Business and Society Program

Business and Society Program Staff Profiles

JUDITH SAMUELSON
Executive Director
info@aspenbsp.org

Judith Samuelson is the Executive Director of the Business and Society Program. She created the policy program for the Aspen Institute in 1998. The Program is dedicated to developing leaders for a sustainable global society.

Ms. Samuelson's work experience spans the business, government and nonprofit sectors. She joined the Ford Foundation in 1989 and served through 1996 as Director of the Office of Program-Related Investments, the Foundation’s social investment fund. In 1994 she helped launch the Foundation’s Corporate Involvement Initiative, a comprehensive effort to encourage private-nonprofit partnerships and facilitate business opportunities with broad social benefits.

Prior to joining the Ford Foundation, Ms. Samuelson managed a sales and lending team at Bankers Trust Company. From 1974-1980 she worked in Sacramento, California as a lobbyist and legislative aid on state health and education issues and in the Governor’s office of Planning and Research.

Ms. Samuelson holds a Master's degree from the Yale School of Management. She sits on the Board of ACCION-New York.

 NANCY MCGAW
 Deputy Director
 nancy.mcgaw@aspeninstitute.org

 Nancy McGaw is Deputy Director of the Business and Society Program at the Aspen Institute. She directs First Movers, a fellowship program for exceptional business  professionals who have demonstrated an ability and passion for imagining new products, services, and business models that achieve profitable business growth and lasting, positive social impacts. This program encourages these individuals to move to "next stage" innovations, as well as to discover the stewardship lessons embedded in past achievements.

She also manages the Business and Society Program’s research initiatives with a focus on trends on corporate leadership and management education. Recently, this research has included Where Will They Lead? - MBA student attitude surveys conducted in western business schools (in the U.S., Canada, and U.K.) and in China.

Ms. McGaw joined the Aspen Institute from a career in corporate banking and international development. From 1997 to 1999 she was Director of Corporate Partnerships at The Synergos Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing effective sustainable solutions to global poverty. Previously, she worked for 18 years in business development and relationship and portfolio management in corporate banking, most recently at Bank of America, where she had responsibility for a team of professionals specializing in credit analysis and structuring for multinational corporate clients. She has worked overseas in Japan and England.

Ms. McGaw holds a Master's degree in International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a Bachelor’s degree in English from Michigan State University.

 RICH LEIMSIDER
 Director, Center for Business Education
 rich.leimsider@aspeninstitute.org

 Rich Leimsider joined the Aspen Institute in March 2005. As Director of the brand new Center for Business Education at the Business and Society Program, he uses  his experience at the intersection of business and nonprofits to help manage the Beyond Grey Pinstripes program. Pinstripes is the Aspen Institute's report card on  business schools, and includes the Faculty Pioneer Awards and the industry-leading website: www.beyondgreypinstripes.org. Mr. Leimsider is also taking the lead in a number of marketing, strategic planning, and development issues.

Mr. Leimsider joined the Aspen Institute after a stint as a social entrepreneur. He planned, launched, grew, and ultimately closed a new sort of civic association for Americans who had participated in full time service programs. Mr. Leimsider has also worked with Habitat for Humanity, City Year, the City of New York, and Teach For America. In 1998, he served as a New York City Urban Fellow in the Department of the Homeless Services.

Mr. Leimsider is a graduate of Harvard Business School, and attended the University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work and Williams College.

 LINDA LEHRER
 Communications Director
 linda.lehrer@aspeninstitute.org

 Linda Lehrer has spent her career in both media and education. She received a B.A. in English Literature from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Ph.D. in  English from Brown University, where she taught courses in drama and American literature. She has also taught journalism and writing at Fordham and New York  University.

As a journalist, Dr. Lehrer reported for The Wall Street Journal and the Chicago Tribune. Her articles have also appeared in Forbes, Ms., Health and publications of the American Management Association. During her seven years with Dow Jones, she set up and managed business operations for the European edition of The Wall Street Journal and conducted a study on the feasibility of creating an edition of The Journal for Latin America.

Dr. Lehrer has worked in public television, for the PBS business show "Adam Smith" and for Children's Television Workshop, creator of "Sesame Street." While Communications Director at Scholastic, Inc., an educational multimedia company, she launched "The Magic School Bus," an award-winning children’s television show, as well as the first online service for students and teachers.

While Director of Communications for The Aspen Institute, an international leadership organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., Dr. Lehrer helped create and moderated a seminar on life transitions, attended by corporate and community leaders.  She also developed a "sabbatical" program for The Smithsonian Institution, using the unique resources of the Smithsonian to help people discover new approaches to their personal lives. In 1997, she helped organize the first Bipartisan Congressional Retreat, at which members of the U.S. House of Representatives explored more productive ways to work through their differences and reach consensus.

Dr. Lehrer now conducts workshops on Life Changes: The Next Step, a program that helps people find new ways to think about taking the next step in their lives—both professionally and personally. Clients have included foundations, nonprofit organizations and corporations.  Her work in the area of change extends to helping organizations with strategic planning and board development.