Lachance to head development foundation

BANGOR – For more than 11 years and under three governors, Laurie Lachance has been the state’s economist at the State Planning Office.

On Oct. 18, she will become the new president of the Maine Development Foundation.

The opportunity was one she could not ignore, Lachance said Monday.

Upon the death of her mother in June, Lachance said, she became introspective and questioned whether she was “doing all the things in life I should be doing.” The directorship, she said, presented opportunities to grow “personally and professionally.”

“The timing seemed right,” Lachance said. “I just have felt I’m being moved in this direction. It feels really good to be able to extend the activities I’ve been working on loosely with Governor [John] Baldacci and his administration, and to continue to work on the issues but from a different location.”

The Maine Development Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that emphasizes long-term economic growth for the state. It is funded primarily from private resources, such as large companies, hospitals, educational facilities and individual contributors.

Lachance will be only the second director in the foundation’s 25-year history. This spring, longtime director Henry Bourgeois announced he would step down from the position to head the foundation’s Compact for Higher Education, which is preparing to publish an action plan aimed at boosting college enrollment and degree completion statewide.

Education and the economy are “inextricably linked,” Lachance said.

“We are finding that the economy has changed to a knowledge-based, technology-driven economy,” Lachance said. “One of the key elements to anybody’s ability to make a decent standard of living is tied to education attainment. If we want to close that income gap that separates Maine from the nation, investing in higher levels of education for all our citizens is a key piece, an essential ingredient.”

Lachance is no stranger to the Maine Development Foundation. She recently was reappointed to a second four-year term on the foundation’s Maine Economic Growth Council, which annually publishes a report titled “Measures of Growth.” The publication analyzes nearly 50 economic indicators, from education to health to income levels, and rates how the state is progressing in bettering its overall standard of living.

Lachance graduated from the foundation’s Leadership Maine program, which teaches people in leadership capacities at nonprofits, businesses and the state Legislature more about the economic issues facing each of the state’s various regions. She also has presented speeches to the foundation’s Maine Downtown Centers program, which is studying and suggesting ways to revitalize downtown business districts, and its Policy Leaders Academy, which educates newly elected legislators about economic issues.

“I just feel at this point that it is a natural progression for me to move from the state economist position to president because the issues I’m most passionate about are all worked on from different venues by the Maine Development Foundation,” Lachance said.

Lachance became the state’s economist in 1993, when Maine was “plunged into a recession and the state government went into fiscal disarray.”

During her tenure, Lachance helped convince members of the state Legislature to become members of the Maine Revenue Forecasting Committee, which includes economists and others who evaluate revenue intake versus state spending and announce whether they are in alignment. She also participated in statewide discussions on the restructuring of the state’s electricity industry, and she was engaged in the reconfiguration of the telecommunication industry, “which ultimately brought down in-state long-distance rates.”

“It’s just been a fabulous job,” she said.

As director of the Maine Development Foundation, Lachance said she wants to engage its board of directors, businesses, school districts, the Legislature and others in discussions on how to successfully regionalize intergovernmental offices such as school districts and town halls.

“We’re on a path that anybody is not doing anything wrong,” she said. “It’s just that populations are shrinking and costs are high. If we don’t get our arms around [this] and create some efficiencies, the numbers just don’t work in the long run. The time for action really is now.”

The Maine Development Foundation directorship is only the third job in Lachance’s career. Prior to being the state’s economist, she worked as an economist at Central Maine Power Co. for 10 years. She is a Maine native with a bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College and a master’s in business administration from Thomas College.

“Laurie has a unique combination of public- and private-sector experience and is a superb choice for the new chief executive officer,” said Dan D’Entremont, chairman of the foundation’s board of directors.

On Monday, Gov. Baldacci said Lachance will be an asset at the foundation.

“It’s good to see her doing more policy-oriented things,” Baldacci said. “She’ll help us reinforce policies and strategies that she’s already helped us put in place.”