Business

Item Description

(Geri Presti is donating 2 hour lunch meeting to the winning bidder.)

Geralyn (Geri) Presti is presently employed as General Counsel, Senior Vice President and Secretary at Forest City Enterprises, Inc., one of the nation’s largest publicly traded real estate companies. Her areas of law practice include real estate development and financing, corporate and securities law. Presti is a frequent speaker on topics related to real estate development and financing, corporate governance, in-house corporate law practice, diversity and community involvement.

In addition to her law practice and overseeing a legal department of 35 members, loss prevention, insurance and risk management departments (regulatory compliance), Presti participates in the Company’s leadership meetings, strategic planning and mentoring.  

Presti received her Bachelor of Music degree from Ohio University, where she majored in Music Therapy. For the next five years, she worked as a registered music therapist at The Cleveland Music School Settlement with various client populations including: developmentally disabled children and adults, learning disabled and severely behaviorally handicapped children in the Cleveland city schools and recovering alcohol and drug addicted teens in the New Directions program. Presti left this position to return to graduate school at Case Western Reserve University, where she received the joint Master of Social Science Administration and Juris Doctor (Law Review, Magna Cum Laude and Order of the Coif) program degrees from the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences (MSASS) and the School of Law, respectively. While at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Presti’s graduate studies focused on community organization and planning.  Graduate studies included unpaid internships at the Legal Aid Society (Bar Advocacy Project) and the Cuyahoga County Welfare Department (Reorganization Initiative), as well as writing grants for the homeless.

Presti was elected to the Society of Benchers by the Board of Governors of the CWRU Law School. She is among the first Corporate General Counsels, nationally, to receive  the Burton, “Legends of the Law” award for legal achievement, and was selected as a 2007 Rainmaker by Northern Ohio Live magazine. Presti was selected to receive the Centennial Medal award from the CWRU Law School in November, 2008. She is a recipient of the 2008 American ORT Jurisprudence Award, selected by the local ORT America Chapter. She has been chosen by a statewide peer nomination process by Key Professional Media, Inc., as an “Ohio Super Lawyer” for four years and is AV-rated by Martindale-Hubbell.  Presti was earlier awarded the YWCA “Professional Excellence” recognition and received the YWCA “Woman of Achievement Award” in April 2010.

Present professional affiliations include the Case Western Reserve University School     of Law, where she serves on the Board of Trustees of the L.L.M. Program for U.S. Legal Studies and the Dean’s Visiting Committee (Executive Committee); the Boys and Girls Clubs of Cleveland; the Music Settlement (former Vice Chairman, Vice President, Treasurer, Chairman of Finance, and Governance Committees, Strategic Planning and Executive Committees); the Greater Cleveland General Counsel Association (Trustee); Business Volunteers Unlimited (Co-Chair Governance Committee, Executive Committee and former Vice Chairman); Chicago Title Insurance Company Advisory Board; and In Counsel With Women.

Presti participates in the regional and national meetings of the International Council of Shopping Centers, as well as the Cleveland Chapter of the Society of Corporate Secretaries (Secretary). She is a member of the Case Western Reserve University Executive Committee for their capital campaign.

Presti received the St. Thomas More Award (for professional excellence, ethical behavior and integrity) in October 2009 from The Lawyers Guild of The Catholic Diocese of Cleveland. She was also inducted into the Sovereign Order of St. John and participates in their mission to serve the poor and the sick. She raises funds to benefit various charitable and educational organizations, including the United Way (formerly a member of the Professional Services Cabinet) and the Ohio Kidney Foundation.  Presti recently assisted the YWCA in crafting their formal strategic planning process and contributed to their inaugural Circle of Women event, which supports young women aging out of foster care.

Presti will receive The Women of Achievement Award in April 2010.

Item Special Note

(Geri Presti is donating 2 hour lunch meeting to the winning bidder.)

The executives will meet with the winning bidders at a time convenient to both parties, on or before December 1, 2011, except in the case of some celebrities which may carry over to the first quarter of 2012.

Once the winning bid has been validated and collected, CAAO will request the winning bidder's bio/resume and reason for wanting to meet the executive and communicate that information to the executive. CAAO will also pass on the necessary contact information for the winning bidder to make their appointment.

If the winning bidder cancels or wishes to change the date/time of the meeting once it has been scheduled, the winning bidder will be responsible for contacting the executive to communicate any changes.

The winning bidder is responsible for all travel expenses to attend this meeting.

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