Bob Giannino

Appointed in 2020, Bob Giannino serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley. At United Way, he leads a team focused on ensuring access to financial opportunity and educational success for families and children in eastern Massachusetts.

Formerly, Bob served as CEO of uAspire where he oversaw the transformation of the organization from a small, local organization serving 1,000 young people in Boston into a national, award-winning, enterprise reaching more than 25 states and 300,000 students each year. Today, uAspire is a national leader in providing college affordability services to young people, families and college access and success practitioners and through its policy and systems change efforts, is on track to dramatically improve financial access to a college degree and economic opportunity for millions of young people.

During Bob’s tenure, uAspire has been featured in numerous media outlets for their expertise on issues of college affordability, including NPR, Time Magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Huffington Post, and Chronicle of Higher Education. Since 2010, uAspire has been recognized as: an Organization of Excellence Award by the National College Access Network; a Social Innovator by the Social Innovation Forum; one of the nation’s “Best Non-Profits to Work For” by Opportunity Knocks; an Innovator by the MIT Initiative on Digital Economy.

Bob is on the Faculty of the Institute for Nonprofit Practice and serves on numerous Boards including the governing boards of Idealist.org and Root Cause and the Advisory Boards for Noonan Scholars, ScholarJet, and Excel Academy Charter Schools. Bob was recognized as a Barr Fellow in 2015. His leadership has also been recognized by New Profit, Freedom House, Social Capital Inc, and Year Up, among others.

As the first in his family to attend college, a product of the Somerville (MA) Public Schools, and a graduate of Harvard College, Bob knows the vital role that strong financial guidance and minimizing debt plays in ensuring a strong economic future. Bob lives in East Boston, with his husband Cameron, and has a son who works for Planned Parenthood in Florida.