Our President
Leocadia I. Zak became the ninth president of Agnes Scott College in July 2018. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Mount Holyoke College, which recognized her as a Woman of Influence in 2012, she holds a J.D. degree from Northeastern University School of Law.
Zak is treasurer of the Atlanta Regional Council for Higher Education (ARCHE). She is a member of the Rotary Club of Atlanta and the SunTrust Atlanta Advisory Council. She serves on the Metro Atlanta Chamber Innovation and Entrepreneurship Advisory Board (IEAB) and is a trustee of Global Communities: Partners for Good, an international non-profit organization.
With an extensive background in international economic development and international project finance, in 2010 Zak was appointed by President Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as the director of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency. USTDA is an independent federal agency that advances economic development and U.S. commercial interests in developing and middle-income countries. She first joined the agency in 2000, and prior to her appointment as director, she served as general counsel, deputy director
Zak’s accomplishments during her time at USTDA are many: she led the development of the Aviation Cooperation Programs in China, India
Before joining the public sector, Zak spent 18 years at the Boston law firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo PC, which she joined as an associate in 1982. At the firm, she practiced in the area of international and domestic project finance, becoming a partner in 1990.
Zak has taught international project finance as an adjunct faculty member at the Georgetown University Law Center and the Boston University School of Law, including team-teaching with her husband, Kenneth Hansen, a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of the international law firm of Norton Rose Fulbright.