Nino Gilarde ‘89, the CFO for Viant Medical, a medical device manufacturing company, lives with his wife Debi in Foxboro, where they are active in St. Mary’s parish. They have two daughters, Alison and Grace, who are currently in graduate school and college, respectively. Nino likes to play golf and their family enjoys spending time on Cape Cod.
The sixth of seven children, Nino grew up in Brighton on Newcastle Road, off Faneuil Street. He attended Our Lady of Presentation for elementary school, Boston Latin Academy (BLA) for middle school and Saint Cols for high school. Nino chose to leave BLA for a variety of reasons to attend Saint Columbkille, and he’s so glad he did.
“Saint Cols was the best move I ever made,” says Nino. “It was what I wanted. The smallness of Saint Cols and the intimacy of the school fit me much better.”
Nino was an athlete in high school, playing basketball and baseball. He also was the recipient of the Cardinal Medeiros Scholarship, awarded to one student from each Catholic high school in Boston each year to attend Boston University.
“When you have 40 kids in your graduating class, you know these people well,” says Nino. “You develop closer relationships, not just with students, but with the teachers as well. Even now at Saint Cols, there’s this feeling when you walk the hallways that everybody knows everybody. It’s a more comfortable way to develop relationships.”
Nino enjoys being on the Board of Trustees at Saint Columbkille. When he comes to the school for quarterly Board meetings, he says he gets to meet a student and hear their story. He loves the community feel that the school still has today.
Nino joined the Board of Trustees in the spring of 2019 and serves on the Capex and Finance Committees. He credits his participation to fellow Board member Jerry Mee ‘76E, who asked him to come back to his alma mater and get involved. As an alumnus of the school, Nino hopes to bring other alumni back to the school, to see how much the school has changed and improved since they attended a few decades ago.
“It didn’t take me long [after becoming a Board Member], to truly have this sense of appreciation for what has happened [at Saint Cols],” says Nino. “It's a unique organization with really talented faculty and staff. We’ve really become a top-notch educational institute. And the connection to BC is a big part of that.”
As Chair of the Board, Nino wants to share his passion for Saint Cols with others. “My goal is to help keep Saint Cols thriving. We need to continue to give students in Allston and Brighton and the surrounding communities the option of a Catholic education.”
