Claudia Gentner '79 MLS

cgentner@kannoncom.com

Claudia A. Gentner is a partner with Kannon Communications, the leading Value Added Reseller (VAR) of FirstClass products and related services in North America. FirstClass is a feature-rich messaging and collaboration platform that has been used by 8 million individuals in thousands of schools and businesses to create powerful online electronic communities.

Claudia previously served as Chief Information Officer of Lee Hecht Harrison, the global career transition consulting firm headquartered in Woodcliff Lake, NJ, with offices in over 240 locations.

As CIO and member of the Executive Committee at Lee Hecht Harrison, Claudia conceived, launched and championed new businesses that had information technology components, specifically LHH@HOME and ExecuPlanet. She represented the firm to major customers and prospects, particularly among the Fortune 1000. Her responsibilities included a wide range of information services such as Sydney, the corporate Intranet built on the FirstClass platform, and LHH’s Career Resource Network, an extranet used by over 100,000 clients annually. She hosted a 12-part cable TV series and has written for a variety of publications.

Claudia joined LHH in 1997 with the acquisition of Seagate Associates, a New Jersey-based career transition consulting firm she co-founded in 1983. There, she led the industry by establishing information services as a critical component of the outplacement process and started a world-class Business Information Center to serve both clients and consultants. She had an active role in the growth of the largest career transition network, Outplacement International, a corporation owned by independent outplacement firms, serving as its President from 1991-92.

A native of New Jersey, Claudia was graduated from Rutgers School of Communication and Information with an MLS in Information Science. She serves Rutgers as chairman of the SC&I Advisory Board, and is a Board member of CISSL, the Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries. Claudia has been a member of the Board of the Printmaking Council of New Jersey and the Marketing Committee of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

Claudia was also instrumental in starting On Eagle’s Wings, an ecumenical airplane ministry in remote areas of Canada. She travels most summers to teach in a Dogrib village in the Northwest Territories of Canada.

Claudia lives in Glen Rock, NJ with her husband, Ken, who is an IBM mergers and acquisitions executive.