Cathy E. Minehan Named New Dean of Simmons College School of Management

Former President of Federal Reserve Bank of Boston to Begin August 1

BOSTON, April 12, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A recognized business and financial expert who led the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston for 13 years as President and CEO, Cathy E. Minehan has been named the new Dean of the Simmons College School of Management, the nation's first MBA program focused on women. Minehan will begin her tenure at Simmons August 1.

The appointment was announced to the Simmons community today, by Simmons President Helen Drinan. As Dean, Minehan will serve as chief academic and administrative manager of the School of Management, with responsibilities that will include: working with faculty and administrators to define and articulate distinctive academic programs; serving as a compelling spokesperson for the school, the College, and for the mission of training women for positions of power and principled leadership; recruiting and retaining excellent faculty; and creating strategic partnerships on a local, national, and global scale. Minehan will be one of five academic deans at Simmons College.

"I am very impressed by Cathy's extensive record of leadership and accomplishment," said President Drinan. "I believe that she will serve the School of Management and Simmons well, both in the academic world and beyond."

Minehan served 39 years with the Federal Reserve System, most recently as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Boston Bank, and a member of the Federal Open Market Committee. She is an expert in financial and economic policy setting, which comprise some of the key responsibilities of the Federal Reserve System. Since leaving the Federal Reserve, Minehan has been chair of the Massachusetts Governor's Council of Economic Advisors, and on a number of corporate and non-profit boards, which include serving as chair of the Massachusetts General Hospital board; and as a board member of Becton Dickenson and Co., VISA, MITRE, and the MassMutual Life Insurance Company. She also is a member of the board of the investment management company of MIT, Partners Health Care System, and a trustee of the University of Rochester.

"Cathy Minehan embodies the very best kind of leadership — wise, calm, decisive and with a vision of service that embraces the whole community. As a pioneering woman leader at the Federal Reserve and in her many other roles, she has directly mentored many young women and inspired many more. Her appointment as Dean of the School of Management of Simmons College is wonderful news for Simmons, for Boston, and for generations of women leaders to come," said Susan Hockfield, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where Minehan serves on the investment management company board.

Minehan received a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Rochester, and an MBA from New York University. She has served on the board of directors of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, the Massachusetts Business Roundtable, and the national Council on Economic Education. She has received several honorary degrees, and was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009. In 2002, she was named "New Englander of the Year" by the New England Council, and in 2006 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Boston Chamber of Commerce.  

The Simmons School of Management (www.simmons.edu/som) is the only business school in the world designed specifically to educate women for power and principled leadership that is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). The program is featured in The Princeton Review's "The Best 301 Business Schools" 2010 edition and ranked the #1 MBA program in the U.S. with the "greatest opportunities for women."

Simmons College (www.simmons.edu) is a nationally recognized private university located in the heart of Boston. It offers an undergraduate education for women, and renowned coeducational graduate programs in health sciences, education, liberal arts, social work, library and information science, and communications management, as well as the nation's first MBA program designed specifically for women. Follow us on Twitter @SimmonsCollege

SOURCE Simmons College