Photo / COURTESY OF MAINE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
Sterling Speirn took over as interim president and CEO of the Maine Community Foundation, succeeding Steve Rowe.
Updated: September 27, 2021
The ‘Great Resignation’ has hit nonprofits hard
The so-called Great Resignation — the trend of people moving on from their jobs during the pandemic — has affected Maine nonprofits in a range of ways.
In the past 18 months, we’ve seen a slew of CEOs, presidents and executive directors retire or announce their pending retirement.
It has affected public-private partnerships like Brunswick Landing, Maine Venture Fund and the Finance Authority of Maine.
It’s affected big nonprofits, like the Maine Community Foundation and the Maine Coast Heritage Trust.
Colleges and universities saw some changes, including Central Maine Community College and the Landing School.
It’s affected small nonprofits like Maine Preservation.
But the Great Resignation trend has also hit the rank and file positions across nonprofits.
Changes at large nonprofits
Two of Maine’s more prominent nonprofits had top leadership changes in the past year.
At Maine Community Foundation, President and CEO Steve Rowe announced his retirement in January, ending a 6-year run. In June, the nonprofit brought on an interim president and CEO Sterling Speirn, a seasoned foundation executive.
Speirn led the W.K. Kellogg Foundation from 2005-13, and most recently has served as a senior fellow for the National Conference on Citizenship.
Speirn, who has degrees from Stanford University and the University of Michigan Law School, has also led other foundations and even worked at Apple Computer Inc. in the late 1980s, according to his LinkedIn profile.
A search for a new president and CEO is underway.
Maine Community Foundation ranks No. 2 on the list of Maine’s top 15 foundations, published elsewhere in the Giving Guide. It had annual giving of $36 million for fiscal-year 2019, the most recent year available, and assets of $582.4 million.
At the Island Institute, longtime President Rob Snyder resigned in March to take a position in the private sector, at ACME Smoked Fish Corp., which is based in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Photo / COURTESY OF ISLAND INSTITUTE
Tony Chatwin is new president of the Island Institute, a Rockland community development nonprofit. He started Aug. 23.
In August, the Rockland-based nonprofit hired Tony Chatwin, who most recently led the science-and-evaluation team at the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, where he worked to scale the impact of the foundation’s grant programs and projects and developed strategies for marine conservation and nature-based solutions for carbon reduction. He also established several public-private partnerships including the Fisheries Innovation Fund, which should come in handy at the Island Institute, whose mission is to foster economic stability on Maine’s islands and coastal communities. The Island Institute was founded in 1983 by Philip Conkling and Peter Ralston. Chatwin is the organization’s third president.
Chatwin will oversee an institution that in FY 2020 invested $24.4 million in a range of programs that included educational funds, a fund for Maine islands and its island fellows programs.
“We are in a unique position to help Maine’s coastal communities, just when they need it most,” says Emily Lane, chair of the Island Institute board. “We are confident that Tony’s experience and leadership will strengthen our ability to build resilience along the Maine coast.”
Maine Coast Heritage Trust announced that longtime director Tim Glidden plans to retire at the end of 2021. Glidden led the conservation nonprofit’s successful $130 million fundraising campaign. The money will be used for public land acquisition. Glidden led the organization for 10 years. Board Chair Tom Armstrong said the board is embarking on a national search to identify Glidden’s successor.
Changes at Maine’s public-private partnerships
Maine’s network of economic development and financing organizations had some significant leadership turnover in the past year.
Photo / COURTESY OF FAME
Carlos Mello, FAME
At the Finance Authority of Maine, a quasi-independent state agency, CEO Bruce Wagner retired in February after seven years. Wagner led FAME through strategic planning and COVID-relief efforts. The interim CEO is Carlos Mello, FAME’s chief risk officer and a senior member of the management team. Mello is a former president and CEO of Prudential Bank and Trust in Hartford, Conn., a certified financial planner and he holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Boston College.
FAME is a key part of Maine’s financing infrastructure, stepping in to guarantee loans on a range of enterprises, from manufacturing to broadband infrastructure to backing for the Saddleback Mountain ski area.
FAME expects to fill the CEO position by late year or early next, subject to approval by Gov. Janet Mills and the state Legislature.
Photo / COURTESY OF MAINE VENTURE FUND
Joe Powers, who has been at Maine Venture Fund for two years, was named managing director, taking over on July 1.
The Maine Venture Fund, another component of Maine’s funding infrastructure, had a leadership change this past summer. It promoted Joe Powers to managing director, effective July 1. He took over from John Burns, who retired.
Maine Venture Fund, which was launched in 1996 and is based in Newport, has invested some of Maine’s best-known startups — Sea Bags, Gelato Fiasco, MedRhythms, Defendify, HighByte, Hyperlite, Maine Craft Distilling, R.E.D.D. and Cerahelix.
Maine Venture Fund is a key part of a startup’s second stage of growth.
A startup gets off the ground by going to Maine Technology Institute for a grant. As it grows, it may take out a loan from MTI or at some stage get a loan guarantee from the Finance Authority of Maine.
“When they get to the commercialization stage, looking to accelerate, they come to Maine Venture Fund,” Powers told Mainebiz this summer. “We are doing equity investment, for the next five to 10 years.”
Powers, a Vermont native, has been involved in a range of startups, most notably, Tesla Motors. He spent six years there, starting in 2006, when it truly was a startup, focused on sales and marketing and retail development. He worked directly with founder Elon Musk and was there when the company launched its first production vehicle.
Powers sees the same kind of potential in several of Maine Venture Fund›s portfolio companies, including Hyperlite Mountain Gear, a Biddeford manufacturer, and Atlantic Sea Farms, which has been a pioneer in bringing edible kelp to the market.
At Brunswick Landing, Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority announced the planned retirement of Steve Levesque at the end of 2021. He is credited with the transformation of Brunswick’s shuttered naval air station into a thriving business community.
He is MRRA’s only executive director since its formation in 2008 and was previously executive director of the Brunswick Local Redevelopment Authority, which developed the master plan for the reuse of U.S. Naval Air Station Brunswick.
Levesque will be replaced by Kristine Logan, MRRA’s director of the TechPlace business incubator at Brunswick Landing. She will start in January 2022.
Small nonprofits
Photo / COURTESY OF MAINE PRESERVATION
Tara Kelly, a New York City nonprofit leader, took over the executive director position at Maine Preservation from Greg Paxton, who retired.
Maine Preservation, a Yarmouth nonprofit, named Tara Kelly, an executive with the Municipal Art Society of New York, as executive director this past summer. She succeeded Greg Paxton, who retired in June after 13 years at the helm.
Kelly, who moved to Maine from Brooklyn, N.Y., has a decade of experience in historic preservation, nonprofit management, policy and advocacy initiatives, public and education programming and fundraising. Maine Preservation, chartered in 1972, is the state’s only statewide, nonprofit historic preservation organization.
Educational changes
Changes at educational institutions were highlighted by personnel changes at two schools.
The Landing School, which is considered a key training ground for students entering various fields of boat building, has a new president as of July 1. Richard Downs-Honey, an energetic New Zealander who raised the profile of the Arundel school in his three years as president and navigated through the pandemic changes, returned to his native land.
He was succeeded by Sean Fawcett, who is a senior yacht design instructor and had been dean of education since 2018, took over as president of the Arundel school on July 1.
At Central Maine Community College, Betsy Libby was named president in early September. She succeeds Scott Knapp, who retired in 2020.
Libby has worked at CMCC since 2006. In addition to serving as interim president since September 2020, she has held the roles of vice president and dean of academic affairs, dean of student services, director of admissions and an adjunct faculty member.
At the Roux Institute of Northeastern University, Lars Perkins, a software entrepreneur and angel investor, took over as the first managing director of the Roux Institute’s Techstars Accelerator in April.
Roux Institute, which was established two years ago with $200 million in funding and is part of Northeastern University, is based in Portland.
The institute’s Techstars Accelerator is designed to gather and train entrepreneurs working in artificial intelligence, life sciences and health, as well as data and analytics.
Perkins served as the founding partner and managing partner of Idealab’s Boston incubator, where he launched Picasa, a well-known company that produced software for digital photography. After selling Picasa to Google in 2004, he joined the Menlo Park, Calif.-based Google for two years, including a year as director of product management.
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