Sheila Avrin McLean

Sheila Avrin McLean

"Ms. McLean is a strategy consultant to international nonprofit and professional services organizations. She was formerly president and chief executive officer of the Boyden World Corporation, and before that was president of the Association of Executive Search Consultants. Her earlier positions have included serving as vice president, education and the arts, and executive director, South Africa programs, at the Institute of International Education; president of McLean & Company, Ltd.; and general counsel for the U.S. International Development Cooperation Agency.

"Earlier in her career, she was associate general counsel and a senior corporate officer of the Ford Foundation. She began her career at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, a New York City law firm. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has served as a director of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York on the boards of directors of Montefiore Hospital; the Women's Foreign Policy Group; and Foundation Source, a business that helps to create and administer foundations, as well as the Academy for Educational Development and the American friends of the Legal Resources Centre in South Africa.

"Ms. McLean's publications include two books about international philanthropy. She received her bachelor's degree from Smith College and her law degree from Yale Law School.“

"Most of her career has been oriented toward advising and managing large international nonprofits. She served as vice president of the Institute of International Education, where she developed and ran innovative education and exchange programs in Asia, Africa, and Europe. Previously, she was CEO and founder of McLean & Co. which provided advisory services to clients such as the World Bank, and the Rockefeller, Ford, Carnegie and Aga Khan Foundations on building civil society institutions and strategic change.

"She served previously as general counsel of the International Development Cooperation Agency, which reorganized the US Government’s foreign aid program. Before that she spent a decade at the Ford Foundation as Associate General Counsel and the officer in charge of developing and running the Ford Foundation’s human rights grants program in South Africa."


 * Director, Academy for Educational Development