El Tour de Tucson

The operators of El Tour de Tucson paid off a bill to Pima County and plans to hold the race this year.

 A.E. Araiza / Arizona Daily Star

The operator of El Tour de Tucson has hired a retired corporate executive to help secure a stable future for the popular annual cycling race.

Charlene Grabowski, 62, is the new CEO of the Perimeter Bicycling Association of America. The local nonprofit has staged El Tour for decades but incurred six-figure financial losses in recent years.

She replaces former CEO and El Tour founder Richard DeBernardis, 74, who stepped down earlier this year as Perimeter’s financial troubles mounted.

The organization, which faced a lawsuit threat from Pima County earlier this year over an unpaid $180,000 bill for traffic control, made good on the debt and is raising money to put on the race again this fall.

Grabowski was a vice president from 2016 to 2018 at GE Healthcare, a multibillion-dollar business unit of General Electric Co. that manufactures diagnostic equipment and supplies. She held several other management positions and spent 30 years with the firm.

She also is a registered radiologic technologist and recently became an executive leadership consultant in Tucson after retiring from GE. In that role, she focused on enhancing the performance of for-profit and nonprofit organizations.

An online resume describes the Pittsburgh native as having “a passion for people and organizational development.”

Tucson attorney Pat Lopez, the chairman of Perimeter’s board, called Grabowski, who is not a cyclist, “a great fit” for El Tour because of her extensive leadership experience in the health field “which is consistent with El Tour’s goals of promoting healthy lifestyles.”

Lopez said the board gave “significant consideration” to hiring a cyclist as the new CEO but ultimately decided it was “not a requirement.” The board interviewed a half-dozen other candidates before making its final pick, he said.

Lopez did not release Grabowski’s salary and benefits package and said it was too soon to do so.

“Her salary and benefits are tied to performance, so we won’t know for five months,” he said.

In a news release, Grabowski said she was excited to be working with El Tour and Perimeter.

“This is an important part of Tucson’s identity, one that brings together cyclists, the community and out-of-town guests,” she said.

Grabowski also serves as chair of the board for the American Heart Association Southern Arizona and is an organizational coach and consultant for El Grupo, a Tucson nonprofit that promotes youth cycling.

El Tour has raised tens of millions of dollars for charity since it began in 1983.

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Contact reporter Carol Ann Alaimo at 573-4138 or calaimo@tucson.com. On Twitter: @AZStarConsumer