Corporate
Leadership Today
Gaudiani was
recently elected to the Board of Directors of the Bank of Southern Connecticut,
a new bank based in New Haven, Connecticut. BOSC, traded on the Amex ,
specializes in small business banking in the greater New Haven community. She
accepted this position because of her commitment to improved banking services
for lower income individuals and small family businesses.
Gaudiani also serves on the Board of MBIA, Inc., the
world's largest insurer of municipal bonds, where she currently chairs the
Corporate Governance Committee of the Board. MBIA was recently honored for the
best in corporate governance practices among 500 companies evaluated by
GovernanceMetrics International (GMI). Only five U.S. companies, including
MBIA, rated a 'perfect' score in the assessment.
She has completed Board service with Citizens Bank of Connecticut, and with
Southern New England Telephone Co, which was sold to SBC Communications.
Not
for Profit Leadership Today
Claire has become Chair
of the National Advisory Board for this national project to study college
students' search for meaning and purpose. The project, funded by the Templeton
Foundation, is based at the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, and
led by Sandy Astin, nationally known researcher who has specialized in the
study of academic life for the past three decades. For more information,
www.spirituality.ucla.edu.
Gaudiani has recently accepted invitations to join the Board of Directors of
three new not-for-profit organizations, reflecting her ongoing commitments to
alleviating poverty and strengthening communities. She joins the Board of the
Center on Business and Poverty and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (see
www.cobap.org
and
www.wisc.edu), the First Responder
Foundation (see
www.FirstResponderFoundation.org), and
the Consent of the Governed (see
www.ConsentOfTheGoverned.org),
dedicated to the eradication of illegal drugs in urban environments.
She currently also serves on the boards of the Henry Luce Foundation,
Worchester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), Connecticut Legal Services, and others.
Claire has served on more than 30 not-for-profit boards in her career,
including the American Council on Education, the American Association for
Higher Education, the National Collegiate Athletic Association President’s
Council, Public Radio International, and the Hazen Foundation.
Claire’s
Current Speaking and Consulting
Beginning as a
consultant for the National Endowment for the Humanities in the l970’s,
Gaudiani has worked with hundreds of for-profit, educational, and
not-for-profit organizations on management issues, strategic planning,
fundraising, and governance issues. She is currently working with several
family foundations on generational issues, and with financial services
organizations on wealthbuilding strategies for lower income Americans.
She has developed a reputation as a passionate and engaging speaker as well,
offering
commencement addresses
at many colleges and universities, and keynote addresses at conferences here
and abroad. She currently maintains an active speaking schedule throughout the
US and Europe. You will find some comments about Claire's speaking and
consulting under the "what people are saying" section of this website.
For a current schedule of Claire’s speaking engagements, click
here.
To view a brief video clip of Claire speaking about The Greater Good, click
here (
Dialup/
Broadband).
Teaching
Claire is a natural
teacher, whether in parenting classes for single moms or in a seminar for new
college presidents, or today, teaching fundraisers the lessons of the history
of philanthropy. Among her
proudest achievements are a series of
service learning courses,
combining the study of literature with community service at the undergraduate
level. Her students’ diaries
compare their lived experience working with poor children with the characters
they encounter in readings such as
The Bluest Eye and
The Invisible Man(see
Wisdom as Capital).
Claire developed these
courses while serving as president of her alma mater, Connecticut College.
Claire has captured some of her classroom experience and years of consulting on
teaching at a variety of institutions in two monogaphs: Strategies for
Development of Foreign Language and Literature Departments, and Teaching
Writing in the Foreign Language Curriculum.
College
President
Claire’s early career
as a teacher/scholar of French literature, languages, and international studies
took a definitive turn in 1988 when she was named president of her alma mater,
Connecticut College.
Her 13 year presidency was marked by
institutional growth and innovation:
a quintupling of the College endowment, 60 million dollars worth of new
buildings, an increase in minority enrollments to 13%, all culminating in a
national ranking in the top 25 liberal arts colleges driven by an innovative
curriculum and increased selectivity.
The College captured this remarkable decade in a publication entitled
A Decade of Achievement.
Her strategic leadership was recognized by the publication of a Connecticut
College case study by the Harvard School of Education, her appointment as a 50th
Anniversary Fulbright Fellow to Morocco, her receipt of ten honorary doctoral
degrees, invitations for providing
Congressional testimony
on numerous occasions, and her election in 1999 to the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Community
Developer and Engaged Citizen
During her last four
years at
Connecticut
College
, concluding in 2001, Claire also served as volunteer head of the
New London Development Corporation. This citizen action group led the fight to
revitalize the tax base of this small, poor, multi-racial coastal New England
city. An abandoned Navy research base and a waterfront brownfield were the
major economic assets. Under Claire’s leadership, NLDC attracted over 50
million dollars in state aid and a 300 million dollar private investment from
Pfizer, Inc. to build their worldwide research headquarters in downtown
New London
. (Read more about
New London
in
The Economist and
American City & County.)
Demonstrating Claire’s
commitment to social justice, NLDC also raised funds to support after school
programs for the city’s beleaguered school system, as well as homeownership and
job-readiness programs for citizens in need. (See
Moving Downtown.) While
the transformation of New London is far from complete (see the
NLDC web site), and not without
controversy and the inevitable litigation, all New London citizens can look
forward to the benefits of major property tax contributions from Pfizer and
other new investors for decades to come. (Read more about this
community development project.)
The hard work of Claire and her successors at the New London Development
Corporation keeps paying off for the City of New London, Connecticut. New
London has been the subject of two recent stories in the New York Times,
featuring the economic and cultural revitalization of the City.
Article I New York Times , August 15, 2004 Sunday Real Estate Section by C.J.
Hughes
Hughes chronicles the energized downtown scene in New London, with new
businesses, major residential rehabs, and most importantly, people on the
streets... quite a transformation from the time when Claire started the New
London Development Corporation in 1999. (
read more)
Article II New York Times - August 22, 2004 National Coast Guard Museum to be
build in New London
This article chronicles the passage on a recent bill, signed by President Bush,
establishing New London , Connecticut as the site of the planned National Guard
Museum. The Museum, already years in planning, will be located on the site of
the former Navy Base being redeveloped by the New London Development
Corporation. (
read more)
Another recent article, September 29, 2004, reports that the U.S. Supreme Court
has accepted for review in the 2005 term, a case involving the use of eminent
domain in New London, Connecticut.
This case is being appealed by the Institute for Justice, a Washington,
D.C.-based libertarian group, following the decision of the Connecticut Supreme
Court in favor of the City of New London ( and the New London Development
Corporation). The Connecticut court ruled that the use of eminent domain for an
economic redevelopment project that would provide tax benefits to all citizens
of the City was legal. (
read more)
Most importantly, although not likely to feature in a news story, is the fact
that Claire and the New London Development Corporation won and managed over 75
million dollars in State funded contracts to improve New London during the
administration of John Rowland, the now disgraced former governor. NLDC, under
Claire's leadership, managed to use taxpayer's money honestly, and complete its
work on time and on budget, while resisting the pressures of the Rowland
administration to 'go along' with their practices of favoritism and kickbacks.
Claire’s
Writings:
For a complete listing
of Claire’s writings, click on her
resume.
Claire is writing a monthly column for the on-line
Philanthropy Journal. She has been
doing profiles of less well known American philanthropists. Watch for a feature
on Claire’s work in the inaugural issue of
GIVING MAGAZINE, a new publication from
Pearson, publisher of the Economist. You may also enjoy the brief piece that
appeared in the Nov./Dec. issue of
CURRENTS, the magazine of the Council
for Advancement and Support of Education.
You can search her
writings by keyword using the search feature on the left or
by viewing these
categories.
