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Golfers Arnold Palmer, Leslie Greis, and Dan Quayle. Bob Straus |
When Leslie Greis '80 matriculated in 1976, several years after the passage of Title IX, Harvard still had no women's golf team. Happily, when she approached the men's coach about teeing up, both he and the team captain "were very supportive and said 'Sure, come on out,'" Greis remembers. Did she find being the sole female among men a hazard? "It was not a challenge," Greis insists. "The golf course was the challenge. Getting to the golf course was more of a challenge than being accepted by the team."
In June, Greis was honored by the College Golf Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports collegiate golf programs, and Rolex Watch U.S.A. with the Rolex Achievement Award, given to former varsity collegiate golfers in recognition of their subsequent professional and civic success. Former Vice President Dan Quayle was her fellow recipient, and legendary golfer Arnold Palmer presented them with their awards.
After graduation, Greis toured the country for three years as a professional golfer, and came to appreciate further Harvard's personal links: "I got to keep up with a lot of classmates all around the country," she recalls. In fact, her tour itinerary was often determined by crimson affiliations, and a given week on the road almost resembled a capital campaign trip.
Eventually Greis did find herself working around capital markets, after deciding to retire her clubs and "put her economics degree to good use." Her first stop was in the acquisitions department of Winthrop Financial in Boston, where she was involved in the acquisition and syndication of commercial real estate. Next she joined Bank of Boston, where she was both innovator and executor of Earnings Plus, a consultation practice that "helped smaller banks which had just gone public to be more competitive." Then, as executive vice president at People's Bancorp of Worcester, she oversaw community banking and asset and liability management. After the company was purchased in 1995, she joined Cambridge Associates, a firm that advises endowed nonprofit institutions. The new job lets her combine favorite aspects of her previous posts. "There are some people who like to handle just numbers, and others who like people," Greis says. "I like both."
She applies her financial expertise to public service as well. The Greater Worcestor Community Fund benefits from her guidance as a corporator and member of its investment committee, and she has also served in several capacities for the United Way. All the while, Greis has maintained her strong connections to Harvard: co-chairing her fifteenth reunion, serving as a regional director of the HAA, and completing a three-year stint on the University's Shareholder Advisory Committee. Now she sits on the Happy Observance of Commencement Committee--"When I first heard many years ago that there was something called the 'happy committee,' I thought, 'I want to be on that!'" she recalls--while serving as the HAA representative to the Radcliffe College Alumnae Association and a director of the Harvard Club of Boston.
She has also continued to encourage the Harvard men's and (since 1993) women's golf teams, and her Rolex award included a donation to her alma mater's golf program. Asked which team would benefit, Greis replied quickly that both teams would share the money, "because I feel close to both."
~ Kirstin E. Butler