Baltimore Orioles vice president and chief operating officer Joe Foss confirmed Wednesday that he is stepping down from his position after 14 years with the club. Foss has accepted a position as chief administrative officer with Erickson Retirement Communities, which is based in Catonsville.
Foss? replacement was not named before this edition?s deadline.
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“It?s an exciting and great opportunity,” Foss said. “It?s not an easy decision to leave something that you?ve enjoyed for 14 years. It?s an emotional time for me and my family.”
Foss said that he had been mulling the decision to leave the Orioles near the end of the 2006 season and began to seriously consider a change within the last two or three months. He will leave the team within the next two weeks.
Foss, 58, most recently was heavily involved in building the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, which is owned by Orioles owner Peter Angelos. Foss was a partof Angelos? acquisition team in 1993 and served as supervisor of the transition of ownership from Edward Bennett Williams.
“It?s the right time for me,” Foss said. “I?ll miss the personal relationship I had with Peter, who I worked side-by-side with for the last 14 years.”
Foss, who controlled of the day-to-day operations of the team, was instrumental in the Orioles? opposition to the Montreal Expos moving to Washington three years ago to become the Nationals. Foss took a front-and-center stance on the issue, decrying it based on the potential money that would be lost with another team moving to the mid-Atlantic region.
Foss has been an active board member of the of the Kennedy Krieger Institute, the Maryland Special Olympics, the Babe Ruth Museum and the Johns Hopkins Center for ALS Research.
He said that joining Erickson Retirement Communities was an opportunity to branch out into a burgeoning business. Erickson has 11,000 employees, publishes its own newspaper and runs its own television station.
“I?m going to try and grow the company and grow it wisely,” Foss said.
