Who

LeClerc is in charge of the city's libraries, from the main Bryant Park branch to the dozens of smaller outposts scattered across the five boroughs.

Backstory

A Holy Cross grad, LeClerc's graduate work was as good a signal as any that he might end up a bookworm: He earned a Ph.D. in French literature from Columbia. (A scholar of the French Enlightenment, he's written or co-written five books about Voltaire.) He eventually moved from academia to university administration, becoming provost of Baruch College in 1984 and then president of Hunter College in 1988. In 1993 the New York Public Library's board, chaired at the time by Marshall Rose, selected LeClerc to lead the NYPL after its previous president Timothy S. Healy suddenly died of a heart attack. LeClerc has run the institution ever since.

Of note

LeClerc (it's pronounced luh-CLARE) has earned both criticism and praise for his work at the Library. His decision to partner with Google to scan out of copyright books in the library's collections and make them available on the Internet delighted many. Preservationists applauded him for undertaking a $50 million, three-year renovation of the façade and plaza at the Beaux-Arts Bryant Park flagship in 2007. But he's had to deal with detractors, too. In order to fill in budget holes and help fund long-term projects, LeClerc sold off 18 paintings worth $52 million from the library's collection. (Critics have claimed LeClerc is selling irreplaceable pieces of New York's heritage.) And his decision to cut back library hours in 2002 as part of a budget-balancing plan earned him widespread derision (among nerdy bookworms, at least).

More recently, LeClerc displayed his financial savvy and rankled purists when he concluded a deal to sell the building that houses the Donnell branch in Midtown to Orient-Express Hotels Ltd. for $59 million. (Orient-Express will pay for nearly $200 million in construction costs to rehabilitate the building, but the library will ultimately share the space with the hotel company.) In 2008, LeClerc unveiled the most ambitious project conceived during his tenure, a $1 billion expansion of the library system. Board member Steve Schwarzman kickstarted the fundraising drive for the project with a $100 million donation; in return, the Bryant Park flagship is to be provocatively renamed in his honor.

Keeping score

Running the city's library system sure pays better than academia. LeClerc earns more than $800,000 a year, having recently negotiated himself a $221,000 raise.

Board game

LeClerc is a trustee of the Andrew W. Mellon foundation and, along with Lynn Nesbit and Morgan Entrekin, is a director of the National Book Foundation, which hands out the National Book Awards.

Personal

LeClerc is married to Dr. Judith Ginsberg, head of the Covenant Foundation. They have one son, Adam, and live on the Upper East Side.