Paul LeClerc is past president and chief executive officer of the New York Public Library. He attended Holy Cross High School in Flushing, New York, and was part of their first graduating class in 1959. He is a French literature scholar, former president of Hunter College and is a trustee of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. LeClerc serves also as Director of the National Book Foundation and the Maison Française of Columbia University. He earned a B.A. from the College of the Holy Cross and a Ph.D. in French literature from Columbia University. In 2009 he announced that he would retire from his position as President in the summer of 2011. Subsequently, Columbia University announced that LeClerc would direct its Paris Global Center. "Paul LeClerc will oversee the center as it seeks to expand its academic offerings and forge ties with campus cultural houses."