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Media Center > Executive Bios
Diane Baillargeon (Seedco) | William Grinker (SFS)
Diane Baillargeon |
Diane Baillargeon succeeded founder William J. Grinker as President and CEO of Seedco (the Structured Employment Economic Development Corporation) in September 2003. As President and CEO, Baillargeon oversees day-to-day operations, directs a staff of 230 based in four states and manages a $26 million annual operating budget. Formerly Executive Vice President, she is also Chief Operating Officer and Chair (respectively) of Seedco subsidiaries the Non-Profit Assistance Corporation (N-PAC) and the EarnFairSM, LLC and an ex-officio Member of Seedco's Board of Directors.
Baillargeon has led a distinguished career in community development and public service. With Grinker, Baillargeon was a founding partner of Human Service Solutions Inc., a consulting firm providing program development, management capacity building, strategic planning, and evaluation research consulting services. Clients of HSS included the DeWitt Wallace Readers Digest Fund, Catholic Charities of New York, New York City Department of Homeless Services, The Rockefeller Foundation, and The United Way of New York City.
As Deputy Commissioner for Policy Management in New York State's Department of Social Services, from 1993 to 1994, Baillargeon was a key policy and program advisor to the Commissioner of New York State's $35 billion social welfare agency. She coordinated policy and program development and promoted the Department's agenda around welfare reform, child welfare, homeless assistance, and health and long-term care.
From 1990 to 1993, Baillargeon served as Deputy Director of the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (formerly Substance Abuse Strategy Initiative Program), where she participated in the creation of a public/private partnership organization dedicated to designing and testing innovative approaches to the prevention and treatment of substance abuse by a national population of high-risk youth, ex-offenders, and homeless people.
From 1984 to 1989, Baillargeon worked for the New York City Human Resources Administration, New York City's social welfare agency, first as director of its Office of Policy & Economic Research, then as Deputy Administrator for Policy and Program Development. For HRA she managed policy research, strategic planning, program development and program evaluation functions.
Baillargeon was the recipient of the 2003 Women Achievers Award from the YWCA of the City of New York. Since 1991 she has served as an Evaluator for the Ford Foundation's Innovation in Government award program at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. She received a Bachelor's Degree from Georgetown University and a Masters in Urban Planning from New York University.
William J. Grinker |
William J. Grinker founded Seedco, a national community development intermediary, in 1986. He served as Treasurer of Seedco's Board from 1987 to 1998, when he assumed full-time status as President and CEO of the organization. He was succeeded by Diane Baillargeon in 2003, and now serves as President and Chair of Seedco Financial Services and Secretary of the Seedco Board. Grinker has devoted his career to finding innovative solutions to the many challenges faced by disadvantaged individuals and families.
Prior to assuming the Presidency of Seedco, Grinker was a principal in Human Service Solutions, a consulting firm providing program development, management capacity building, and strategic planning services to nonprofit organizations in the health and human services fields. In 1990, he created the Substance Abuse Strategy Initiative at The Wagner School of Public Service of New York University (where he was appointed Clinical Professor) to advance knowledge of strategies for substance abuse prevention and treatment. In 1992, this effort was merged into the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, where Mr. Grinker served as a Senior Vice President until September 1993.
From 1986 to 1989, Grinker was Commissioner of the New York City Human Resources Administration, at that time the nation's largest local social service organization serving upwards of 2.5 million residents with a budget of over $6 billion, 30,000 employees, and 1,000 contract organizations. In this role Grinker oversaw City programs for Medicaid, welfare and employment services, child welfare and child support, day care and Head Start, senior citizen and family services, and homeless programs.
He was President of Grinker Associates, Inc., from 1982 to 1986, a consulting firm integrating the experience and capacity of the private, public, and non-profit sectors in developing solutions to public policy issues. In 1974 Grinker founded the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC), which designed and tested large-scale experimental programs in welfare reform, employment and training, housing, and social services. As president of MDRC until 1982, Grinker was a primary subject of The Underclass, Ken Auletta's 1981 book examining the factors that hinder people from raising themselves out of poverty and the programs that are effective in helping them.
Other positions Grinker has held include: Senior Program Officer, The Ford Foundation; Assistant Commissioner, Community Development Agency of the City of New York; Assistant Director for Operations of the United Planning Organization of Washington, D.C.; and Staff Attorney for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and U.S. Department of Labor.
Grinker holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and an LL.B. from Harvard University. He has taught courses at Princeton and The New School and lectured at Harvard, Syracuse, NYU and Columbia. He is the author of several monographs and Op-Ed articles in a variety of publications.
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