Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced the appointment of Jeffrey B. Rudman as a Trustee of the Public Library of the City of Boston.
“The Trustees of the Boston Public Library share their expertise and volunteer their valuable time for the benefit of one of the premiere cultural and educational institutions in our city,” said Mayor Menino. “Everything I know about Jeff Rudman and his commitment to the City of Boston tells me he will be a wonderful addition to the Board.”
During the 1990s, Mr. Rudman served as a director of the Boston Public Library Foundation and helped lead the effort to restore the McKim Building. It was one of many charitable institutions Mr. Rudman has served over the years. He has been the secretary of both the Massachusetts and New England Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committees, having himself been a Rhodes Scholar from 1970 to 1972. He has also been a member of the Community Advisory Board at WGBH and a trustee of the Buckingham Browne & Nichols School. He belongs to the St. Botolph Club and the Bretton Woods Committee and has been a resident of Charlestown for almost two decades.
“I am thrilled to welcome Jeff Rudman to the Board of Trustees of the Boston Public Library,” said William O. Taylor, chairman of the Board of Trustees. “The citizens of Boston count on the Trustees to preserve and protect their library not only in Copley Square but in all the neighborhoods of the City. I know Jeff shares that commitment and will work with Mayor Menino and the Trustees to make the BPL an even greater library.”
“I am very grateful to the Mayor for this appointment. Our library is the first and finest public library in this country and I only hope I prove to be a trustee worthy of the institution,” said Mr. Rudman.
Mr. Rudman is a partner at Hale and Dorr LLP and is a nationally recognized authority on defending shareholder class actions and defending Securities and Exchange Commission investigations. He chairs the Corporate and Securities Litigation Group at Hale and Dorr and lectures across the country on shareholder litigation and corporate governance for such organizations as American International Group, NASDAQ, the National Investor Relations Institute and many others. He has been listed in every edition of The Best Lawyers in America.
For more than 150 years, the Boston Public Library has pioneered public library service in America with revolutionary ideas and famous firsts. Established in 1848, the BPL was the first publicly supported municipal library in America, the first public library to lend books, the first to have a branch library and the first to have a children’s room. Today, the BPL boasts 27 neighborhood branches, free Internet access, two unique restaurants, an award-winning website www.bpl.org and an on-line store featuring reproductions of the BPL’s priceless photographs and artwork. Each year, the BPL hosts nearly 5000 programs, answers more than one million reference questions and serves millions of people in its National Historic Landmark McKim Building in Copley Square. All of its programs and exhibits are free and open to the public. At the Boston Public Library, books are just the beginning!