Leslie Lillard Walden is Vice President, Regional Public Affairs for Fidelity Investments, one of the world’s largest financial services providers. She leads Fidelity’s government relations, community investing and civic efforts, for Fidelity North Carolina as well as New Jersey, New York, and Florida. She assumed this work in June 2006, as the company announced expansion plans in the Research Triangle. Walden established Fidelity’s public affairs function in North Carolina and serves on the regional leadership team that has supported the company’s efforts to more than triple its headcount in the region. She joined Fidelity in 1998 in the firm’s Corporate Affairs department in Boston, where she managed marketing communications launches for new products and services, including Fidelity’s retirement income planning program for Baby Boomers nearing retirement. She is an honors graduate and holds a B.A. in Political Science and Media Studies from Northeastern University in Boston, MA and is a master’s degree candidate at Suffolk University, also in Boston.