Smith Center CFO to Retire After Shaping the Center Throughout Its First Decade

When The Smith Center’s leadership team asked John Burnett to consider becoming chief financial officer nine years ago, they knew how to entice him.

“One said to me, ‘what’s the worst thing that could happen? (We) fly you out for a weekend to Las Vegas? There are worse ways to spend a weekend,’” Burnett recalls.

But once he got a taste of working for Southern Nevada’s world-class performing arts center, “I wanted to be a part of this important building and organization,” he says.

Burnett then proceeded to play an instrumental role in shaping The Smith Center during its first decade.

Now set to retire in March, Burnett looks back on many significant accomplishments, including: more than doubling the center’s endowment fund; retiring the center’s debt early; creating reserve funds for special projects and capital needs; and helping the center survive the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic.

“I didn’t accomplish any of those things alone. I was part of a great team, from the board to staff to ushers and volunteers,” Burnett says. “It is humbling to know that many of the things that I have been a part of and helped create are the seeds that The Smith Center will reap benefits from for years, even decades, to come.”

Laying The Groundwork

As Burnett joined The Smith Center soon after its opening, he helped the new nonprofit find its footing.

“As a new organization with a lot of staff who had never worked at a performing arts center, the toughest part was just establishing policies and procedures to run the organization like a business that would be around for a long time,” he says.

Fortunately, he drew from 20 years of financial and management experience in the nonprofit and performing arts fields. He applied this to ensure the center had the “right tools to function like a state-of-the-art organization,” he says.  

Burnett believes The Smith Center’s success has made a large-scale impact in Southern Nevada.

“I feel like The Smith Center proved that the local community can support a major institution,” he says. “I believe that our overwhelming success opened the doors even wider to professional sports and other Valley institutions.”

Making it Through the Pandemic

The Smith Center faced tremendous challenges during the pandemic, which led to the center’s closure for over a year. During this time, the center cancelled and rescheduled 400 shows, with a revenue loss of over $40 million.

Through this difficult period, Burnett guided The Smith Center team through furloughs, layoffs and rehires of much of the center’s staff. He also worked to secure $15 million in government support.

“The last two years have been very taxing and hard on the emotions,” Burnett says. “As a leader, I feel a lot of responsibility for all our staff, so having to furlough and lay off Smith Center family was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in my career.”

Dealing with the constant changes of COVID policies proved “very trying,” he added, and pursuing government funding proved fraught with bureaucratic roadblocks.

To overcome these, he helped craft a letter to Congress and attended meetings with New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who sponsored the Save Our Stages Act providing COVID relief funding for the entertainment industry.

“The government funding was an arduous journey,” he says. “I served on several committees that ensured our voices as an industry were heard.”

A Great Source of Pride

Burnett considers one of his greatest accomplishments at The Smith Center as founding the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access) Committee.

The committee embraces cultural diversity, by establishing an environment where all continuously strive to understand and accept one another.

“The IDEA committee has already instituted concrete, actionable policies and procedures to ensure The Smith Center remains aware of our responsibility to bring arts and cultural opportunities to our entire community,” Burnett says.

Moving On

Now retiring to his home state of Texas, Burnett feels honored to have joined The Smith Center team so soon after its inception.

“The things I will miss the most about The Smith Center and Las Vegas are the staff and personal relationships I have so enjoyed, the performances in these wonderful halls, and the spirit, vivacity and welcomeness of Las Vegas,” he says.