From 1985 to 1999, Brown served as president and CEO of the Art Center College of Design, in Pasadena, California. Brown is credited with benefiting the college in a variety of important ways during his 14-year tenure there, including broad expansions of academic programs, facilities and curricula. Brown's success as a fundraiser led to the establishment of several new scholarship funds, as well as a significant increase in the size of the college's capital endowment.[1]
Previously, Brown served as president of the Oxbow School, a coeducational, interdisciplinary boarding school in Napa, California.[2]
Prior to Art Center, Brown served as vice president of corporate communications for Champion International Corporation, a Fortune 500 paper company that was later acquired by International Paper. Before joining Champion, Brown held a number of communications and graphic design positions in New York, and also served as a freelance writer and designer.
From 2005 to 2016, Brown served as executive director of Descanso Gardens, a public botanical garden located in La Cañada Flintridge, California. Noted for overseeing "more than a decade of progressive development" at Descanso,[3] Brown also served as a member of the Descanso Gardens Board of Trustees until his retirement in late 2016.