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Senior Staff

The future has never looked brighter. The current leadership has plans to guide the company through another exciting season in our new home — the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center.

Chief Financial Officer
Adam Cox

The Dallas Opera’s Chief Financial Officer, Adam W. Cox, is a highly-regarded problem solver with a dynamic range of professional experience that encompasses both for profit and not-for-profit companies and projects, from coast to coast.

Specializing in senior-level finance and operations management (including strategic planning, analysis and development), this detail-oriented executive most recently served as Vice President, Finance & Analytics for Sheet Music Plus, the world’s largest online sheet music retail operation, based in Emeryville, California, where he was responsible for directing the finance and accounting functions. Mr. Cox came to Sheet Music Plus from his position as Director, Service Delivery for San Francisco-based HOK Architects, an architecture and engineering design firm (third largest in the U.S.) delivering solutions across the globe.

It was during his tenure at San Francisco Opera (where he worked closely with Dallas Opera General Director and CEO Keith Cerny) that Mr. Cox rose to the position of company Controller, managing all accounting functions and audits for the second largest opera company in North America. Among his many accomplishments, Mr. Cox led the business process and financial data conversion efforts associated with the Tessitura system implementation.

Prior to immersing himself in the opera world, this University of Alabama graduate worked as a successful Operations Consultant for Bank of America Corporation in Charlotte, North Carolina where he became an expert in Six Sigma and operational risk mitigation.

Director of Production
John Toia

For three decades prior to his involvement with TDO, John J. Toia served on the stage management teams of dozens of notable productions including King John for the New York Shakespeare Festival; Tosca for Opera Carolina; The Night of the Iguana for Tennessee Williams Theatre; Carnal Knowledge for Pasadena Playhouse; All My Sons for the Philadelphia Drama Guild; Moonlight and Valentino for Stages Repertory Theatre in Houston; Oklahoma! for North Carolina Theatre and Girl of the Golden West for Asolo State Theatre in Sarasota, Florida.

Mr. Toia’s extensive theatrical management experience ranges from managing a four-nation tour for a 110-member orchestra to serving as Production Supervisor for two years on a major, new production of West Side Story.

He served as Director of Stage Management (1989-2009) and Assistant Dean to the School of Design and Production (1994-2009) at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. There, he collaborated on the creation of a new graduate program in Performing Arts Management, conducted feasibility studies and raised the $100,000 necessary to launch the program. He also spent three years as Production Manager of Piedmont Opera Theatre where Mr. Toia supervised production for a host of operas including La traviata, La bohème, Un ballo in maschera, Tosca, Rigoletto and Otello, the work that launched Dallas Opera performances in the Winspear.

Mr. Toia did his undergraduate studies in Theater and Directing at Eastern Michigan University and Wayne State University, where he also pursued graduate studies in Theatrical Management and was ultimately honored with a Hilberry Graduate Fellowship.

Chief Marketing Officer / Director of Community Outreach
Jennifer Schuder

Jennifer Schuder joined the Senior Staff of the Dallas Opera prior to the 2004/2005 Season to lead a multi-functional professional staff responsible for Direct Marketing, Community Outreach, Competitive Intelligence, Interactive Development, Public and Media Relations, Customer Retention and Ticket Sales. Ms. Schuder has developed and executed acquisition and messaging strategies, in addition to formulating an interactive plan to take ticket sales online and create a robust CRM/email program. She has also redesigned and re-launched TDO’s education programs to accommodate double the number of students, introduce a new touring opera program, and provide fresh opportunities for music and drama students considering careers in the arts.

Prior to joining the Dallas Opera, Ms. Schuder served as Director of Product Marketing for true.com, a Dallas-based online dating site. While at true.com, she oversaw all development and marketing of the firm’s psychological interactive tests and all derivatives of those tests, including a roommate-matching application piloted with Harvard Graduate School.

Ms. Schuder has also held the position of Director of Marketing Communications for ZixCorp, an international healthcare technology company specializing in protecting sensitive patient information through email technology. While at Zix, Ms. Schuder led such initiatives as HealthyEmail, a national awareness program designed to educate the public on proper email protocols when communicating with physicians. The program was recognized by members of Congress and implemented in thousands of physician offices nationwide.

Additionally, Ms. Schuder has extensive agency experience in public relations, advertising and interactive marketing/development. She has served as account leads for such companies as HBO, ExxonMobil, Galderma Laboratories, The Associates and Lennox, Inc. Ms. Schuder is a graduate of Texas Tech University, receiving both her BA in M.I.S and her MS in Mass Communications from the institution.