Barbara J. Klas, Esquire, Director

Barbara joined the College of St. Catherine as the Director of the Institute in October 2006. She brings to the position a compelling range of corporate, leadership and entrepreneurial experience as well as indefatigable energy and enthusiasm.

Barbara is an honors graduate of the College of St. Catherine where she earned her B.A. in English and French. In 1991, she added a Juris Doctor from William Mitchell College of Law. Barbara joined Rider Bennett law firm and was a successful trial attorney in the firm’s litigation department. She then moved into management roles in sales and business development in both small and large corporations. As Vice President and Associate Publisher of Minnesota's homegrown magazine, Minnesota Law & Politics, she started to hone her entrepreneurial skills. There, she doubled its revenue and circulation and helped launch the magazine’s successful Super Lawyer publications. She became the Major Accounts Sales Executive for the former Knight Ridder-St. Paul Pioneer Press and received the corporation’s Outstanding Customer Service award for three years running.

Most recently, she served as Vice President and Business Development Officer for Wealth Management at Wells Fargo Private Bank. As an executive, she was successful in expanding its clientele among business executives and women entrepreneurs, increasing investable assets for the division, and leveraging corporate partnerships. Barbara also led a team of executives that initiated an exclusive wealth management and professional development seminar series for Wells Fargo senior women executives and was successful in expanding partnerships across the company.

In these venues, Barbara exercised management skills, honed her abilities to work with a variety of clients and became adept at training and development. Her entrepreneurial spirit continues to be a hallmark of her success. Throughout her career, Barbara has sought to support and work with women executives and business owners, and she has been fortunate to include many women leaders among her mentors, colleagues and dear friends. She is honored to lead the Institute to its next stage of growth and to continue the Institute’s mission to inspire women to lead and influence.

Inspired and mentored by her professors at St. Catherine’s and her mother (who is also a St. Kate’s graduate), Barbara values being involved in the community and doing pro bono work. She currently serves on the William Mitchell College of Law Alumni Advisory Board, is an active member of the Minnesota Women Lawyers Association where she co-chairs its Leadership Committee, and she is the co-chair of the marketing and public relations committee for St. Croix Montessori.

Barbara lives in Woodbury with her husband, Tom Jamison, and two young sons. Barbara is fluent in French, is a certified Pilates instructor, and enjoys all things French, travel, cooking, Pilates and yoga, and playing with all the boys in her life.