Chief Executive Officer of Big Brothers Big Sisters Central Mass and MetroWest
Returnee – U.S. to Portugal 1985; Chief Financial Officer, AFS International 2002-2004; Host Mom Argentina 2012, Italy 2014, Finland 2016, and Portugal 2019; Nat Mom to Spain 2018;
volunteer from 2009-19, including as a liaison and interviewer for YES program.
Connie (Saienga) Askin is the CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Mass and MetroWest, part of an international mentoring non-profit. She is a resourceful leader with broad experience and dramatic results in both for-profit and not-for-profit businesses. She founded a marketing consultancy before earning an MBA, and as an ‘intrapreneur’ has built finance & operations teams in larger for-profit and not-for-profit organizations for over 20 years, including serving with AFS International as CFO. She has curated a career that spans industries/sectors and professional skills, in small non-profits and large corporations. She is also a long-time volunteer and a Board resource.
Connie grew up in Montevideo, Minnesota, and dreamed of being an AFS student from a very early age. At 16, she realized that dream, spending her 1984-85 school year in Portugal. She spent her undergrad years at Harvard University. She earned a Master of Business Administration from Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College in Wellesley, MA, which included a summer internship in Tokyo, Japan.
Connie, her husband Donny, and beloved dog Emma live in Wayland, Massachusetts. Their daughter, returnee Olivia, has experience living in Barcelona and Tunisia; they all treasure the continued close relationships with their AFS daughters/sisters.
