AVAKIAN NAMED VICE PRESIDENT AT MIT

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Jackson native Laura Avakian continues to be a major player in the human resources industry.

Effective Oct. 4, Avakian will become vice president for human resources at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Recipient of the prestigious Award for Professional Excellence from the International Society for Human Resources Management in 1996, the former Laura McClary served 16 years as head of human resources at Harvard University's Beth Israel Hospital. Since Beth Israel's merger with Deaconess Medical Center that year, she had been senior vice present of human resources at the parent corporation, CareGroup.

A 1967 University of Missouri graduate, Avakian credits her parents, Ed and Elizabeth McClary, with instilling in her the ingredients back in Jackson that led to her success.

Her father, she said "taught me how to turn hostile people in collaborators," while her mother possessed "organizational skills and energy . . . unparalleled by most mortals."

Avakian earned her Master's in English at Northwestern and taught at what is now the University of California at Sacramento. After marrying Steve Avakian, she taught at Hathaway Brown School in Cleveland.

At a crossroads in her career, Avakian took a part-time personnel job at Huron Road Hospital in Cleveland in 1973 and has been a rising star in human resource management ever since. She became director of human resources there in 1978, before moving on to Beth Israel Hospital.

Beth Israel was ranked as one of the top nations' top 100 workplaces 13 straight years by Working Mother magazine and was named one of the 10 best places to work in the U.S. in Robert Levering and Milton Moskowitz' book, The 100 Best Companies to Work For in America.

Much of this success has been attributed to Avakian and her trend-cutting ideas of getting employees involved in and enthusiastic about the life of the corporation.

These honors, said Dr. James L. Reinertsen, CEO, CareGroup, "are due in no small measure to the quality of the work accomplished by Laura and the extraordinary HR team she has led."

"Laura Avakian has accomplished a great deal here in two decades of innovative and dedicated leadership and we are all the beneficiaries," Reinersten said. "Personally, we will miss her colleagueship and always-wise counsel, but we are very happy that she will be just across the river in Cambridge."

"Ms. Avakian is a truly exceptional individual. She will bring to the institute's human resource activities keen insight, an energetic, forward-looking approach and a wealth of experience," said President Charles M. Vest, MIT. "She possesses the warm human qualities and flexibility that are needed in MIT's human resource area, particularly in a period of change."

"I'm very excited about coming to MIT," Avakian said. "The culture of collaboration, competency and excellence that has been established at MIT allows people to thrive, whether they are professors, nurses in the Medical Department or secretaries in an office.

"I'm also looking forward to continuing some of the work I've enjoyed in career development for people, encouraging diversity, creating a flexible work environment and enhancing family-friendly programs."