Linda Kelly will be the featured speaker at the West Hartford Women in Networking’s April meeting.

Hartford Foundation for Public Giving President Linda Kelly will be the featured speaker at the April WWIN meeting. Submitted photo

Submitted by Dianne Rechel, West Hartford Women in Networking

West Hartford Women in Networking will hold its April business meeting on Thursday, April 30, and our guest this month will be Linda Kelly, director of the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.

Since 2005, Linda Kelly has served as president of the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, the community foundation for the 29-town Greater Hartford region, and one of the oldest and largest of the approximately 700 community foundations in the country. Established in 1925, and now with more than 1,000 funds, the Hartford Foundation ended 2014 with approximately $930 million in endowment assets, and made 1,997 grants totaling nearly $32.5 million over the course of the year.

Kelly is also a board member of the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy and the MetroHartford Alliance (Hartford’s Chamber of Commerce and the region’s economic development leader) and is past chair of the Connecticut Network of Community Foundations.

Previously, Kelly served as a commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC), the agency charged with regulating Connecticut-based utility companies. She participated in international regulatory meetings and served in leadership positions with local and national committees, including an appointment by the U. S. Secretary of Transportation to chair a federal advisory committee on safety standards. In the past, she also served the State of Connecticut as deputy commissioner of Banking and as a member of the Public Defender Services Commission.

A significant part of Kelly’s career was spent in the banking industry, including as senior vice president and general counsel of Shawmut Bank Connecticut and assistant secretary and regulatory counsel of its corporate holding company, Shawmut National Corporation.

A native of North Carolina, Kelly received her bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and her Juris Doctor from the University of Connecticut School of Law. She is admitted to practice law in the State of Connecticut, and has served on the board of directors of the Connecticut Bar Foundation and as a past president of the University of Connecticut Law School Foundation. Active in her community, Kelly has spent decades serving a variety of nonprofit and civic organizations in the Greater Hartford area, often in a leadership

The WWIN meeting will be held on Thursday, April 30, 2015, from 7:30-9:45 a.m., at Chatfield, One Chatfield Dr., West Hartford, CT 06110.

We will also feature Introductions, networking and small group discussions. The meeting cost is $2. For further information visit www.westhartfordwomeninnetworking.com or call 860.573.3501.