Kathleen Waldron Brings Skills as Latin American History Scholar, Dean, and Citibank Executive to Presidency at Baruch
by Vince Passaro

When CUNY's board of trustees appointed Dr. Kathleen Waldron to succeed Ned Regan as president of Baruch beginning August 2, the Board cited her strong mix of experience as a scholar, financial executive, and educational leader. CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein also emphasized that professional diversity in offering his own praise: "Kathy Waldron's appointment is a marvelous stroke of good fortune for Baruch College and CUNY. She will bring an impressive blend of senior-level corporate experience, a deep commitment to academic life and scholarship, and a new vitality to this important leadership position."

President Waldron, who was just a few days into her tenure when BCM spoke to her before press time, agreed that a good academic executive can well employ all three areas of expertise: "I do find that my experience in teaching and studying history keeps me focused on the primary mission of the College and what faculty and students need to accomplish it. And in running a large, complex institution, my time as an executive as well as a dean will certainly help guide me."

A Fulbright Scholar who received her doctorate in Latin American history from Indiana University, Dr. Waldron held numerous senior management positions during her time at Citibank. Before her appointment as Baruch's new president, she was dean of the School of Business, Public Administration, and Information Sciences at Long Island University's Brooklyn campus, where she also co-chaired the campus's five-year strategic planning committee.

As president of Baruch College, Waldron now leads an institution with 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students and the largest accredited business school in the nation. "Baruch is vibrant and diverse and full of endless promise," she said. "And it has made enormous progress over the past 15 years to become one of the most selective public colleges in the region. I want to build upon those achievements and continue to raise its reputation and profile. This is an institution with truly remarkable talent among students, faculty, and staff, and that talent is matched by an extremely attentive, supportive, and intelligent group of alumni. Working together, we can help Baruch flourish."

In her six-year tenure at LIU, Waldron established endowed scholarships and obtained the first corporate foundation awards in the school's history. She also revamped professional academic advising, established the first internship program with Fortune 500 companies, and dramatically improved the quality of the faculty.

Before joining LIU in 1998, Waldron spent 15 years at Citibank. From 1996 to 1998, she was a member of the policy committee for Citibank's Private Bank, which managed over $100 billion in assets of clients from over 40 countries and offered a full range of investment, credit, and corporate finance products. She was in charge of Global Strategic Planning for the Private Bank as the group achieved revenues of $1.4 billion. She also served on a transition team when Citicorp merged with Travelers Insurance to form Citigroup in 1998.

From 1991 to 1996, Waldron was president of Citibank International in Miami, where she managed more than $2 billion in client assets. From 1988 to 1991, she was director of Citibank's International Agencies Division, which was responsible for providing investment and credit services to large not-for-profit entities in the United States, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Prior to joining Citibank, she worked at Chemical Bank in the Latin American Division, with responsibility for government and private-sector lending.

Waldron received a BA from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and then a doctorate in Latin American history from Indiana University in 1977. In 1981 she earned a Certificate in Business from New York University and went on from there to her career in finance before returning to academe, where she'd begun as an assistant professor at Bowdoin College in Maine and, from 1980 to 1981, a Fulbright Scholar at the Universidad Católica Andres Bello in Caracas, Venezuela. She has published articles on Latin American finance and Latin American history, and she regularly delivers papers and presentations at academic and professional meetings. She serves on the board of Acción International, a large global, nonprofit microcredit lending organization.

Ned Regan, the former comptroller of the State of New York who served as Baruch's president from 2000 to 2004, stepped down this year to become a University Professor. He will continue his involvement with the Robert Zicklin Center for Corporate Integrity, formerly the Baruch Center for Financial Integrity, which he helped found. The center was recently renamed through a memorial gift from Baruch College Fund Chair Lawrence Zicklin ('57, LHD [Hon.] '99).

During Regan's years as president, Baruch students' test scores rose and retention improved dramatically. The campus opened its award-winning Vertical Campus complex in 2001, and in 2003 the William and Anita Newman Library was named by the American Library Association's academic arm as the best college library in the nation.