After approximately eight lifetimes of the Galapagos tortoise, Ben Moore is stepping down as managing director of the Seattle Repertory Theatre, and his successor has been announced—Jeffrey Herrmann, who's been the managing director of the Wooly Mammoth Theater in DC since 2007 and has taught in the performing arts department at American University.

He also served as the producing director of the Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, Alaska after earning his MFA in Theater Management at the Yale School of Drama.

Broadwayworld.com reports that Herrmann "leaves behind a great artistic and financial legacy, having almost doubled Woolly's size during his time here in DC, spearheading the theatre's innovative Connectivity initiative, providing leadership for Woolly's 'Free the Beast!' campaign, and purchasing the theatre's building."

A Google search for "Jeffrey Herrmann" and "controversy" (that's called reporting!) turns up nothing more than webpages addressing Wooly Mammoth's decision to go ahead and present Mike Daisey's The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, even after the infamous retraction on This American Life. (It also turns up a 2005 article about Perseverance Theatre's productions of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, an adaptation of Moby Dick with a female Ahab, and a Macbeth set in a Tlingit community.)

If you'd like to get to know Herrmann better, there's this Theater Communications Group report from 2009, about how theaters navigated the crisis of 2008, in which Herrmann is heavily featured. And Wier Harman of Town Hall, a steady-Eddie presence in Seattle's cultural world, says he's known Herrmann since grad school and thinks he'll be a great addition to Seattle's theater scene.

Which all sounds promising. Of course, the Seattle has a history of being a quick turnstile for arts administrators who come from other places: David Esbjornson at the Rep, Corey Pearlstein at ConWorks, Kate Whoriskey and Brian Colburn at Intiman, and so on. But let's not dwell on the past.

Welcome, Mr. Herrmann!