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Thomson Reuters Names Sharon Sayles Belton VP of Community Relations and Government Affairs for Its Legal Business
EAGAN, Minn., USA, March 23, 2010 – The Legal business of Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, has named Sharon Sayles Belton, former mayor of the city of Minneapolis, as vice president, Community Relations and Government Affairs.
In her new role, Sayles Belton will direct government affairs activities, focusing on key issues that impact the legal businesses of Thomson Reuters as well as its customers and employees. In addition, she will lead the company’s community outreach efforts through Community Relations and sponsorships to ensure greater connectivity between individual programs/activities and the company’s mission, values and goals.
Sayles Belton joins Thomson Reuters from GMAC Financial Services, where she served as director of community relations and corporate philanthropy. While at GMAC, she helped launch an innovative nonprofit organization called the Homeownership Preservation Foundation that offered a national hotline and free counseling to help individuals preserve their home ownership. In addition, she oversaw a national financial education program to help consumers learn how to make responsible financial decisions; she created greater connectivity between the sponsorship of organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and the company’s auto, insurance and mortgage businesses; and she worked closely with local community activists to ensure that GMAC met the expectations and obligations as a corporate citizen in the communities it served.
Sayles Belton’s career has been forged on a lifetime dedicated to public service and creating public-private opportunities. She is a senior fellow at the Hubert Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota and is a nationally recognized expert on public safety, neighborhood livability and economic development.
In 1993, Sayles Belton was the first African American and the first woman to be elected mayor in the city of Minneapolis’ 140-year history. During her tenure as mayor from 1994 to 2001, she facilitated the creation of the nationally recognized Phillips Partnership to address public safety, job creation and quality housing in one of the highest-crime, poorest neighborhoods in Minneapolis.
Sayles Belton is involved in race equality, leadership and public policy development, as well as family, women’s and children's issues. She currently serves on the boards of the Homeownership Preservation Foundation (http://www.995hope.org/) and the Hennepin Healthcare System Inc., the parent organization of the Hennepin County Medical Center. She co-founded the Harriet Tubman Shelter for Battered Women in Minneapolis in 1978; is a co-founder of the National Coalition Against Sexual Assault; and has contributed to the Neighborhood Revitalization Program, the Bush Foundation and the Business Council for the United States Conference of Mayors. She is the recipient of the Gertrude E. Rush Distinguished Service Award, presented by the National Bar Association, and the Rosa Parks Award, presented by the American Association for Affirmative Action, among many other honors.
A Minneapolis resident, Sayles Belton attended Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn.
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