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September 25, 2024

Melissa Smith of WEX honored with one of New England Council’s top awards

By Laurie Schreiber

The top executive at Portland-based WEX Inc. (NYSE: WEX) was recognized this week as a “New Englander of the Year” by the Boston-based New England Council.

CEO Melissa Smith was one of the regional business association’s five honorees to receive the award at the association’s annual celebration, which drew 1,700 attendees.

Melissa Smith stands on a deck and wears a red blazer.
Photo / Courtesy New England Council
Melissa Smith

First presented 60 years ago, the New Englander of the Year award honors natives or residents of the New England states for their commitment and contributions in their fields of work, as well as their leadership and impact on the region’s quality of life and economy, according to a news release.

WEX is a financial services technology provider that provides services to businesses in the areas of fleet mobility and fueling, corporate payments, travel industry payments and employee and member benefits.

Founded in 1925, the New England Council is a non-partisan alliance of businesses, academic and health institutions, and public and private organizations throughout New England formed to promote economic growth and a high quality of life in the New England region. 

The council’s mission is to identify and support federal public policies and articulate the voice of its membership regionally and nationally on important issues facing New England. 

Members include businesses and organizations large and small from throughout the six New England states. Members represent a wide variety of industries and sectors, including energy, financial services, health care, higher education, technology, telecommunications and transportation.

The council said benefits of membership include professional networking, relationships with the New England delegation and other policymakers, programming and events, federal policy advocacy, information and resources and visibility.

The New Englander of the Year award was first presented nearly 60 years ago.

Overseeing WEX growth

Since joining WEX in 1997, Smith has held a variety of leadership roles, shepherded the company through its IPO,  overseen growth in revenue from $818 million to $2.5 billion, and helps the company fulfill its purpose of simplifying the business of running a business. 

Under her leadership as chair, CEO and president, WEX has diversified from a U.S.-based fleet card provider to a global enterprise spanning mobility, corporate payments and benefits across 15 countries and more than 7,200 employees worldwide and has been recognized by Newsweek as one of America’s Greatest Workplaces for Diversity and America’s Greatest Workplaces for Women for 2024. 

In a taped interview with the council, Smith said WEX has tripled in size since she took the top job.

An important attribute of the company, she said, is its culture of inclusiveness.

“People feel like, when they show up at WEX, they can be their true selves,” she said. “As the company’s grown, that’s continued to remain true.”

She credited the company’s Maine roots for nurturing that culture.

“The roots we have in Maine, the way that the company connects with our customers, is really coming from that hardworking, problem-solving, do-the-right-thing atmosphere that is part of Maine,” she said. 

A 2018 Maine-based recipient of the New Englander of the Year award was Staff Sgt. Travis Mills, a retired U.S. Army veteran and founder of the Travis Mills Foundation, a nonprofit headquartered in the Kennebec County town of Rome.

Related story

Melissa Smith, chair, CEO and president of WEX Inc., grew up in Winn, a town of 400 people in Penobscot County. See a related story from the Mainebiz Fact Book:

Rural lessons: Maine CEOs talk about what they learned growing up in a small town

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