Boston– Two Boston executives, Paul J. Ayoub, Chair of the Boston-based law firm Nutter, and Judy A. Habib, co-founder, and chief executive officer of KHJ Brand Activation, have been elected to leadership positions on the national Board of Governors of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital®.
Ayoub has been selected to serve as Chair and Habib as Vice-Chair of the St. Jude Board of Governors. Since the hospital opened in 1962, the Boards of Directors and Governors have been involved in the lifesaving mission of St. Jude: Finding cures. Saving children.®
They both previously served as Chairs of the Board of Directors of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization of St. Jude. Since the hospital opened in 1962, the Boards of Directors and Governors have been involved in the lifesaving mission of St. Jude: Finding cures. Saving children.®
The members of the Boards of Directors and Governors are volunteers who serve without compensation and provide governance and strategic oversight for both ALSAC and St. Jude.
“We are so grateful for the long-time leadership of Paul and Judy and for their service to our mission of finding cures for children suffering from cancer and other life-threatening diseases,” said Marlo Thomas, St. Jude National Outreach Director and daughter of the late entertainer Danny Thomas, who founded ALSAC and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. “As Officers of our Boards, they will play a critical role in supporting my father’s dream that we will reach a day when no child will die in the dawn of life.”
Ayoub joined the ALSAC/St. Jude Boards in 1992, having served as ALSAC Board Chair from 2015 – 2017. In addition to serving as Chair of Nutter, he represents a broad range of commercial real estate, for-profit and nonprofit business clients both locally and nationally.
Ayoub also serves as Chair Emeritus and a member of the Executive Committee of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, and is a member and past president of the Board of Directors of the Real Estate Finance Association (REFA). Ayoub also serves as a co-chair of the 2021 IWBI Health Equity Advisory along with a select group of leading global real estate industry professionals, working to identify, codify, and scale strategies to address health inequities in buildings, businesses, and communities around the world. He also currently serves on the Board of Incorporators of the Boston Local Development Corporation, the Advisory Board of Small Business Strong and served on the Mayor’s Reopening Advisory Board for the City of Boston during the peak of COVID-19.
Habib joined the ALSAC/St. Jude Boards in 1994, recusing herself for two years in 2004 and 2005 to support the Thomas family in launching the St. Jude Thanks and Giving campaign. She just completed a two-year term as Board Chair for ALSAC which achieved a record-breaking fundraising goal of $2 billion and iconic brand status for St Jude. As CEO of KHJ Brand Activation, Habib leads a team recognized as one of the top-ranked marketing and branding agencies and woman-led companies in the region.
Habib also serves as President of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Women’s Forum. Membership is comprised of 200 of the Commonwealth’s top-ranking executives and influential thought leaders and is affiliated with the International Women’s Forum. She additionally serves on the Board of Directors for the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the president’s communications advisory committee.
Both follow their fathers, Ayoub’s father, Joseph S. Ayoub, Sr., and Habib’s father, Halim G. Habib, MD, in service to St. Jude. The first generation served together for several decades on the ALSAC/St. Jude Boards as well as Emeritus Board members beginning from the earliest days of both organizations.
As Board Chair and Vice-Chair, Ayoub and Habib will oversee governance of St. Jude, which earlier this year, launched its largest strategic investment in its nearly 60-year history, committing $11.5 billion over six years to accelerate research and treatment globally for children with catastrophic diseases. This investment will expand patient care and clinical and laboratory-based research related to pediatric catastrophic illnesses, including work in cancer, blood disorders, neurological diseases, and infectious diseases, and triple St. Jude’s global investments to improve survival rates around the world.
