Bonnie McElveen-Hunter is the Founder and CEO of Pace Communications, current Chairman of the American Red Cross, and former U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Finland (2001-2003).

Pace Communications is the largest custom publishing company in the nation serving an array of Fortune 500 companies such as Southwest Airlines, US Airways, Bluetooth, Carlson Travel Group, Wachovia, Toyota, Verizon, Four Seasons and USAA, making Bonnie one of the nation’s most successful women entrepreneurs, ranked by Working Woman Magazine as one of the top 175 women-owned businesses in America. 

During her term as U.S. Ambassador to Finland, Bonnie led several initiatives to success, including the Women Business Leaders Summit® in Helsinki in 2002 for women from the Baltic Region and Russia.  Another successful Summit was held two years later in Riga, Latvia, and a third in 2007 in Amman, Jordan for women from Iraq, Palestine, Syria and other Middle East nations which was continued into Bahrain and Dubai in the fall of 2008.  These Summits helped to advance entrepreneurship and encourage businesswomen from the Baltic Region to the Middle East to launch or expand business opportunities in their native countries.  In 2003, she initiated Stop Child Trafficking: End Modern-Day Slavery and Children of Karelia.  The program helped Finnish and Russian charities assist children at risk from drugs, crime, HIV/AIDS and trafficking.  For her exceptional and outstanding services, the President of Finland awarded Bonnie one of Finland’s highest honors — the Commander Grand Cross of the Order of the Lion.

As a long-time philanthropist and charitable-cause activist, Bonnie was appointed by President Bush as National Chairman of the Board of the American Red Cross in 2005.   Her appointment marked the first time a woman has been named to this position, and in 2007 the Board voted unanimously to appoint her as Chairman for a second term.  Bonnie has served as a member of the International Board of Directors of Habitat for Humanity, chaired the Alexis de Tocqueville Society, served on the United Way of America Board as a member of its National Leadership Council, and founded the United Way Billion Dollar National Women’s Leadership Initiative which to date has raised more than 600 million dollars. More recently Bonnie co-founded The Tiffany Circle Society of Women Leaders, and serves on numerous Boards, including Malaria No More, Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Elon University School of Law Board of Advisors, St. Regis Women’s Advisory Board, Washington National Opera, and is Chairman of Washington National Opera’s Global Advisory Board.

Bonnie McElveen-Hunter is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Dr. Carl-Christian Rosenbröijer Award, “Woman Entrepreneur of the Year” Award from the National Foundation for Women Legislatures, National Athena Award for business and civic contributions from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, “Outstanding Business Leader” Award from Northwood University; Outstanding Business Leaders Association, and “Trailblazer of the Year” Award from the Women Leaders Forum.  She was inducted into the Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame, is a recipient of the National Alexis de Tocqueville Society Award, was recently awarded a lifetime membership to Hadassah and to the Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc. and has also received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from North Carolina State University, and the Appeal of Conscience Public Service Award. 

She divides her time among Greensboro, North Carolina, Washington, DC…and an airplane…She is married to Bynum Merritt Hunter, an attorney with the law firm of Smith Moore. They have a 27-year-old son, Bynum Merritt Hunter, Jr., a 2005 graduate of Williams College, whom Bonnie calls the family’s “Chairman of the Board.