LEADERSHIP
Apollo Executive Team
Jonelle Procope
President & CEO
Ms. Procope joined the Apollo Board of Trustees in 1999 and in 2003 became its President and Chief Executive Officer. During her tenure as President, she has led a team of 50 full-time employees and an executive team responsible for all operating and strategic functions of the legendary Theater. During this period, she led the successful Apollo Rising Capital Campaign to restore the legendary theater, focused on the development of the Apollo Theater Board of Directors, and attracted and engaged a first-rate executive team and staff insuring the long-term stability of the organization. She has overseen the Apollo’s transformation into a vibrant not-for-profit performing arts organization by increasing its base of support, expanding its education and community programs and creating large-scale artistic initiatives.
Prior to assuming her role as President and CEO of the Apollo, Ms. Procope held a variety of senior positions within the fields of entertainment law and media-related corporate affairs and management. She began her legal career as a corporate associate attorney at the law firm of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom.
Kamilah Forbes
Executive Producer
Kamilah Forbes is an esteemed award-winning director and producer for theater and television. She currently serves as the Executive Producer at the World-Famous Apollo Theater in Harlem. In her diverse body of work, Kamilah is noted for having a strong commitment to the development of creative works by, for, and about the Hip-Hop generation.
This Howard University alum has won awards for both directing and producing, including the 2019 NBTF Larry Leon Hamlin Producer Award and an NAACP Image Award.
Kamilah’s directing credits include Between the World and Me, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, written by Lynn Nottage Blood Quilt written by Katori Hall, and Sunset Baby written by Dominique Morrisseau. She has also worked closely with Kenny Leon on The Wiz Live, A Raisin in the Sun, Mountaintop, and Stick Fly on Broadway. She has produced several works for television, most notably the seventh season of the Tony Award and Peabody Award-winning series Russell Simmons presents Def Poetry on HBO.
Kamilah’s most recent directorial work, Between the World and Me aired as a special event on HBO and HBO Max in November 2020 to critical acclaim. In addition to her work at the Apollo Theater, Kamilah is set to direct the Broadway premiere of Soul Train alongside Questlove, Dominique Morrisseau, and Camille A. Brown.
Ms. Forbes is a powerful leader, widely known for her ability and commitment to continue to highlight the ideas, complexities, and work of artists in the hip-hop community and beyond.
Aldo Scrofani
Chief Operating Officer
Mr. Scrofani is a 40 year veteran of the live entertainment business. He began his tenure in the theatre in 1977 at Jujamcyn Theatres Corporation where he served a 13 year term as the Executive Vice President. In 1990, he joined Columbia Artists Theatricals (CAT). During his 18 years at CAT, Mr. Scrofani served as the Chief Operating Officer. He also held the position of Executive Vice president and COO of Columbia Artists Management, Inc. (CAT’s parent company) and was a senior member of the Board of Directors. In 2009, he founded Theatre Management Associates, Inc. (TMA) and its subsidiary, Moonglow Productions LLC. Mr. Scrofani has produced, co-produced or been associated with over 100 Broadway, National, and/or international productions including Gone With The Wind, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Chita Rivera The Dancer’s Life, Lovemusik, STOMP, Stomp Out Loud, Tap Dogs, Grand Hotel, City of Angels, Gypsy, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Big River, Bring In ‘Da Noise, Bring In ‘Da Funk, Jelly’s Last Jam, Elaine Stritch At Liberty, Sunset Boulevard, The Royal National Theatre production of Carousel, The World Goes Round, M. Butterfly, Into the Woods, The Piano Lesson, My One and Only, and Dracula.
He has garnered multiple Tony® Nominations and Tony® Awards as well as Drama Desk, Obie, The Pioneer in the Theatre Award in 2011, and The Elliot Norton Award for outstanding production for Carousel. Mr. Scrofani serves as an Adjunct Professor at New York University’s Stern School Of Business as well the Instructor of the highly praised program “Strategic Steps For Growth” (SS4G) sponsored by the Mayor’s Office Of Media & Entertainment in partnership with New York University.
Donna Lieberman
Chief Development Officer
Donna Lieberman is responsible for raising more than $10 million annually to support the organization’s artistic, education and community programs. She also directs the organization’s special campaigns, which have raised tens of millions of dollars for large scale artistic programs, facility enhancements and cash reserve. As Director of Strategic Gifts, New York for Feeding America, she worked with City Harvest and the Food Bank for New York City to raise $1M+ gifts for the collaborative Campaign for a Hunger-Free America, a multi-year, $500M effort to change the history of hunger in America. Lieberman has held senior level positions at The New York Botanical Garden, the Museum of the City of New York and the School of American Ballet among others. She was Director of the Campaign for New York City Ballet, raising more than $58 million for the Ballet’s first endowment campaign. Lieberman served as the founding Managing Director for MAKOR, a center for Jewish life and culture on Manhattan’s upper west side; and as Managing Director of the WPA Theatre.