NEWS For Immediate Release
May 15, 2007
Contact: Name Patricia Doyle, Development Committee Chairperson
email pdoyle@ccwa.org
phone 216.781.3730 (ext.112)
CLEVELAND - Mark V. Santo has been selected as the new President and Chief Executive Officer of the Cleveland Council on World Affairs. Alex Machaskee, the Council’s Board Chair, made the announcement today and said Mr. Santo would assume his duties immediately.
Mr. Santo succeeds Ambassador Wat T. Cluverius IV, who served as President from 2002 through September 2006 at which time he was named Ambassador-in-Residence. Patricia Jansen Doyle, immediate past Board Chair, served as Interim President and will now continue in her volunteer capacity as a member of the Board of Directors and Chair of its Development Committee.
Mr. Machaskee noted that Mr. Santo was the unanimous choice of the Council’s Executive Search Committee after conducting a nationwide search for a new chief executive. Mr. Machaskee said the Council was delighted that Mr. Santo has been a long time Clevelander as well.
“This appointment comes at a critical time for the Council and Cleveland at large”, Mr. Machaskee noted. He remarked that the Council and its Board wish to significantly expand the Council’s activities within Northeast Ohio, taking a major role in meeting the challenges of globalization which have dramatically impacted our region.
“We are very excited to have someone of Mark’s international background to lead the Council in this regard,” Mr. Machaskee said. “Mark brings a most compelling skill set to his new office, having extensive experience in international law, business, finance and foreign affairs.”
Mr. Santo received a post-doctoral law degree in International and Comparative Law from Georgetown University Law Center and thereafter served as Chief Counsel in the United States for Finmeccanica, S.p.A. of Rome, Italy. Finmeccanica is one of the world’s largest aerospace and defense groups and in 1989 Finmeccanica acquired the Bailey Controls Company of Wickliffe, Ohio. Mark joined Bailey’s senior management team in Cleveland in 1990, concentrating on cross border mergers and acquisitions. Within a seven year period, Finmeccanica consolidated the industrial process automation sector through its Elsag Bailey Group and grew the Group’s revenues from $200m to $2bn. Following a successful IPO and subsequent acquisition of Hartmann & Braun, Germany’s largest process automation group, Elsag Bailey was sold in 1999 to Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) of Zurich, Switzerland for $2.1bn. Mr. Santo played a pivotal senior management role in the entire consolidation, integration and final disposition of the Elsag Bailey Group.
For the last several years, Mr. Santo has led the management of several technology-based companies here in the United States. Most recently, he acquired and restructured the Parvus Corporation of Salt Lake City on behalf of the Eurotech Group of Udine, Italy and restored the Company to profitability.
Mr. Machaskee stated that Mr. Santo is also life-long student of foreign affairs and through his international travel and work, he has been exposed to and has acquired a deep understanding and appreciation for foreign cultures and peoples. This will serve him well in his Council duties, Mr. Machaskee noted.
Mr. Santo and his wife Alexis, reside in Kirtland, Ohio along with their four children.
Founded in 1923 to promote world peace, the Cleveland Council on World Affairs is Northeast Ohio’s most prominent organization that provides the public with greater understanding and personal engagement in international relations and global issues. The Cleveland Council on World Affairs is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan organization that encourages international understanding through public lectures, informal discussions, international visitor exchanges, corporate activities and educational programs for elementary and secondary students throughout Northeast Ohio.
For more information, contact Pat Doyle at the Cleveland Council on World Affairs at 216.781.3730 (ext. 112) or pdoyle@ccwa.org
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