

I want to provide you with a further update on the work going on across the Getty in connection with the development of next year's budget. As I've reported in earlier all staff memos, coming on the heels of the strategic planning process that involved our leadership team and the Board of Trustees, for the last several weeks we have been working to develop a long term strategic approach to budgeting that will ensure a successful future for the Getty Trust and its four programs.

You all know that the Getty has only a single primary source of funding, and while the income derived from our endowment is significant, and with careful management will continue to increase, the Getty's leadership team has the major responsibility of making sure over the longterm that growing expenses do not overtake our ability to fund programming priorities that are key to achieving the Getty's mission. These include collecting and exhibiting works of art, education, research and scholarship, conservation and philanthropy, here and around the world, as well as meeting the significant costs associated with maintaining our two campuses for the public.

As this year's budgeting process moves forward, each Trust department and each of the Getty's programs will review their operations to prioritize activities and search for ways to improve the way they work. The ultimate goal of this process is to make sure all areas that are central to the Getty's mission are efficient in their operation and appropriately funded now and in the years ahead.

Everyone should assume that we will find things that need to change. It is premature to say right now what those changes might be, and what impact they might have on our current levels of funding and staffing, but there will be an impact. Indeed, there will likely be some reduction in our staffing levels, and some initiatives may be cancelled or changed as we work to prioritize the Getty's many activities. We will be a stronger institution in the future by making decisions now to do a bit less even better.

I know there has been discussion about this effort throughout the Getty. The process underway is complicated, it will require a great deal of work, and I know that you are likely to have questions along the way. My objective is to provide you with timely information as the process moves forward. Dealing with uncertainty is difficult, so we are making every effort to move this process ahead as quickly as possible and announce results before the end of June.