Ms. Marianne M. Keler is director of several non-profit and business structures, among which Building Hope, an organization providing financing and facilities development services to U.S. charter schools, and U-Store-It, a New York Stock Exchange-listed real estate investment trust. She formerly served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Sallie Mae, the largest education loan provider in United States.

Ms. Keler started her career in law at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Then she joined Sallie Mae where she served for more than 20 years in both business and legal positions. Ms. Keler was born in Budapest, Hungary, moved to the United States with her family in 1956, lived in Switzerland and France, and completed high school in Philadelphia. She holds undergraduate and law degrees from Georgetown University. 

Ms. Keler served on the Board from 2000-2004 and re-joined the Board in 2006 after serving for two years on the University Council.

Lasting attraction

What initially attracted me to AUBG were the trustees—an exceptionally impressive and dedicated group—but what has kept my interest over the last 10 years and has given me passion for the institution are the students and the chance to make U.S-style liberal arts experience available to a new generation of young people in this important part of our political world.

Higher education experience

I got involved with AUBG in 1999 through business connections at Sallie Mae where I served as General Counsel and spent most of my career. Part of my responsibilities there included managing our corporate philanthropy—supporting various higher education access programs.  But overall, I did not have a lot of exposure to our higher education customers—so joining the board of a U.S. accredited institution had much appeal.  It was truly a learning opportunity for me with much relevance to my professional life—even though there was never a business relationship between AUBG and Sallie Mae. At the same time, I was able to help the institution upgrade its own student loan program through an in-kind contribution of loan management software and technical expertise.  It is very rewarding to see how well this effort has gone in the last 10 years as AUBG  got out of the business of making direct loans and has had greater success in collecting on its old portfolio.

Meaningful impact

I’m involved with a number of charitable causes and non-profits in my Washington DC community, including my own alma mater but there is no institution where I feel my service and financial contributions go farther than at AUBG.  Its very important for a trustee to feel connected with the institution and the personal impact of their involvement.  With AUBG, I feel both connection and impact on a number of levels, both professional and personal. 

International background

On a personal level, AUBG represented an opportunity for me to reinforce my Eastern European roots and to pull together several strands of my life.  I was born in Budapest and left with my family during the Communist Revolution of 1956.  I have always remained close to my Hungarian relatives and I try to visit with them at least once a year on my way to or from Blagoevgrad.  Unfortunately my Hungarian language skills don’t get me very far in Bulgaria.  However I also speak French and was amazed at how many of our trustees are French or Francophiles. As a young girl, I lived in Lausanne and Paris and hoped one day to make a career in international law or business, using my language skills. Instead, I ended up in international education—even better!

Cross-cultural opportunities

Most important, my involvement with AUBG enables me to support the growth of democracy and freedom through civic learning and a liberal arts education.  The challenges of our world are quite different than even those of 1991 when AUBG was founded—and in many ways the educational mission of the institution is even more critical in today’s more complex political world.  I am a great believer in the power of education to lift both individuals and societies and see American-style liberal arts education as the greatest export product of the United States.  Just as important is the need for Americans to learn about and connect to other parts of the world—and there are no better ambassadors of South Eastern Europe than our AUBG graduates.  Most of them come to the States to work or study at some point during their college or graduate school years, performing at the highest levels side by side with students of the most elite American colleges and universities. These cross-cultural exchanges benefit Americans as much as they benefit AUBG students—and of course they bring immense pride to all of our trustees. Hopefully, there will be a day when we have significant numbers of American students also attending AUBG. 

Glimpse into the future

I feel very fortunate to have connected with AUBG and to have seen it through some difficult years.  We are on our way to financial independence and sustainability and our future depends more and more on the professional achievements and leadership of our alumni and on our ability, as trustees and administrators, to provide our students with the highest quality university education in a unique campus setting.