Caroline Leonetti Ahmanson

Caroline Leonetti Ahmanson (April 12, 1918 – June 21, 2005) was an American fashion consultant, businesswoman and philanthropist. She was a corporate director of The Walt Disney Company and the Fluor Corporation. She served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco from 1981 to 1984. She founded the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts and was a trustee of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Early life Caroline Leonetti was born on April 12, 1918, in San Francisco, California. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, California and the California School of Design in San Francisco.

Career Ahmanson started her career as a fashion consultant on the radio and in television, including Art Linkletter's program. In 1945, she founded Caroline Leonetti Ltd., a modeling agency in Los Angeles. It was purchased by Raphael Berko in 1987 and renamed Media Artists Group.

From 1981 to 1984, she served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

She served on the Boards of Directors of The Walt Disney Company , the Fluor Corporation and Carter Hawley Hale Stores (later known as Broadway Stores). A dinner conversation she had with Deng Pufang, Deng Xiaoping's son, led to a research trip sponsored by the National Committee and a meeting between Deng and President Ronald Reagan (when he was President) in the White House to talk about better treatment of the disabled. She then served on the President's Council of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California. In 1985, she founded the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts in Los Angeles. She later served on the board of trustees of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the Los Angeles Music Center. She established the Los Angeles Music Center's Caroline Leonetti Ahmanson Endowment Fund for Arts Education as a result of a charity dinner which raised $450,000 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in January, 1998.

Personal life Ahmanson married her first husband, Bernhardt Paul Heim (1917–2007), in 1940. They had a daughter, Margo O'Connell.