Presbyterian News Service
06261 May 10, 2006
Corporate executive tapped as nominee for GAC executive director position
Chicagoan Linda Valentine is a fourth generation Presbyterian
by Evan Silverstein
LOUISVILLE -- Lifelong Presbyterian Linda Bryant Valentine, a lawyer and former executive at Motorola Inc., has been tapped by the Executive Director Search Committee as its candidate for the General Assembly Council (GAC)'s top post.
The 56 year-old elder at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago would bring to the post 30 years experience as a senior executive and corporate attorney in both the business world and the church.
The elder at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago would bring to the post 30 years experience as a senior executive and corporate attorney in both the business world and the church.
If elected by the GAC at a special meeting May 23 and confirmed by next month's 217th General Assembly in Birmingham, AL., Valentine will begin her new work as executive director July 1.
Valentine, whose Presbyterian heritage spans at least four generations, was introduced at a news conference Wednesday at the Presbyterian Center here.
"I am honored to be nominated for this position as executive director," said Valentine, a resident of Hinsdale, IL, near Chicago. "I love the Presbyterian church. I believe that the world needs the Presbyterian church and I feel a deep sense of call."
For the past year, Valentine has served as fund manager and general counsel at Opportunity International, a Christian nonprofit group in Oak Brook, IL. The company is one of the world's largest microfinance networks. Last year it provided one million loans worth more than $345 million to poor entrepreneurs in 28 developing countries. Valentine has served on the organization's board of directors since 2003.
Her experience with the group would overlap well with church work, she said.
"The world needs the Presbyterian church," Valentine said. "We are called to serve, to bring light and life, hope and opportunity to the world. To share our resources, and be faithful to Christ's call to serve the poor and the poor in spirit."
Valentine said she knows there are many challenges ahead if she's elected and confirmed.
"We have declined in membership as a denomination," she said. "We now share the public stage that we once took for granted with new Christians and millions of people of other religious traditions. And like other mainline denominations, we have spent a great deal of time and energy focused on our differences and disagreements."
But Valentine, who's also served the Presbyterian church as a deacon, trustee and as chair on various committees and task forces, said the role of the church is to move forward.
"I think that there's tremendous potential for the General Assembly Council to work very much in partnership with the other parts of the church and I see no reason why we can't grow and flourish and respond to the world," she said.
Valentine said she recognized that recent downsizing and restructuring had taken a toll on some employees and their families but "I think the best way to honor them and us is to move forward, and move forward in a positive spirit."
Asked if she thought recent budget cuts at the Presbyterian Center would fix the denomination's financial problems, Valentine said, "It's
a little early in the process for me to know that."
Karen Dimon, a GAC member from DeWitt, NY who chairs the executive director search committee, described Valentine as a "management-oriented visionary." Dimon said Valentine impressed the search committee with her "calm, non-anxious demeanor."
The nine-member search committee received more than 40 applications during its 14-month search, some from an outside executive recruiting firm, before selecting Valentine.
Dimon said she is convinced the committee has found the right person for the job.
"We think that Linda brings a wonderful blend of church background and business [experience] and this is one of the reasons why we selected her," Dimon said. "Those who have worked with Linda have described her style as
setting direction and empowering others to fill in the details."
Valentine would succeed John Detterick, who has served eight years as executive director and who plans to retire at the end of his second four-year term following the conclusion of the General Assembly.
"I'd like to say that I could not be more impressed with Linda Valentine
or more pleased that God has led her to this call," Detterick said. "It will be a joy and a comfort to look forward to retirement knowing that the
executive director position will be filled with a person of her competence
and ability."
From 1984-2002, Valentine worked at Motorola. Beginning in 2001, she
served as general counsel for the corporation's communications businesses, which had sales of $29 billion in 2000. She also led the mergers and acquisitions and finance groups of the Motorola law department. As senior vice president, Valentine was one of the two highest-ranking women in the company of more
than 130,000 employees.
Coincidently, Motorola is one of five multinational corporations that the
PC(USA) has chosen for engagement about its business practices in Israel and Palestine. However, Valentine does not see a conflict.
"I think it's vitally important that the church be a prophetic voice in the world on issues of justice," she said. "We have a process that calls for constructive engagement and pursing all options. I trust in that process and as executive director will work with the policy and the polity of the church to work through those issues."
Following her stint at Motorola, Valentine served for a brief period as interim executive director at Fourth Church and then as senior vice president and chief legal officer of Salt Lake City-based software company TenFold Corp.
Valentine has also worked as an attorney for United Airlines, Atlantic Richfield Co. and a Philadelphia law firm.
She holds degrees from the University of Michigan in economics and political science and from the Georgetown University Law Center. Valentine has also
studied business in the MBA program of the University of Southern California.
She also has served as a board member and leader in numerous church, youth
and civic organizations.
Her mother, Barbara Everitt Bryant, is a member of the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the PC(USA).
The full text of Valentine's statement at the press conference:
I am honored to be nominated for the position of Executive Director. I love the Presbyterian church. The world needs the Presbyterian church. I feel a
deep sense of call.
When I first received a telephone call that I was being considered for the
position of Executive Director, I laughed ... a nervous sort of laugh. Over the next several weeks, I wrestled and resisted. When I finally let the voice within me be heard, the voice that had been speaking from the beginning, if only I had listened, it spoke strong and clear. "Of course,
of course you will take this position in the church. This is where your life has been leading. Your years of experience in organizations, your love of the church, your temperament and talents. You are called to serve
the Church in this new and bigger way." And so it is that I am here today,
humbled and grateful and filled with spirit of hope and promise.
I love the Presbyterian Church.
I was born and raised Presbyterian. My Presbyterian heritage reaches back
at least 4 generations to my great-great grandfather, Benjamin Smith Everitt, who was a Princeton Seminary graduate in the 1800s, as were his three sons, one of whom, my Great-Uncle Ben, baptized me. I was confirmed in the First
Presbyterian Church of Birmingham, Michigan. When we moved to Chicago 23 years ago, my husband and I chose Fourth Presbyterian Church. There we have been
inspired by the Word, raised our children, worshiped and worked in that vibrant community of faith and friends. I have served as elder, deacon and
trustee and as chair of committees and task forces covering all manner of
the life and mission and business of the church. My husband served as elder and all three of our children served as deacons or elders during high school. We love Fourth Church and love that it is part of something bigger, the larger body of Christ that is the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
The world needs the Presbyterian Church.
We live in a world in which 3 billion people live on less than $2 a day. My four years at Opportunity International providing loans to the poor have made me ever more aware of the needs of the world -- and that something can be done to lift people out of poverty and to transform their lives economically, socially and spiritually.
We live in a world where people are poor and hungry, where families live under stress and dissolve, where even the affluent can feel lost and lonely, and where people of faith seek deeper connection to God and community and deeper understanding of God's purpose in their lives.
We, as faithful Christians, are called to serve -- to bring light and life, hope and opportunity to the world, to share our resources and be faithful to Christ's call to serve the poor and the poor in spirit.
We come together in congregations, doing more together than we ever could alone, and our congregations join in the larger church to have an even greater impact on the world. I have a vision of us all sitting on the same side of the table
reaching out to the world. Sitting together where our differences don't matter, but what matters is that we serve the world as our faith calls us to do.
The Presbyterian church is a model for the world.
We are open and democratic. We don't shy away from controversy or challenge. We encourage debate and deliberation and ground our decisions in intellect and faith. We respect and encourage diversity of people and diversity of opinions. We have a strong and adaptable system of government that has held us together through smooth and troubled times.
A most amazing thing happened to me as I was preparing these remarks (this is a true story, I am not making this up for dramatic effect): On Monday night, I received a copy, found by a family member, of my great-great grandfather's sermon given on June 6, 1897. It was his farewell sermon to his congregation in Jamesburg, New Jersey. It's a sermon that could be given today. In it he says:
"I am your Brother, not because of any worth in me, or because of any work done by me, but because of the relationship that springs . . . from our being all alike, children of the Heavenly Father. . . . It is a relationship that cannot be severed by separation. . . . It certainly should not be severed by differences of opinion or even disagreement."
Differences of opinion, or even disagreement, were issues at the end of the 19th century and are issues at the beginning of the 21st, and will no doubt be issues at the end of this century and the next.
I am aware of the challenges of the Presbyterian Church today. We have declined in membership as a denomination. We now share the public stage that we once took for granted with new Christians and millions of people of other religious traditions. Like other mainline denominations, we have spent a great deal of time and energy focused on our differences and disagreements.
Individuals and congregations want to have a more direct involvement in mission, and that has meant less money for the national church. "The world is flat," Tom Friedman proclaims. Globalization, technology and competition are both a threat and an opportunity for businesses and all manner of organizations. Those that figure it out how to operate in this new world -- to partner and communicate, work faster and be more responsive -- can flourish.
The Presbyterian Church is doing great work in the world. We are growing in many places. Fourth Church of Chicago is growing, as is First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor, MI, where my mother and sisters are members, and Bellevue Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, where by brother and sister-in-law are members and officers. These churches are partnering and responding to the needs of their congregations and communities. Together as the Church we can do more of that.
The General Assembly Council, the senior leadership team and John Detterick have taken bold and courageous steps in reshaping the Council and the work of the national church. They have adopted a new Mission Work Plan, reduced the budget and made major changes to governance, staff and structure that confront the realities of today and give promise to the future.
The future of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) can be of a vibrant, prophetic and faithful church in which each body does what it does best in service of the whole church, the whole body of Christ in the world.
I love the Presbyterian Church. The world needs what the Presbyterian Church provides. The Presbyterian Church can be a model for the world.
I am grateful to the search committee, and to all the saints of the church and of my life who have counseled me in discerning this call. They have given me encouragement, support and a good dose of reality about the challenges facing the Church.
I am grateful to John Detterick for the leadership he has provided to the
General Assembly Council and the whole Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as Executive Director over the past 8 years.
My favorite part of the ordination vows that I have committed to as an officer of the Church is to "seek to serve the people with energy, intelligence, imagination and love." We are all servants and leaders in the Church and I ask that we all join in service to live our faith and speak the good news of the Gospel to the world.
I have great hope in the future and for the future of the General Assembly
Council and the Presbyterian Church and if confirmed I commit to serve with energy, intelligence, imagination -- and love. "And the greatest of these is love."