HGSE Announces Honorary Campaign Co-chairs

Dean James Ryan announced today that Paul Finnegan and Joseph O’Donnell – both alumni of Harvard College and Harvard Business School – will serve as honorary co-chairs of the Campaign for the Harvard Graduate School of Education, launching in fall 2014. The HGSE Campaign is part of the university-wide Harvard Campaign, which kicked off this past fall and also includes Finnegan and O’Donnell as co-chairs, along with seven others.

“I am delighted that Paul Finnegan and Joe O’Donnell will be honorary co-chairs for HGSE’s campaign,” Ryan said. “Paul and Joe have been extraordinarily generous in supporting HGSE, and, as honorary co-chairs, they will play a critical role in raising visibility for our school and our fundraising priorities. To be sure, we have much more to do, including identifying campaign chairs, building a campaign committee, and planning a campaign launch. But this is a remarkable vote of confidence and an exciting milestone for our school that I know will energize and inspire others. I look forward to working with our many supporters in the months and years ahead.”

Finnegan is the co-CEO of Madison Dearborn Partners, Inc., a leading private equity investment firm based in Chicago, Ill. He has more than 30 years of experience in private equity investing with a particular focus on investments in the communications industry. In addition, Finnegan has a long history with Harvard: He is currently a fellow of the Harvard Corporation and, in the past, has served as a member of the Board of Overseers and as president of the Harvard Alumni Association. He is a generous supporter of HGSE, and a longtime supporter of education organizations in the Chicago area and beyond.

“Closing the achievement gap in education is among the nation’s most pressing challenges. HGSE has played and will continue to play a leading role in producing rigorous research to inform education policy debates, and in training students who are prepared to transform education,” said Finnegan. “I am pleased to serve as an honorary co-chair for HGSE and to help lead Harvard’s contribution to education reform.”

O’Donnell serves as chair of Centerplate, Inc., a nationwide leader in the food-service industry. He also founded Belmont Capital LLC and owns Allied Advertising Agency. Early in his career, he served at HBS as associate dean of the MBA program and then as director of the school’s Program for Management Development. A member of the Harvard Corporation, O’Donnell has been one of Harvard’s most active alumni volunteers, serving as an overseer, an elected director of the Harvard Alumni Association, and a member of the Allston Work Team. He received the HBS alumni achievement award in 2005. He is well-known for his philanthropy for education and children’s organizations in the Boston area.

“HGSE shows the promise of President Faust’s vision for One Harvard,” said O’Donnell. “Its two doctoral programs draw on expertise from across the university, and through projects such as edX and the Harvard Innovation Lab, its faculty and students are working collaboratively to improve education for all students. It is an exciting new model for impact that I am proud to support.”

The Campaign for the Harvard Graduate School of Education will enable the school to strengthen its capacity in a number of areas including its ability to attract the most talented students to education and prepare them to be transformative leaders, to recruit world-class faculty to build a knowledge base about what works in education, to encourage entrepreneurship and partner with the field to implement innovative solutions, and to leverage the convening power of Harvard to improve education.