News

Chicago, Ill. – July 27, 2016 – The Cristo Rey Network Board of Directors has elected W. Nicholas Howley as the organization’s Board Chair. Howley succeeds Kevin T. Baine, a nationally recognized First Amendment attorney at Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington, DC, who will remain a member of the Cristo Rey Network Board of Directors.

Howley is Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Transdigm Group, Inc., a New York Exchange listed company and a leading global designer, producer and supplier of highly engineered aircraft components, systems and subsystems, which he cofounded in 1993.

“We are blessed with and strengthened by the extraordinary talent and commitment of our Board members,” said Cristo Rey Network President and CEO Jane E. Genster. “Nick’s strategic support for our students and schools at both the local and the national level has meaningfully advanced the mission of the Cristo Rey Network, and we are deeply grateful to him for his generous investment of his skill and dynamism in this new role.”

Howley joined the Cristo Rey Network Board in 2013 and has chaired the organization’s Mission and Operations Committee. He is also a longtime Trustee and Chairman of member school Saint Martin de Porres High School in Cleveland, where he will conclude his chairmanship this summer.

As a founder of The Howley Family Foundation, which assists hundreds of students from financially challenged families in Cleveland and Philadelphia with education grants, Nick pioneered the development of the Cristo Rey Howley Scholarship Program that supports graduates from five Cristo Rey high schools with supplemental four-year scholarships to help ensure their financial ability to earn college degrees.

“I am honored to fill the role of Board Chair for this truly unique educational model whose schools currently serve over 10,000 students,” remarked Howley. “The Cristo Rey Network is delivering on its mission to provide underserved students high quality college preparatory education, valuable professional work experience, and a solid moral grounding.”

Howley earned his B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Drexel University and his MBA from Harvard Business School. Nick’s extensive charitable governance experience also includes service on the boards of Case Western Reserve University, The Cleveland Clinic, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Washington and Jefferson College, Gilmour Academy as well as various public and private for profit boards.

About the Cristo Rey Network®:
The Cristo Rey Network is the only network of high schools in the country that integrate four years of rigorous college preparatory academics with four years of professional work experience. Comprised of 32 Catholic, college preparatory schools that today serve more than 10,000 students across 21 states and DC and collectively claim 11,500 graduates, the Cristo Rey Network delivers a powerful and innovative approach to inner-city education that equips students from economically-disadvantaged families with the knowledge, character, and skills to transform their lives. From freshman year, Cristo Rey schools establish a culture of high-expectations by blending rigorous academic preparation, significant professional work experience through the Corporate Work Study Program, Catholic educational values, and support for students to and through college.