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Company: ChildrenFirst, Inc. Year Started: 1992 Description of Business: ChildrenFirst provides back-up child care to employees of over 260 corporations and consortia throughout the United States and Canada. Corporate clients pay a yearly fee in exchange for a specific number of days of back-up child care. The client's employees are then able to bring their children to a ChildrenFirst center whenever primary child care plans fall through. In 2001, the company had 35,869 registered children and provided 73,172 child visits. The Story: Rosemary Jordano earned a degree in economics and psychology from Wellesley College in 1984. She also holds a Master’s in Developmental Psychology from Oxford University in England earned and an MBA from Stanford University in 1989. She began her career working as a financial analyst for Merrill Lynch Capital Markets in New York and Los Angeles before returning to her primary interest, quality child care. Ms. Jordano was a recipient of The Boston Jaycees 1998 Top Ten Outstanding Young Leaders Award; the Pinnacle Award for Achievement in Business from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce; the Stanford Graduate School of Business Leadership Award; and the 1997-98 Leading Women Award from the Patriot’s Trail Girl Scout Council. She serves on the national board of Jumpstart; the Regis College Board of Trustees; the Dana-Farber Leadership Council; and the Woman’s Health Leadership Forum at Boston’s Bringham & Woman’s Hospital. She has also participated in the Presidential Summit for America’s Future and the White House Conference on Child Care. Ropes and Gray, a Boston law firm, opened a child care center in 1992 to provide backup care for the firms employees. Operation of this center was eventually taken over by ChildrenFirst, and became the first of 31 centers now operating in the United States and Canada. ChildFirst provides an innovative service in a previously untapped market. The company also allows tens of thousands of corporate employees to enhance their job performance by missing fewer days of work. Not only do backup child care providers increase worker productivity, they also give parents peace of mind knowing that their children are being well-cared for in a safe environment. Such centers give parents the opportunity to bring their families with them on business trips, providing an opportunity for greater family togetherness. Back-up child care reduces absenteeism and increases productivity by providing parents with an alternative to taking days off from work when their primary child care plans fall through. ChildrenFirst currently employs over 220 people across the nation and in Canada. Rosemary Jordano and ChildrenFirst have pledged over 100 volunteer hours per employee and 1,000 days of backup child care in the communities they serve.
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Rosemary Jordano
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