Linda Rabbitt is the expert on the relationship between hard work and success. Her elegant style and effervescent approach to leadership reveal that she's also having an enormous amount of fun enjoying her success. Her resume shows that Linda's pathway to power and prestige did not follow a straight line; but her laser-like ambition to achieve as much as her talent and brainpower would permit ensured her steady rise from a position as a secretary with a major accounting firm to chairman of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, one of the most influential business leadership positions in the nation's capital.

Along the way, Linda gave new meaning to the idea of networking, honing this essential business skill as she wove the web of critical relationships that sustained her through business challenges, personal crises and ultimate triumph. She became an outstanding volunteer, involved with the Washington Building Congress, CREW (Commercial Real Estate Women of Washington) and the International Women's Forum.

Founder and owner of Rand Construction Corporation, the fourth largest woman-owned general contractor in the nation, Linda Rabbitt and Rand have won numerous awards for the company's high quality building renovations. A graduate of the University of Michigan and George Washington University, Linda had no prior background in construction when she founded the company, but she soon became an expert in reading blueprints. Rand became one of the top interior construction companies in the Washington region, thanks in no small measure to Linda's relentless pursuit of excellence all details of the work, combined with her remarkable talent for generating business. Along the way, she also became a mentor to many other women in business who admire her as a role model for achievement in a highly competitive market.

Success has many dimensions for Linda Rabbitt. Diagnosed with breast cancer in the Year 2000, she brought the same laser-like focus to bear on beating this disease that she applied to all of her business triumphs, and she won. She drew strength from her web of relationships, and most importantly from her family including her daughters Ashleigh and Lauren, and husband John Whalen.

Linda Rabbitt stands out in the Washington community today as an exemplar of courage, excellence and leadership. Her accomplishments and success are surely worthy of their own chapter in the book of women's history in the Washington community, and on the occasion of the 2002 Women's History Month, Trinity College is proud to honor Linda Rabbitt as a Washington Woman of Genius.

President Patricia A. McGuire
March 14, 2002