Deval Patrick to Receive CLEO EDGE Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. Heritage Award at Awards Reception in Washington, DC
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Deval Patrick to Receive CLEO EDGE Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. Heritage Award at Awards Reception in Washington, DC
Largo, MD—June 27, 2019—Boston attorney, business leader, and 71st governor of Massachusetts Deval L. Patrick will be recognized for his lifetime achievements during the CLEO EDGE Honors reception on November 7. Patrick, Managing Director of Bain Capital Double Impact, will receive the CLEO EDGE Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. Heritage Award. The Award honors a person who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in Education, Diversity, and Greater Equality in the legal profession and society. Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., who received the inaugural CLEO EDGE Heritage Award during the organization’s 50th anniversary in 2018, will present the award to Mr. Patrick.
“I am humbled beyond measure to be recognized by CLEO, especially by an award named after one of my personal heroes,” said Patrick.
Patrick is a native of Chicago’s South Side, but moved to Massachusetts at 14 years old, when he was awarded a scholarship to Milton Academy through the Boston-based organization “A Better Chance.” After matriculating at Harvard College and Harvard Law School, he clerked for a federal appellate judge and then launched a career as an attorney and business executive, becoming partner at two Boston law firms and a senior executive at Texaco, Inc. and the Coca-Cola Company.
By 1994, President Bill Clinton appointed Patrick to the nation’s top civil rights post, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. There he focused on issues including racial profiling and police misconduct.
In 2006, in his first bid for public office, he became the state’s first African-American governor. In his two terms as governor, Patrick oversaw the expansion of affordable health care to more than 98 percent of state residents, launched initiatives stimulating clean energy and biotechnology, won a national Race to the Top grant, and steered the state out of recession to a 25-year high in employment.
As a Managing Director of Bain Capital Double Impact, Patrick focuses on investments that deliver both a competitive financial return and significant positive social impact. He is a Rockefeller Fellow, a Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute, and the author of two books, A Reason to Believe: Lessons from an Improbable Life and Faith in the Dream: A Call to the Nation to Reclaim American Values.
The business leader will be recognized during the CLEO EDGE Honors reception in celebration of the Council on Legal Education Opportunity, Inc.’s 51st anniversary scheduled for November 7 at the Google Washington, DC offices.
About the Council on Legal Education Opportunity, Inc.
CLEO, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization committed to diversifying the legal profession by expanding legal education opportunities for persons from traditionally under-represented racial and ethnic groups, low-income, and disadvantaged communities. Founded in 1968, when the number of lawyers of color was less than one percent, CLEO has since had more than 25,000 high school, college prelaw, and law students participate in its programs with more than 46 percent becoming members of the legal profession. CLEO alumni have excelled in every area of the legal profession to include judges, corporate attorneys, law school deans and professors, practitioners, politicians, and more. More information about CLEO and its programs can be found at https://cleoinc.org/
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