Claudio M. Martinez named to Boston Foundation Board of Directors

December 14, 2006

Boston – A community organizer honored as one of the most effective and experienced civic leaders in Greater Boston has been elected to the Boston Foundation Board of Directors.

Claudio M. Martinez is Executive Director of the Hyde Square Task Force, an organization that develops innovative, neighborhood-based educational programs and community organizing initiatives for urban youth and their families. He is a former Director of Community Organizing at the Jamaica Plain Community Development Corporation and has many years of managerial experience in the private and nonprofit sectors.

In his role at the Task Force, Martinez led the organization through a rapid period of growth and a tenfold increase in annual budget. He and his staff have received numerous awards, including the Innovations in Education Boston City Excellence Award. In 2001, he was honored as one of Boston’s 10 Most Outstanding Young Leaders by the Boston Jaycees.

“Claudio is a community leader with vision and his record of accomplishment at the Hyde Square Task Force puts him at the forefront of the city’s new emerging leaders,” said the Rev. Ray Hammond, Chair of the Boston Foundation Board of Directors. “His immigrant roots are another point of strength in a city for him as a leader in a region that increasingly depends on the talents and energy of immigrants to thrive.”

Martinez serves as a member of the Advisory Board of the Boston Housing Authority and is a Board member of the Children’s Hospital Community Advisory Board.  He was named a Barr Fellow in 2005. The Barr Fellows Program honors the contributions of the most gifted and experienced leaders in the Boston area. It provides a three-year period of international travel, peer learning opportunities and sabbatical time to reflect on what they have accomplished and to find the inspiration to attain higher levels of effectiveness, creativity and innovation. The program is funded by the Barr Foundation.

Claudio M. Martinez joins fellow members of the Board of Directors of the Boston Foundation, including the Rev. Raymond A. Hammond, M.D., founder and pastor of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church and founder of the Ten Point Coalition, who serves as Chair of the Board;  Carol F. Anderson, former Managing Director of HarbourVest Partners, LLC; Richard M. Burnes, Founding Member and General partner at Charles River Ventures; Dr. Louis Casagrande, President of the Children’s Museum; Gerald Chertavian, CEO and Founder of Year Up; Catherine D’Amato, President and CEO of the Greater Boston Food Bank; Richard DeWolfe, Managing Partner of DeWolfe & Company, LLC; Atsuko Fish, an international consultant on U.S.-Japan relations; Jackie Jenkins-Scott, President of Wheelock College; Michael B. Keating, Partner at Foley Hoag; Paul La Camera, General Manager of WBUR FM-90.0; Myra Hiatt Kraft, President and Director of the New England Patriots Charitable Foundation and a trustee for the Robert K. and Myra H. Kraft Foundation; Jack R. Meyer, Senior Managing Partner and CEO of Convexity Capital Management and former President and CEO of the Harvard Management Company; Herbert E. Morse, former Managing Partner of KPMG’s New York Metro Practice; Kevin C. Phelan, Executive Vice President at Meredith & Grew; Binkley C. Shorts, Senior Vice President and Partner at Wellington Management Company; Micho Spring, Chair, US Corporate Practice and New England, of  Weber Shandwick Worldwide; Benaree Wiley, former President and CEO of The Partnership; and Paul S. Grogan, President and CEO of the Boston Foundation, ex officio.

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The Boston Foundation, Greater Boston’s community foundation, is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the nation, with assets of over $770 million.  In 2005, the Foundation and its donors made more than $60 million in grants to nonprofit organizations and received gifts of more than $70 million.  The Foundation is made up of some 850 separate charitable funds established by donors either for the general benefit of the community or for special purposes.  The Boston Foundation also serves as a major civic leader, provider of information, convener, and sponsor of special initiatives designed to address the community’s and region’s most pressing challenges.  For more information about the Boston Foundation, visit www.tbf.org or call 617-338-1700.