Cummings Foundation welcomes new trustee

Cummings Foundation has welcomed Laurie Gabriel as the newest member of its board of trustees. Gabriel, who retired as one of three managing partners at Boston-based Wellington Management Company, will also serve on the Foundation’s Finance Committee.

Cummings Foundation is a 30-year-old operating foundation funded primarily by Joyce and Bill Cummings of Winchester. The Woburn-based organization has grown to become one of the largest private foundations in New England, with more than $1.3 billion in net assets. It has awarded more than $140 million to Greater Boston nonprofits alone.

“We are delighted that Ms. Gabriel has accepted our invitation to join the Foundation’s board,” said Cummings Foundation executive director Joel Swets. “With her impressive background in finance, we expect that the Foundation will benefit greatly from her advice and counsel.”

Gabriel spent 32 years at Wellington, a global investment management firm, where she also served as director of research and chair of its Compensation Committee.

A graduate of Tufts University, Gabriel earned a B.A. in Economics, magna cum laude. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst and has been president of the Quantitative Discussion Group and the Boston Security Analysts Society.

Gabriel has served on Tufts University’s board of trustees since 2009 and is a member of its investment committee. The Jackson, NH resident also serves as a trustee for The Nature Conservancy–New Hampshire and is chair of the investment committees for New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and Mount Washington Observatory. She actively supports several conservation organizations and nonprofit groups focused on aiding women in creating independent lives and financial security.

“I am honored to join the board of Cummings Foundation, which is making such an impact on smaller nonprofit organizations in the area around Boston,” Gabriel said. “Bill and Joyce Cummings are true role models in the philanthropic arena, and they have brought differentiated approaches to charitable giving, such as their $100K for 100 program.”

Gabriel joins eight other community trustees, including the Honorable Margot Botsford of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court; Anthony P. Monaco, M.D., Ph.D., president of Tufts University; Deborah T. Kochevar, D.V.M., Ph.D., dean of Tufts’ Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine; Richard C. Ockerbloom, retired president of The Boston Globe; Arlan F. Fuller, Jr., M.D., vice president at Winchester Hospital; Joseph A. Abate, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon; and retired Massachusetts legislators Paul C. Casey and Carol A. Donovan.

Cummings Foundation’s largest single commitment to date was $50 million to Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. It also owns and operates two large not-for-profit independent and assisted living communities. In operation since 1990, Woburn’s New Horizons at Choate houses about 125 senior residents.

###

PHOTO: Laurie Gabriel, Cummings Foundation’s newest trustee