Gail J. McGovern

Gail J. McGovern (born 1952) was named President and CEO of the American Red Cross on April 8, 2008. McGovern held top management positions at AT&T Corporation and Fidelity Investments.

Early life

Born in 1952 and raised as Gail J. Rosenberg in Springfield, New Jersey, McGovern received a Bachelor of Arts degree in quantitative sciences from Johns Hopkins University in 1974. She received an MBA from Columbia University in 1987.

Career

McGovern was an adjunct faculty of the Harvard Business School. Prior to joining Harvard University, Gail was president of Fidelity Personal Investments, a unit of Fidelity Investments, serving 4 million customers with $500 billion in assets. In this role she had overall responsibility for Fidelity's retail mutual fund and brokerage businesses and was a member of Fidelity's Operating Committee.

She joined Fidelity in September 1998 as president of Distribution and Services. Previously, she was Executive Vice President for the Consumer Markets Division at AT&T, responsible for AT&T's $26 billion residential long distance service and largest business unit. She began her career at AT&T as a computer programmer and moved up through sales, marketing and general management assignments, including chief strategist of AT&T's Communications Services Group and Executive Vice President of the $25 billion Business Markets Division.

She was recognized by Fortune magazine in 2000 and 2001 as one of the top 50 most powerful women in corporate America.

Personal

She currently resides in Boston with her husband and 18 year old daughter.