Board of Directors

Mark Rice
Chairman, Board of Directors
Professor of Entrepreneurship,
Former Dean and Provost, Babson College

Chuck Peters
Board of Directors
Generative Education Initiative Transformative Learning Fdn.

John Cimino
Founder and President
RENAISSANCE CENTER
Creative Leaps International

Rob Brodnick
Board of Directors
Founder and President
Sierra Learning Solutions

Cheryl Kiser
Board of Directors
Executive Director, Lewis Institute
Babson Social Innovation Lab

James Stellar
Board of Directors
Professor of Neuroscience
Interim President, UAlbany

Darlyne Bailey
Board of Directors
Dean Emeritus and Founder, Social Justice Initiative, Bryn Mawr College
Advisors

Vartan Gregorian
Emeritus Founding Advisor and Lead Funder (deceased)
President, Carnegie Corporation of New York

Danielle Duell
Global Ambassador
President and CEO
People With Purpose

Marsha Semmel
Council of Advisors
Cultural & Educational Leadership and Partnerships

Stan Gryskiewicz
Founding Advisor
Center for Creative Leadership
Association for Managers of Innovation

Anna Stowe DeNicola
Council of Advisors
Executive Director
Federal Bar Council

Michael Lindfield
Council of Advisors
President, Meditation Mount
The Science of Group Work

Frances Hesselbein
Council of Advisors
President and CEO
Hesselbein Leadership Institute

Sylvester Taylor
Council of Advisors
Idea Connection Systems
Center for Creative Leadership

Anders Aspling
Council of Advisors
Founding Secretary General
Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative
Emeritus Advisors

Mary Catherine Bateson
Advisor Emeritus to the President
American Author and Cultural Anthropologist

Freeman Dyson
Advisor Emeritus to the President
British-American Mathematician
Theoretical Physicist and Author

Maxine Greene
Advisor Emeritus to the President
American Educational Philosopher
Teachers College, Columbia University
Inspirations and Influencers

Buckminster Fuller
American Architect, Systems Theorist, Designer and Inventor

Robert Penn Warren
American Poet, Novelist and Literary Critic

Gregory Bateson
20th Century Thinker, Philosopher, Anthropologist and Social Scientist

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Spanish Writer and Novelist, Author of “The Adventures of Don Quixote”

Jacob Bronowski
Polish-British Mathematician and Philosopher of Science

Loren Eiseley
American Anthropologist, Essayist, Philosopher and Literary Naturalist
Profile: John J. Cimino, Jr. Founding President

John J. Cimino, Jr. is founding president and CEO of Creative Leaps International (1992), Associated Solo Artists (1972) and THE RENAISSANCE CENTER for Knowledge Integration, Interdisciplinary Thinking and Advanced Applications of Imagination (2018). Educated at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (biology & physics), the State University of New York at Albany (learning theory), and the Manhattan and Juilliard Schools of Music (music & voice), Cimino holds a uniquely interdisciplinary perspective and works across multiple disciplines dedicated to learning, leadership and human development. As a consultant and advisor to universities, his special focus is connectivity across disciplines and departments (sometimes called knowledge integration within the connected university) and the centrality of creativity, leadership and the arts in the intellectual and personal development of students and faculty.
As a consultant and champion of the arts and cross-boundary thinking in business and professional life, Cimino has brought his "Concerts of Ideas" and other innovative programs into projects of the White House, the United Nations, the Center for Creative Leadership, the Council for Excellence in Government, the District of Columbia's Center for Excellence in Municipal Management, and the leadership training programs of dozens of Fortune 500 companies including GE, IBM, Pfizer, The World Bank, Macquarie Banking and Finance, The Bank of Montreal, McDonnell Douglas, the SC Johnson Company, Starbucks Coffee Company and to numerous universities and professional groups worldwide.
