Clotilde Perez-Bode Dedecker, president and CEO of the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, will be honored as the 2018 Buffalo Niagara Executive of the Year by the School of Management.

The award will be presented at the 69th Annual UB School of Management Alumni Association Awards Banquet on Oct. 17.

Dedecker was selected by a vote of past honorees and the alumni association’s board of directors, who lauded her as a strong, inclusive leader and force for positive change in the community.

A Buffalo resident and native of Cuba, Dedecker has dedicated her career to improving the lives of others in Western New York. A catalyst and advocate for Buffalo’s resurgence, Dedecker leads the region’s largest philanthropic organization as it stewards more than $485 million in charitable assets from individuals, families, foundations and organizations.

Since 2005, Dedecker has directed the Community Foundation’s strategy to create meaningful community change and bring together public, private, nonprofit and government partners to tackle systemic issues facing the community. These unprecedented partnerships include Say Yes Buffalo, Greater Buffalo Racial Equity Roundtable and the Western New York Impact Investment Fund. Dedecker’s work has attracted more than $93 million to Western New York to support these collective efforts.

She earned a master’s degree in education from UB and a bachelor’s degree from Canisius College.

Established in 1949, the Buffalo Niagara Executive of the Year award is presented annually to an individual who resides in or has a major impact on the region, and whose career has been distinguished by executive success and civic leadership. Recent honorees include the late Mark J. Czarnecki, former president and chief operating officer of M&T Bank; Candace S. Johnson, president and CEO of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center; and Jody Lomeo, BS ’91, CEO of both Kaleida Health and the Great Lakes Health System of Western New York.