George H.W. Bush Lifetime of Leadership Award

George H.W. Bush Lifetime Leadership Awardee

Virginia Gilder

  • Class
    1979
  • Induction
    2015
  • Sport(s)
    Women's Rowing



Ginny Gilder '79 earned four varsity letters and was a three-time All-Ivy Champion at Yale as a member of the women's rowing team. Her freshman year she helped usher in the post-Title IX era at Yale by participating in the now-famous women's crew strip-in protesting the lack of equal facilities. Ginny represented the United States on four national teams, including two Olympic teams. She was named to the U.S. team which boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games and won a silver medal as the stroke of the women's quadruples sculls with coxswain at the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984. She holds a pair of international medals, including a bronze from the 1983 World Championships in the single.

Gilder has started several entrepreneurial ventures, both businesses and non-profits, whose founding dreams range from the practical to the transformational. Today, she is CEO of the Gilder Office for Growth and president of the Starfish Group, whose mission is to champion individuals who face steeper odds in creating a sustainable life for themselves. 

In addition, Ginny is the managing member of Force 10 Enterprises, which owns Force to Hoops, the WNBA's Seattle Storm franchise, Force to Sports Management, which provides marketing and management expertise to local and national sports organizations, and Force to Performance, an affordable multi-sport training center for all athletes and abilities. Force 10 Enterprises is dedicated to the philosophy that women should enjoy access to competitive opportunities at every level. 

Gilder has since helped launch community rowing programs in Boston, MA and Derby, CT. She recieved an NCAA Silver Anniversary Award for community service in 2004. An author of a recently published memoir, Course Correction: A Story of Rowing and Resilience in the Wake of Title IX, Ginny is also a mother of three children, step-mother of two, and grandmother of one. Ginny lives with her wife, Lynn, and their two poodles in Seattle, Washington.
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