WATERVILLE — The next president of Thomas College, Laurie Lachance, plans to work with Maine businesses to ensure the college keeps producing graduates with skills needed to fill the jobs of today and tomorrow.
Lachance, the president and CEO of the Maine Development Foundation, will lead the private business and liberal arts college in Waterville, its trustees announced Friday.
Lachance is a former Maine state economist and business leader who becomes the college’s first female president. She was named after a national search to take over for George Spann, who retires June 30 after 23 years leading the college.
Lachance, 50, said Friday evening her new post is the culmination of a career devoted to building the Maine economy.
“I feel like every step has headed me here and this is exactly what I was meant to do,” she said.
She has led Maine Development Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes business and economic growth, for nearly eight years.
During her tenure, she worked on initiatives to study, analyze and develop the state’s economy. She touted this experience with showing her the vital role a quality education system plays in Maine’s overall success.
“The most important investment what we can make is in the education of our people and to have this opportunity (at Thomas) that works with the very heart of this issue is a lifelong dream,” she said.
For instance, in-state students make up 80 percent of the college’s enrollment; first-generation college students make up 70 percent, she said. The current enrollment is just less than 1,000 students.
Lachance said one of her top priorities will be to protect Thomas’ unique job placement guarantee for graduates by building on Spann’s legacy of offering degrees that help students build careers that will be relevant today and far into the future.
“Making sure that we very strategically serve Maine’s businesses and organizations with what they need by providing them with the skilled workers they need,” she said.
Among her other goals, Lachance wants to build on the partnerships Thomas has with the other two other colleges in its community, private Waterville liberal arts college Colby College and Kennebec Valley Community College in nearby Fairfield.
She said having the three colleges work together is a key to attracting talented people to the region and state.
Before leading the Maine Development Foundation, Lachance served as Maine state economist for 11 years, under three governors. She worked on initiatives that included utility restructuring, telecommunications, the retirement industry and tax reform, according to a Thomas news release.
Lachance served as corporate economist at Central Maine Power Co. before working in state government, the release states.
She has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Bowdoin College. In 1992, she received an MBA from Thomas, where she has served on the college’s Board of Trustees since 2010.
Lachance and her husband, Dave, live in Manchester with their two sons, Andrew and Michael, ages 17 and 20.
Thomas spokeswoman Jennifer Buker didn’t know how much Lachance will be paid, but said more details will be released Monday at a press conference on campus.
David F. Robinson — 861-9287
drobinson@centralmaine.com
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