As part of its 150th anniversary celebration, St. Bonaventure University will honor three Rochester community 
leaders with Gaudete Medals at the annual awards dinner April 10 in Rochester.
Honorees for 2008 include Arunas A. Chesonis, chief executive officer of PAETEC Holding Corp.; the Most Rev. Matthew H. Clark, Bishop of the Diocese of Rochester; and James G. Gould, president of Alesco Advisors, LLC, and a member of SBU’s class of 1980.
“We are so proud to honor all of these remarkable people with our Gaudete Medal,” said Sr. Margaret Carney, O.S.F., S.T.D., University president. “They are shining examples of joyful service, making visible and sustained contributions that change the lives of others around them.”
St. Bonaventure’s Gaudete (gow-DAY-tay) Medals honor business and community leaders who exemplify the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi through their joy, hope, positive outlook on life, sincerely compassionate spirit and desire to serve humankind. Recipients of the Gaudete, which means “Rejoice!” in Latin, have inspired, encouraged and enlightened others through their personal and professional lives.
The awards dinner is Thursday, April 10, at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center. Co-chairs of the event are Ronald Salluzzo, SBU class of 1972, and his wife, Sharon; and Robert King, class of 1980.
Individual tickets are $150, but corporate tables of varying sponsorship levels are also available. Proceeds will be allocated to the University’s scholarship fund.
To be a part of the celebration, contact Anne Goergen at St. Bonaventure, (716) 375-4085 or agoergen@sbu.edu.
Arunas Chesonis is responsible for the vision, leadership and direction of the company. Under the watch of Chesonis, PAETEC has achieved remarkable growth.
Within five years of founding PAETEC in May 1998, Chesonis led the company to achieve the No. 2 ranking in the 2003 Deloitte Fast 500 list of the fastest-growing public and private technology companies in North America. In 2001, he was awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. In 2006, Chesonis received the Herbert W. Vanden Brul Entrepreneurial Award by the College of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology.
This growth has not come at the expense of doing business the right way. PAETEC received the national 2005 American Business Ethics Award sponsored by the Society for Financial Service Professionals.
Chesonis began his career at Rochester Telephone Corporation, now part of Citizens Communications Company. He went on to serve as president of ACC Corp., until it was purchased by TCG/ATT in 1998.
Chesonis holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an MBA from the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester, and an honorary doctorate of laws from the University of Rochester.
He is chairman of the director’s Council for the Earth System Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and serves as trustee at the Harley School, Rochester Institute of Technology and the
University of Rochester.
Pope John Paul II ordained the Most Rev. Matthew Clark a bishop on May 27, 1979, at St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome. He was installed as the eighth Bishop of Rochester on June 26, 1979.
Bishop Clark grew up near Albany and did his early education in that area before attending Mater Christi Seminary in Albany, St. Bernard’s Seminary in Rochester and the North American College in Rome. He was ordained a priest for the Albany diocese on Dec. 19, 1962. He served in various positions in the Albany diocese, including as vice chancellor, prior to serving as assistant spiritual director (1972-1974) and spiritual director (1974-1979) at the North American College in Rome.
Bishop Clark holds a licentiate in theology and a licentiate in canon law from the Gregorian University in Rome. He has served on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Women in Society and in the Church, the Committee on Vocations, the Administrative Committee, as the Episcopal Liaison to the National Federation for Youth Ministry and as a member of the Board of Directors of the American College, Louvain.
Jim Gould founded Alesco Advisors, an investment advisory firm, in 2000. Before that he was president of Clover Capital Management Inc. He has also held positions at Xerox Corp., KPMG Peat Marwick, and IBM. He is a certified public accountant.
Gould serves on several boards in the Rochester area. He is board chair of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rochester and is a board member of the Pluta Cancer Center. He is a member of the Investment Committee of the United Way of Greater Rochester, a member of the Pension Committee of the Diocese of Rochester, as well as a member of his parish’s Finance Council.
Gould has served on numerous other boards including St. Ann’s of Greater Rochester, as chair of the St. Ann’s Foundation; The Al Sigl Center Partners’ Foundation; and the Catholic Family Center. He is also a board member at Anaren Inc., a public company headquartered in Syracuse, where he serves on the Audit Committee and as chair of the Compensation and Investment committees.
Gould has been active with St. Bonaventure University. He served as a member of the Board of Trustees from 1998 until 2007 and was chair of the board’s committees on Athletics, Trusteeship and Marketing. He was also a member of the Investment and the Enrollment committees. Gould is also a past Rochester Alumni Association president and has worked as an Annual Fund volunteer.
Gould lives in Pittsford with his wife, Ann, who is also a 1980 St. Bonaventure graduate, and their four daughters, two of whom are students at St. Bonaventure.