Patricia Russo

Patricia “Pat” Russo is the former Chairman of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and also serves on the boards of GM, Merck and KKR. She served as Chief Executive Officer of Alcatel-Lucent from 2006 to 2008 after completing that cross border integration.

Patricia Russo is Executive Director of the Women's Campaign School at Yale University. She has taught "Making the Decision to Run" and "Effective Fundraising Techniques" at the School. For over twenty five years, she has been a social activist focused on improving the quality of life for women in Connecticut and the United States, and has held numerous leadership positions in public, private and not for profit sector arenas centered on women's rights. She has also held leadership positions in federal, state and local political campaigns. She speaks extensively on a panoply of issues of importance to women.

In addition to her work on behalf of the Women's Campaign School, she also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Commissions for Women Foundation based in Washington, DC. She is Vice President of the Board of the Foundation for Connecticut Women, and the Advisory Council of Women's Health Research at Yale. She is commissioner emerita for the CT Permanent Commission on the Status of Women, and recently joined the Board of Trustees of the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame.

Russo also served as Chairman of Lucent from 2003 to 2006 and as CEO of Lucent from 2002 to 2006. Prior to rejoining Lucent in 2002, Russo was President and Chief Operating Officer of Kodak from March 2001 to December 2001. She has spent her career in technology-based businesses, including: IBM, AT&T and Lucent Technologies. Russo graduated from Georgetown University with a bachelor’s degree in political science and history, and obtained an Advanced Management Degree from the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program.