AUGUST 2017 10 | FRONTDOORSMEDIA .COM Photo Credit: Phoenix Symphony

AUGUST 2017 FRONTDOORSMEDIA .COM | 11 Phoenix was once edging toward the day the music died. Just seven years ago, Phoenix Symphony was a week away from bankruptcy, spending more than it could take in. The musicians had taken a 19 percent pay cut (and had been promised a restoration payment, or snapback, the following summer). Meantime, Jim Ward, a former president of LucasArts where he was responsible for the business growth of the “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” franchises, had just finished an unsuccessful campaign to represent Arizona’s 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Ward was called in the Symphony to, as he said, “kick the tires" for a couple days to get a feel for what was going on there. Those two days turned into six years for Ward. The tires long ago kicked, the Symphony’s president and CEO restored a cherished Phoenix institution from the inside out. {by mike saucier} COVER STORY