Zoo Atlanta, one of the nation's oldest and most respected zoos, has hired Blythe Randolph as Vice President & Chief Development Officer. BoardWalk Consulting is pleased to have been Zoo Atlanta's advisor throughout the search process.

Known to all as Bly, Ms. Randolph joined the zoo on November 1 after having been Director of Institutional Advancement at the Nightingale-Bamford School in Manhattan for the past six years. At Nightingale, she helped guide a successful $27-million capital campaign while more than tripling the school's income from annual giving.

A quick study, Bly earned an A.B. from Hollins College and and a Master's in Literature from the University of Virginia in just four years. Since 1987, she has held increasingly responsible roles in New York nonprofits. Bly was a professional actor early in her career, but she expects Zoo Atlanta to be her most rewarding role. As one reference put it, "Competition for funds in the New York jungle has prepared her well for Zoo Atlanta!"

Gray Ghost Microfinance Fund is one of the nation's most exciting entries into the world of microfinance social investment. Created by Robert Pattillo, an accomplished entrepreneur and social investor, Gray Ghost was so pleased with the results of its early investments, principally in Arabic countries, that it committed to a ten-fold increase in direct funding and commensurate expansion in its geographic portfolio. An ongoing goal for Gray Ghost is to attract other investors to microfinance to help stabilize the industry's base, expand its reach, and enhance its impact.

The first among equals in fulfilling that mandate will be Sam Moss, recently hired as Gray Ghost's first Microfinance Investment Advisor. During Sam's 25 years with Wachovia Bank, he gained extensive experience in banking operations and wealth management from bases in both the US and Switzerland. Sam's long-time interest in nonprofits was sharpened when, as a board member, he served as interim Executive Director of the Atlanta Ballet during a particularly challenging time in 2003-2004. (Sam has also served on the boards of Atlanta Opera and the North Carolina's Bowman Gray Hospital Cancer Center, among others.) He is an alumnus of Williams College, where for many years he was his alumni class president.

When we saw him last week, Sam had already met with actual and potential social investors in London, Washington, Atlanta and other locales since joining Gray Ghost on October 18th, and he was bursting with enthusiasm for the way his new mission taps his working knowledge of international finance, operations and hands-on philanthropy. BoardWalk is pleased to have been Gray Ghost's advisor throughout the search process.

After last month's launch of the BoardWalk Governance Fellowships at Harvard Business School, we are pleased to report that the first recipients had a most stimulating (and exhausting!) experience back in the classroom.

The first fellowship recipients were Anne Skae, Board Chair of the Center for the Visually Impaired and Emily-May Richards, Treasurer and Executive Committee member at the Atlanta Women's Foundation. Both attended Harvard Business School's Executive Education program for nonprofit board members, Governing for Nonprofit Excellence, along with some 35 other board chairs and senior trustees from a variety of organizations from four continents.

In addition, we are pleased to note that the launch of our Fellowship prompted yet a third nonprofit to sponsor its chair's attendance at the Harvard program. Rick Hirsekorn, board chair of the Chattahoochee Nature Center, saw our announcement too late to qualify for BoardWalk funding but was impressed enough by the course summary to apply to Harvard directly.

In a future update, we will invite Anne, Emily-May and Rick to report directly on their experience. Given BoardWalk's mission of "advancing excellence in the boardroom," we are thrilled to have helped these three volunteer leaders expand their organizations' capacity for good governance.

Although posted for just two weeks, our Governance Fellowship prompted expressions of interest from over 60 nonprofits. With our clients' help, we hope to expand the program next year. Please consult this newsletter or our website for details.

BoardWalk works solely with nonprofits, foundations and corporate volunteer programs, and we are dedicated to the recruitment of outstanding leaders. Why does this make us your best choice for executive search?

• Passion. Because this is all we do, we bring special sensitivity and passion to our work.
• Experience. Our consulting team combines broad skills and deep experience in executive search with active leadership experience in the sector. We are proud of our own records as board chairs, campaign chairs, volunteers and E.D.s, and we approach our projects with the experience of fellow travelers.
• Commitment. With BoardWalk, the consultants you meet are the ones who conduct your engagement. We have no vanishing acts.
• Respect. We treat all those we meet - whether client or donor, jobseeker or supplicant - with respect and courtesy. For example, candidates may not always like what they hear from us, but they will hear from us. Respectfully.
• Time. Unlike many firms for which volume is a goal in and of itself, we limit our executive searches to no more than three at a time. (A consultant at a national firm will often be in the midst of 10-15 searches concurrently.) We devote our full attention to the nuances of your challenge and thus can present the opportunity at least as knowledgeably as you would yourself.
• Contacts. We are in constant contact with senior leaders committed to philanthropy and volunteerism, and we are often the first discussion partner for executives considering a move. And every day, we have the privilege of counseling compelling individuals contemplating a career in the field.
• Results. We do not pursue idealism for its own sake. We pursue results that can make a material, measurable difference to the success of your organization.
• Pride. Because we take such pride in our work, we are constantly seeking ways to improve. Accordingly, we ask each search client for formal evaluation of our work, which we then use to make our approach even stronger. We appreciate the compliments, but we learn more from the suggestions.
• Investment. Not only do we contribute 5% of our capacity to the sector, we also contribute 5% of our fees. We know of no other consulting firm that matches our social investment as a matter of policy.

If these points ring true to you, we'd like to discuss whatever leadership challenges your organziation is facing, whether they be with the board, the CEO, or the relationship between the two. Please contact us by phone or e-mail at one of the addresses below.

We feel truly blessed by our work and hope that you feel blessed by yours. We wish you a Thanksgiving filled with much gratitude. --Sam and Margaret

E-mail: sam@boardwalkconsulting.com

Telephone: 404-BoardWalk (404-262-7392)

On the Web: http://www.BoardWalkConsulting.com