Joffrey Ballet President and CEO Greg Cameron will step down in December 2027, marking a 15-year tenure that brought more financial stability, the company announced Thursday.
A board search committee will select a national firm to find Cameron’s replacement, who is expected to start before the end of 2027.
Cameron, 68, said his succession plan has been in the works for three years, and that he is neither retiring nor moving on to lead another organization. But he plans to stay connected in the Chicago arts community while pursuing other interests.
“I’m energized,” he told the Sun-Times. “It’s time for me to make room for the next generation of leaders. I’ve worked in the cultural space in Chicago for 44 years, and over my tenure, I’ve seen people stay at the party too long. I didn’t want to stay at the party too long.”
Since joining the Joffrey in 2013, Cameron has brought financial stability to the organization, eliminating a budget deficit and establishing its first-ever endowment, which has grown to approximately $30 million. During his tenure, the operating budget more than doubled from $13 million to about $33 million. In 2025, the Joffrey reported nearly $40 million in revenue, making it one of the top-earning arts organizations in the city.
Cameron is also credited with strengthening Joffrey’s international reputation. He oversaw the company’s move from The Auditorium to the Lyric Opera, which has allowed for more ambitious productions, including the critically praised “Frankenstein,” in 2023 and crowdpleaser “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” last year. The company opens its 2026-2027 season on Sept. 17 with “Liliom,” which features the choreography of Milwaukee-born dancemaker John Neumeier, the longtime principal choreographer of the Hamburg Ballet.
Cameron also facilitated partnerships with leading ballet companies on programs, including several with roots in literature, such as “Anna Karenina” with The Australian Ballet, “Princess and the Pea” with Oregon Ballet Theatre, “Atonement” with Ballett Zürich and “Eugene Onegin” with San Francisco Ballet.
Cameron said the Joffrey was already on a positive artistic trajectory when he started, but he and then-board chair Zachary Lazar determined financial challenges.
“We had moments of peeling back an onion and discovering, ’This isn’t working,’” Cameron said. “We developed specific plans and righted the ship.”
Part of that strategy was getting the board more engaged in thinking beyond minimum contributions of their “time, talent and treasure,” Cameron said.
“In my life, success has never been tied to thinking about the minimum,” he said. “If our dancers came into the studio and thought, ‘What’s the minimum I can do?,’ we wouldn’t be having the success artistically at the box office. So we changed the language at the Joffrey Ballet to, ‘What is the maximum that we can do?’”
When it comes to programming, Cameron said he is most proud of growing the “Winning Works” competition, which provides emerging choreographers with opportunities to create new works with dancers from the ballet’s Grainger Academy. Cameron also supported the creation of a documentary about the initiative, “Joffrey Ballet: The Next Movement,” directed by Cam Be and produced by Kartemquin Films. It premieres Sept. 18 on PBS.
Joffrey Artistic Director Ashley Wheater said Cameron’s leadership has allowed him to achieve his creative goals, staging reimagined versions of everything from “The Nutcracker” to “Of Mice and Men.”
“Greg has really made my dreams become a reality,” Wheater said. “I think it has definitely put the company in a very unique place within America, in that we have a very unique repertoire. You can dream big, but if you can’t support those dreams, they’re not going to happen.”
That support included clearing the Joffrey’s debt, unifying the various administration departments and establishing critical partnerships with the Lyric Opera, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and other institutions, Wheater said.
“He is such a part of the cultural fabric of Chicago,” Wheater said. “And he’s charismatic. He knew exactly the right people to talk to in order to get things done. People that had never really been involved with the Joffrey suddenly became very involved. He has built incredible relationships with hundreds of people.”
Cameron strengthened the company’s international reputation by facilitating partnerships with leading ballet companies on programs, including “Eugene Onegin” with San Francisco Ballet this year. Victoria Jaiani, who played the female lead of Tatiana in the production, posed for a portrait in a rehearsal room at the Joffrey Ballet on May 26, 2026.
Arthur Maiorella/For the Sun-Times
Cameron’s other accomplishments include guiding the ballet through the COVID-19 pandemic, establishing the “Joffrey for All” commitment to accessibility and expanding dance education in Chicago Public Schools. He also supported ongoing union efforts, negotiating two five-year contracts with the American Guild of Musical Artists. He said he hopes to solidify a third five-year agreement this fall.
Under his leadership, the Joffrey has also partnered with other cultural institutions on a plan to revitalize Downtown with a so-called “Cultural Stadium” concept that would pair events and architectural features. Among those projects is Poetry Way, an activation of the alley between Joffrey Tower and the Chicago Theatre, which will launch on Oct. 17 during the Chicago Loop Alliance Arts Fest.
“I am part of a team that has accomplished all of this,” he said of his overall success at the Joffrey. “I am not the artistic director. I can’t dance. I don’t sing. I don’t paint. I don’t draw.”
Despite that, Cameron has had a passion for the arts since he was a child in Westchester. He even created a makeshift museum in his basement, charging neighborhood kids to see his grandparents’ tchotchkes from their travels around the world, as well as his pet boa constrictor. Then, he graduated to hosting theater productions.
“I was not performing,” he said. “I was printing the tickets, advertising and closing the garage door between acts.”
Cameron went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in German from Illinois State University and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Illinois. He interned for the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and built a career in arts administration and philanthropy, holding positions at the Museum Of Contemporary Art Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago and WTTW/WFMT.
Cameron said he is looking forward to spending more time with his partner and family, and may consider writing or teaching. As for the next chapter of the Joffrey, he said the organization is on solid footing, even as the arts industry faces funding deficits and rising costs, and is forced to contend with unpredictable audience attendance..
There are ample opportunities to grow the company, whether it’s adding more dancers, expanding the footprint of Grainger Academy or exploring more community partnerships, he said.
“We got so much more done than I ever dreamt I was going to be able to do,” he said. “It’s hard to leave when you love what you’re doing. But it’s better to leave when you’re at the top of your game.”