Claire is originally from the Chicago area. She grew up in northern Indiana and got her BA from Lake Forest College in Illinois. After that she worked as a trade-book buyer for the Follett Corporation at their Northwestern University location. In 1986, she was ready for a change, so she moved to San Francisco to be near some good friends. The job market on the west coast convinced her that she'd need to set aside her love for books and concentrate on her accounting skills, so she joined the Peabody Group, a now-defunct software company, doing payables and receivables. A couple of years later she made the move to ABA as a payroll and general accounting assistant. In 1991, she was promoted to Controller and has served on the Executive Committee ever since. In her years with ABA Claire has seen it all: a name change, two office moves, thousands of candidates, and a million paychecks (and that's her signature on every one of them). Often referred to as the "memory of ABA," she's the go-to person for questions about the agency's history and evolution. Claire still lives in San Francisco and would not consider moving away, although she loves to travel. She particularly enjoys attending media conventions around the US, cruising to foreign countries, and reading mysteries set in distant and historical locales.



Favorite quote: "Worry is interest paid in advance for a debt you may never owe."