PROVIDENCE – Partnership for Rhode Island’s founding executive director is heading off to the private sector.
Tom Giordano, who established and led the nonprofit CEO roundtable for the past eight years, is leaving the organization, spokesperson Mike Raia confirmed Wednesday to Providence Business News. It is currently unclear specifically where Giordano is heading to, but Raia says Giordano is “remaining in Rhode Island.”
Giordano
helped form Partnership for Rhode Island in 2017 under then-Gov. Gina M. Raimondo, who, seeing other states successfully launch similar initiatives, gathered CEOs from the state’s largest employers with a challenge to look beyond policies and bills for more ways to drive infrastructure improvements. Organizations in the partnership are AAA Northeast, Amica Mutual Insurance Co., Bank of America Corp., Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island, Brown University, Citizens Bank N.A., CVS Health Corp., FM, Gilbane Building Co., Hasbro Inc., International Game Technology PLC, Providence Equity Partners and the Rhode Island Foundation.
Giordano’s salary in 2023 was $309,163, according to the organization’s most recent 990 form that is publicly available. Among Partnership for Rhode Island’s achievements, Raia says, is CompeteRI. The program is intended to assist local leaders and other Rhode Island institutions with grant writing, with the state eligible for up to $700 million in federal grants from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, also known as the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act.
Additionally, the group during Giordano’s leadership funded “SMART Clinics” in Providence Public Schools during the pandemic, though the idea predates COVID-19. The clinics, a $1.4 million initiative, provide health care services to students, teachers and families regardless of immigration or insurance status, with the idea starting with former CVS Health CEO Larry J. Merlo in 2019.
Raia also confirmed that Partnership for Rhode Island in 2019 funded the Johns Hopkins University report on the Providence Public School District, which eventually led to the R.I. Department of Education assuming ongoing control of Rhode Island's largest school system.
(UPDATED: Added 6th paragraph to note Partnership for Rhode Island's funding of the 2019 Johns Hopkins University report on the Providence Public School District.)
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on X at @James_Bessette. PBN reporter Jacquelyn Voghel contributed to this report.
