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Carlos Lejnieks
Chief Executive Officer
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In late April 2008, Carlos Lejnieks was appointed President & CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Essex, Hudson & Union Counties (NJ), a one-to-one, youth mentoring agency based in Newark. Soon thereafter, he was also appointed as Vice Chairman of Big Brothers Big Sisters of New Jersey.
Lejnieks took over an atrophied BBBS agency solely servicing Newark and turned it around while also expanding it to serve a newly constituted three county region. Within less than three years, BBBS went from serving approximately 100 youth to serving well over 1,000. Lejnieks has led the development of an aggressive and thoughtful five year business plan that would see the organization grow to be one of the top five largest mentoring agencies in the country. He has built a solid base of private/public partnerships from a wide range of groups including churches, community-based organizations, universities, corporations, among others. His Advisory Board is Co-Chaired by Gov. Brendan Byrne and Gov. Thomas Kean.
Prior to joining BBBS, starting in 2004, Lejnieks was an administrator for North Star Academy, a nationally recognized public charter school in Newark encompassing four campuses ranging from elementary school through high school. In his time at North Star, every high school graduate went off to college. In addition to his administrative duties which ranged widely from governmental reporting, business matters, community relations and public policy development, Lejnieks also worked closely with students. Lejnieks initiated a course called Finance 101 teaching students about the stock market, investing options and the world economy. He also led an international service trip to Ecuador where high school students volunteered at a school and senior citizen center.
Prior to North Star, Lejnieks was Vice President of CN Communications International, a boutique business consultancy based in New Jersey. Lejnieks spearheaded CN’s business development and worked for a broad range of clients such as RWE/Thames Water, NJIT and the National Conference of Community and Justice.
Lejnieks went to CN after having served as a Policy Advisor to the Governor of New Jersey where he had particular focus on the State’s post-September 11th recovery efforts, cultural affairs and World Class Economy initiative. In late 2001, the Governor and Secretary of State presented Lejnieks with a New Jersey State Proclamation for “work related to post-September 11th recovery efforts.” Lejnieks was later nominated to New Jersey’s International Trade Committee.
Lejnieks has also held positions in the industry of finance with Goldman Sachs and Quick & Reilly.
An engaged community member, Lejnieks recently served on President Barack Obama’s Regional Finance Committee, Governor Chris Christie’s Education Transition Team and Newark Mayor Cory Booker’s Transition Team. In 2009, Lejnieks was elected Chairman of the NJ Charter Schools Association after having led a year long strategic planning process that has given a new direction and focus on the expansion of quality charter schools throughout NJ. He also serves as a Trustee and Co-Founder of Democracy Prep Charter School based in Harlem (NY). In 2006, he received Democracy Prep’s “Change the World” award for helping create the school. In 2010, Lejnieks was appointed to the National Advisory Board of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, replacing US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Lejnieks also serves on the Board of Regents for Saint Peter’s College.
Lejnieks’ work in the community is longstanding. In reaction to area violence while in high school, Lejnieks co-founded a non-profit organization called Serendipity Café. The Café received national media attention for its impact in the community and currently still exists. For his “outstanding citizenship”, Lejnieks was given the New York Times Young Citizens Award in 1995. More recently, in 2010, the Mayor and City Council of Jersey City honored Lejnieks for his “investment in education” for local youth. In 2009, Lejnieks received the NJBiz “40 under 40” top NJ business people award as well as the Montclair Neighborhood Development Corp’s “Community Award” for his commitment to underserved populations.
A former collegiate varsity wrestler, Lejnieks is President of his graduating class and, in 2006, was appointed to the national Board of Directors of Brown University’s Association of Class Leaders (RI). Lejnieks has an M.Sc. degree from the London School of Economics and B.A. degree in International Relations and Commerce from Brown University.
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