The Nurturing Network, Founder; Semper Charitable Foundation, President;

Aurea Estate Wines, Inc., CEO; Corporate Strategic Planner,

Charitable Entrepreneur, Best-selling Author and Mother

 

For the past 30 years, Mary Cunningham Agee has served as President of Semper Charitable Foundation, a family foundation that contributes to empowerment and education of the most vulnerable. She is President and CEO of Aurea Estate Wines, Inc, a boutique wine company specializing in the production and marketing of premium Pinot Noir and Merlot.

 

LEADERSHIP AND PHILANTHROPY

Ms. Agee is the Founder of the Nurturing Network, an international charitable organization dedicated to alleviating the many forms of abuse, neglect and exploitation that persist in our global society. For over three decades, the Network specialized in offering an individually-tailored program of practical, life-affirming support free of charge to college students and working women. Under Mary's leadership, the Nurturing Network grew to include 52,000 volunteer Resource Members located in all 50 states and in 30 foreign countries. TNN provided counseling, medical services, nurturing homes, employment, educational opportunities and financial assistance to over 25,000 women whose own support networks had let them down. Setting politics and rhetoric aside, the Network provided for the urgent and practical needs of women abandoned during pregnancy.

  

PREVIOUS EMPLOYMENT

Agee has served in the top management of two Fortune 100 companies as the Vice President of Strategic Planning. Her international banking experience includes serving as Assistant Treasurer in the Corporate Banking Department of the Chase Manhattan Bank World Headquarters and in the Corporate Finance Department of Salomon Brothers.

 

WINEMAKING

Ms. Agee was promoted to Executive Vice President of the Seagram Wine Company in recognition of her strategic plan that created a worldwide wine marketing strategy.  As CEO of Aurea Estate Wines, Inc., she has overseen for ten years the development and marketing of highly acclaimed Pinot Noir and Merlot. In 2017, she was featured in the Napa Valley publication, Wine Country Women. Ms. Agee was the first woman inducted into the prestigious international order, Compagnons du Beaujolais, and serves as a Founding Member and Grand Maitre of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter.

 

EDUCATION AND DEGREES

Ms. Agee graduated in 1979 from the Harvard Business School with a Master's Degree in Finance and International Business. She was appointed to the highly-selective Century Club and was a finalist for the Copeland Marketing Award. She graduated with Honors from Wellesley College where she majored in Logic and Philosophy and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Ms. Agee was nominated twice for a Danforth Fellowship and received a Slater fellowship for study in Law, Ethics and Political Philosophy at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.

 

She has been awarded Honorary Doctoral degrees from Franciscan University of Steubenville, Loyola University Maryland, Stonehill College, Franklin Pierce College, Chestnut Hill College, Notre Dame College and the Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology at Berkeley.

 

BOARD EXPERIENCE

Mary Cunningham Agee is the President and CEO of Aurea Estate Wines, Inc., and Semper Charitable Foundation which she founded in 1984. Ms. Agee serves on the Emeritus Board of FADICA and the Board of Overseers of the Aquinas House at Dartmouth College. She also serves as a Fellow of the Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology at Berkeley. Leadership includes service as Founder and President of Nurturing Network for over 30 years.

 

She has served as Vice Chairman of the National Council for Adoption, President of the Culture of Life Foundation, Director of FADICA and Clinica Verde in Nicaragua. Ms. Agee has served on the Advisory Board of the Susan B. Anthony List, the Sisters of Life, Women Affirming Life, the Common Ground for Life and Choice, AnnieCannons, Inc., and Enough Is Enough, a national campaign to break pornographic abuse.

 

Ms. Agee's Board service also includes the Gregorian University Foundation, Key Bank of Idaho, the First Women's Bank of New York, the Diocesan Board of Stewards in both Idaho and Monterey, CA, the Board of Governors of the Music Center of Los Angeles, the Thomas More Law School, Marymount Manhattan College, Franklin Pierce College, the Institute of Business Ethics, the Hoffman Institute, the Graduate School of Business at University College Dublin, the Catholic Schools Foundation in Boston and Justin-Siena High School in Napa Valley where she was appointed Co-Chairman of their $5,000,000 Capital Campaign. She served as Honorary Co-Chairman of the Annual Napa Valley Hospice Benefit in the Napa Valley and was instrumental in helping raise over $500,000 in one event. 

 

AWARDS & HONORS

For two successive years, Ms. Agee was voted by World Almanac one of "The 25 Most Influential Women in America." She was selected by Good Housekeeping in their 100th Anniversary Edition as one of "100 Young Women of Promise." She has been recognized as one of the "Outstanding Young Women of America" and is included among the YWCA's Academy of Women Achievers. She was chosen as an honoree for "50 Years of Women at Harvard Business School" recognizing 100 women whose leadership has made a positive social impact.

 

Ms. Agee received the John Paul II Award from the Institute for Psychological Sciences, the Ambassador of the Year Award from Legatus, the ITV Woman of the Year Award from the Archdiocese of New York, the Citizen of the Year Award from the Idaho Family Forum, the Archbishop John Hughes Award from Mount Saint Mary's Seminary in Maryland and induction into the College of Fellows at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkley, California.

 

Among her many awards and distinctions, Ms. Agee has received the Freedom Award from Provo, Utah, the Economic Equity Award from the Women's Equity Action League, Pro-Vita Award from the Archdiocese of Brooklyn, and the Humanitarian Lifetime Award from the Wisdom Institute. She has received the Centennial Medal of Honor from the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University of America, the James Keller Award from The Christophers, and a national Award by the members of the U.S. Senate and Childhelp USA for her exemplary efforts to assist children and families. Her lifetime commitment to charitable causes has been recognized by appointment to both The Order of Malta and the Order of the Holy Sepulchre.

 

PROFESSIONAL AND POLITICAL AFFILIATIONS

Ms. Agee has served as a member of the Advisory Council of the Hoover Institution and the Board of Governors of the Council for National Policy.  She has served as a Chairman's Advisor for the Journal of Business Strategy, the Strategic Planning Committee of the Conference Board and the United States Congressional Advisory Board. Her memberships include the Founder's Circle of the Women's Leadership Network, the Women's Forum, the Women's Equity Action League, and the National Leadership Roundtable. She has presented testimony before the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources and the Supreme Court of the United States. Her affiliations include the United Negro College Fund, Economic Club of New York, the National Association of Business Economists and the American Management Association, the Family Policy Council and the Speakers Bureau for the National Policy Forum. Mrs. Agee's local service commitments include appointment as a Founding Member and Membership Chair of the Napa Valley Chapter of Legatus.  Other affiliations include membership in Meadowood Napa Valley, The Napa Valley Reserve and The Battery in San Francisco.

 

ACHIEVEMENTS

Mary Cunningham Agee is the best-selling author of Powerplay, an autobiography that reached the New York Times list in record time for a first-time author. Her literary talent was recognized with the Golden Pen Award for outstanding achievement from the Authors' Guild. Her views have been included in many books including American Women Activists' Writings, An Anthology, 1637-2002, Catholics in the Public Square, Public Catholicism, and Why I am Still Catholic. Nightingale-Conant, the world's largest Audio cassette producer, selected Ms. Agee for their renowned "Insight" series along with Norman Cousins and Phil Caldwell: a twelve-part series that featured her views on Strategic Planning, Corporate Management and Business Ethics.

 

Ms. Agee's accomplishments in founding and directing The Nurturing Network have been featured in Reader's Digest, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Good Housekeeping, Human Life Review, USA Today Our Sunday Visitor, and Newsweek among many others. Mrs. Agee received the highest rating as a public speaker from the International Platform Association and continues to speak out with courage and conviction about empowerment for women, the defense of the most vulnerable, humanizing the corporate culture, and reforming the society at large. Mary has been interviewed on many prominent national radio and television programs including: CBS "48 Hours," ABC News Forum with Peter Jennings, CBS This Morning, CBS News Nightwatch, The Phil Donahue Show, The Barbara Walters Special, NBC Today Show, Good Morning America, James Dobson's Focus on the Family, and Ted Koppel.

 

She has addressed such diverse and prestigious organizations as the Commonwealth Club of California, the Young Presidents' Organization, the American Newspaper Publishers Association, the National Association of Accountants, the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, the American Personnel and Guidance Association, the Pontifical Athenaeum of the Holy Cross and the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome, Italy. Her speeches and commentaries have been widely published in such well-known publications as TV Guide, Newsweek, Harper's Bazaar, International Management, Working Woman, Industry Week, Conference Board Magazine, The Human Life Review and Vital Speeches.  Her views on corporate ethics have been published in Institutions for Projecting American Values Abroad, III.

 

Ms. Agee continues to write articles and teach about a culture in need of practical compassion. She is the mother of two children, Mary Alana and Will and lives in the Napa Valley.