Our President
In July 2012, Laurie Lachance became Thomas College’s 5th President and the first female and alumna to lead the College in its 128-year history. From 2004-2012, Laurie served as President and CEO of the Maine Development Foundation. Prior to MDF, Laurie served three governors as the Maine State Economist, and before joining state government, she served as the Corporate Economist at Central Maine Power Company. A frequent author and speaker on leadership, education, and the economy of Maine, she holds an undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College, an MBA from Thomas College, and Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Maine at Presque Isle and Bowdoin College. Laurie was inducted into the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame in 2014, and has been the recipient of several awards including making the Mainebiz NEXT list as a trailblazer in her industry in 2015, and being recognized in 2016 by Maine Magazine as one of the 50 Mainers Charting the State’s Future. In November 2018, Laurie was inducted into the Junior Achievement Maine Business Hall of Fame. In 2022, she received the American Heart Association’s Crystal Heart Award and the Mainebiz Women to Watch. Laurie serves on the Boards of the Worthington Scholarship Foundation and the Maine State Chamber, and was elected to the Boards of Maine Employers Mutual Insurance Company (MEMIC) in June 2018, and Bangor Savings Bank in June 2021. In May 2020, Governor Mills appointed Laurie as the Co-chair of Maine’s Economic Recovery Committee, charged with advising the Governor on how to most effectively guide Maine’s economy from surviving the pandemic to thriving.
