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Updated: June 9, 2021

Bangor city manager to take helm at Maine Municipal Association

person with bushes Courtesy / Maine Municipal Association Catherine Conlow is stepping down as Bangor’s city manager to take the helm at the Maine Municipal Association.
By Staff

A nationwide search for a new executive director at the Maine Municipal Association has ended with the appointment of a high-profile municipal leader from one of Maine’s largest cities.

Catherine “Cathy” Conlow, who has served as city manager in Bangor since 2011 and as Orono town manager before that, was the unanimous choice to head the organization, according to James Gardner, Jr., the president of MMA’s 12-member executive committee and manager in the town of Easton.

Conlow will replace Stephen Gove, a longtime MMA executive who will retire at the end of this month after a 41-year career during which he led several MMA departments. He has served as MMA’s executive director since 2015.

Conlow, who begins work at MMA in August, said her deep experience in municipal government, especially in Maine, should prove valuable in her new role.

“I have spent the last 33 years working in local government and this position is the perfect opportunity to use my knowledge of local government to support the good works of the 486 municipalities across the state,” she said in a news release. 

Gardner said that during the search for a new leader, the executive committee consistently heard two themes about Conlow: That she has a direct, engaging management style and that she embraces innovation.

“Cathy always strives to move her organizations forward,” Gardner said. “That is exactly the kind of leader our executive committee sought going forward.”

MMA, headquartered in Augusta, supports and promotes municipal governance as a nonpartisan, voluntary membership organization. All of Maine’s 486 municipalities belong to MMA. The organization, founded in 1936, has 110 employees and offers a wide array of services to the state's cities, towns and plantations.

In addition to her municipal management roles in Maine, Conlow served as president of the Maine Town, City & County Management Association. She won that organization’s most prestigious award, the Linc Stackpole Manager of the Year Award, in 2019. She has served on the Bangor Region YMCA board and on the board of the Municipal Review Committee, which oversees a solid-waste facility in Hampden.

Before moving to Orono in 2004, Conlow held various municipal positions in Minnesota and Oregon. She is a graduate of Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania and holds a Master of Public Administration degree from George Washington University.

About the Maine Municipal Association

MMA, founded in 1936, is a voluntary, nonpartisan member-service organization. It has a core belief that local government is a fundamental component of our democratic system of government. MMA’s services include advocacy, education and training, professional legal and personnel advisory services and self-funded group insurance programs.

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