Harold Alfond Foundation Board of Trustees
Trustees
The Board of Trustees governs the Harold Alfond Foundation. It meets periodically to consider issues of importance to Maine, hear from experts in the field, set funding and investment policies, and decide which worthwhile public charities will receive support. The following individuals—many of whom knew Harold Alfond and were selected personally by him—comprise our Board.
Gregory W. Powell (Chairman) is the chief executive officer and president of Dexter Enterprises LLC, a wealth management firm founded by Harold Alfond and Mr. Powell in 1996. In 1996, Mr. Powell was appointed to the Harold Alfond Foundation’s board of trustees and in 2005 was appointed chairman of the board. Prior to 1996, Mr. Powell practiced law for 15 years concentrating his practice in litigation. Mr. Powell is an officer and director of multiple Alfond family-held businesses and an officer of the Bill and Joan Alfond Foundation. He is a former director of Fairholme Trust Company, a former director of Spinnaker Trust, and served on multiple boards of community organizations and educational institutions, including the University of New England. Mr. Powell is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the University of Maine School of Law. He holds honorary degrees from the University of New England, Thomas College, and Colby College.
Theodore B. Alfond, a son of Harold Alfond, served as a senior executive at Dexter Shoe Company, where he was executive vice president for sales. He currently serves as chairman of the board of Dexter Enterprises LLC and is a limited partner in the Boston Red Sox. Mr. Alfond serves on a number of nonprofit boards, including 7 Lakes Alliance, the Colby College Museum of Art; and the boards of his alma maters Kents Hill and Rollins College, both in positions as vice chairman. Mr. Alfond holds an honorary degree from Rollins College.
William L. Alfond, a son of Harold Alfond, served as a senior executive at Dexter Shoe Company, where he was president of the bowling shoe division. He currently serves as a director of Dexter Enterprises LLC. and is a limited partner in the Boston Red Sox. With his wife, Joan, Mr. Alfond created the Bill and Joan Alfond Foundation in 1986. The Foundation, of which Mr. Alfond is president, supports educational, healthcare, and other charitable institutions in Maine and Massachusetts. He serves on multiple boards of community and educational organizations, including the USA Biathlon Committee, in the position of co-chairman; Educare Central Maine; and his alma mater the Governor’s Academy. Mr. Alfond is a graduate and trustee emeritus, and holds an honorary Doctor of Laws degree, from Colby College.
Peter H. Lunder, a nephew of Harold Alfond, served as co-chairman, president, and CEO of Dexter Shoe Company. He is currently chairman of Kenilworth, Inc., a director of Dexter Enterprises LLC, and is a former limited partner of the Boston Red Sox, board chairman of Pan Am Shoe Company, and president of OSCAP Ltd. With his wife, Paula, Mr. Lunder created The Lunder Foundation in 1988. The Foundation supports arts, education, and healthcare institutions in Maine and Massachusetts. He serves and has served on multiple boards and executive and visiting committees of community and educational organizations, including the Dana-Farber Cancer Center and the Smithsonian Institution. He holds honorary degrees from Colby College and Thomas College. Mr. Lunder is a graduate of Colby College, where he is a lifetime trustee and life overseer.
Steven P. Akin served in a variety of senior positions at Fidelity Investments from 1992 until retiring in 2008 as president of Fidelity Personal Investments. He served as the president of Fidelity Retail Investment Services, Fidelity Brokerage Services Inc. and as chief information officer. He had previously served in senior positions in the telecommunications industry, including as president and CEO of COLT, a publicly traded London-based Pan-European company; president of Sprint Long Distance Consumer Services Group; senior vice president of Sprint National Customer Operations; chief operations officer at United Telephone Company Midwest Group; and chief operations officer for United Telephone of Indiana. He currently serves as a trustee of the Fidelity Management Trust Company, as a director of Dexter Enterprises LLC, and on the boards of community and educational institutions, including the Alfond Scholarship Foundation, in the position of chairman, and the Gulfshore Playhouse of Naples, as chairman. He is a board member emeritus of the Boston Lyric Opera and an honorary lifetime trustee of Kents Hill School, having served as chairman of both organizations for many years. He is also a former board member of the Pioneer Institute. Mr. Akin is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and Columbia University Business School’s Managing the Enterprise Program.
Theresa M. Stone is the former executive vice president and treasurer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In that role, she served as MIT’s chief financial officer and was responsible for MIT’s non-academic operations. She is a member of the MIT Corporation, where, prior to her administrative role at the Institute, she had spent ten years in a variety of board leadership positions, including chair of the MIT Investment Management Company. In May 2013, she joined the Board of Trustees. She is also a former director of Progress Energy Corporation (now Duke Energy) and American International Group; has served as deputy chair of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond; held various senior positions within the Jefferson-Pilot Corporation (now Lincoln Financial); was president of Chubb Life Insurance Company; and was a principal with Morgan Stanley & Company. She serves or has served on multiple boards of community and educational organizations, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Historic New England; Paul Taylor Dance Company, University of North Carolina at Greensboro; and the United Way of Greensboro. Ms. Stone is a graduate of Wellesley College and MIT Sloan.
Barry Mills is the former president of Bowdoin College, a position he held for 14 years before retiring in 2015, and the former interim chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he was credited with stabilizing the university’s financial position. Mills previously served as the deputy presiding partner of Debevoise & Plimpton in New York City. He joined the firm in 1979 and became a partner in 1986. His work there concentrated on corporate law, real estate, and corporate finance. Mills is active on a number of charitable boards, such as Bryn Mawr College, Franklin Square Foundation, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston, and, as chairman, Boston-based OneGoal. A dean’s list student at Bowdoin, Mills graduated cum laude in 1972 with a double major in biochemistry and government. He earned his doctorate in biology in 1976 at Syracuse University and a law degree at Columbia University, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.
Katharine B. Alfond, a granddaughter of Harold Alfond, is a director of Dexter Enterprises LLC. She currently serves on the board of the Nueva School, an innovative and award-winning private independent school for gifted learners in California. She is also a trustee of the Holderness School, in New Hampshire. She holds undergraduate degrees in Biology and Community Health and American Civilization from Brown University, and a Master of Education from the Teachers College in Health and Behavioral Studies at Columbia University.
Justin L. Alfond, a grandson of Harold Alfond, is an entrepreneur and former member of the Maine State Senate where he served 4 terms. In 2012, he was elected Senate President, becoming the second-youngest to hold that office in Maine history. During Mr. Alfond’s time in office, he championed child nutrition legislation and led the Maine Legislature’s Task Force to End Student Hunger. Mr. Alfond currently serves as a director of Dexter Enterprises LLC, a director of the Bill and Joan Alfond Foundation, and as secretary and treasurer of Full Plates, Full Potential, a non-profit he co-founded in 2014 to end childhood hunger in Maine. Previously, Mr. Alfond served four years as director of the Maine Chapter of the League of Young Voters, which he founded in 2006. He has also served on the boards of Avesta Housing, Opportunity Maine, Kennebec Valley Community College, the New England Board of Higher Education, and the New England Secondary School Consortium. Mr. Alfond holds a degree in Business Administration from Tulane University.
Michael E. Dubyak is the former chairman and CEO of WEX Inc. He has been affiliated with WEX since 1986, including 15 years as president and CEO, with his career at WEX spanning the company’s nine years of venture capital ownership, five subsequent ownership changes and ultimately its public offering in 2005. Mr. Dubyak currently serves as co-chair of FocusMaine, a private sector-led economic initiative to grow traded jobs in Maine over the next ten years. Previously, Mr. Dubyak served as the first board chairman of Educate Maine, chairman of the University of Southern Maine Board of Visitors, and on the boards of the United Way of Greater Portland, Governor’s Council on Competitiveness and the Economy, New England Advisory Council of the Boston Federal Reserve, Center for Grieving Children, and Maine Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Dubyak is a graduate of Baldwin Wallace University in Ohio.
Jennifer A. Seeman, a granddaughter of Harold Alfond, is the former head of administration at McKinsey & Company in Russia, where she led real estate, human resources, purchasing, and operations for McKinsey’s offices in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Ms. Seeman later founded and ran Arts2You, an agency offering personalized arts instruction and education services in Boston. Currently, she serves on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Alfond Scholarship Foundation, the Board of Directors of the Noble and Greenough School, and the Board of Governors of the Colby College Museum of Art and is involved in strategic planning for all three institutions. Additionally, she serves on the Board of Visitors of Colby College. Previously, Ms. Seeman served on the boards of Reach Out and Read; the Holderness School; and the Meadowbrook School, where she chaired the school’s strategic plan and capital campaign. She holds a degree from Colby College in Russian/Soviet Studies and was a Watson Fellow in St. Petersburg, Russia.
In Memoriam
We recognize the following past trustees in gratitude for their service and significant contributions to the Foundation’s work.
David T. Flanagan was the executive chairman of the Board of Directors of Central Maine Power and its parent firm AVANGRID, Inc., the former interim president of the University of Southern Maine, and former CEO and director of Preservation Management, Inc., an affordable housing management firm headquartered in South Portland, Maine. He also served as general counsel of the US Senate Homeland Security Committee investigation of Hurricane Katrina; legal counsel to Hon. Joseph E. Brennan, Governor of Maine; and a partner at the Portland law firm of Pierce Atwood. He served on the boards of several Maine companies and community and educational organizations, including, as chairman, the University of Maine System, the American University in Bulgaria, the Maine Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, and Maine & Company, an economic development organization; as well as Dead River Company, Dingley Press, Lee Auto, Maine Economic Growth Council, Thomas College, and MaineGeneral Health. He was the former chair of the Board of Visitors of the Muskie School of Public Service and the Maine Legislature’s Blue Ribbon Commission to Study the State Board of Corrections. Mr. Flanagan was a graduate of Maine public schools, Harvard College, King’s College of the University of London, and Boston College Law School.
Peter G. Alfond, a son of Harold Alfond, served as a senior executive at Dexter Shoe Company, where he was president of PanAm Shoe, the base of Dexter’s Caribbean operations. He served as a director of Dexter Enterprises, Inc. and Wellomics. In 2007, he founded Kippur Corporation, an investment holding company in Puerto Rico that also coordinated his philanthropic initiatives in the Caribbean community. Mr. Alfond was the founder of the Peter Alfond Foundation, which he created in 1994. The Foundation supports educational, health care, and other charitable institutions in Maine, New England, Florida, and the Caribbean. He served on multiple boards and advisory committees of community and educational organizations, including MaineGeneral Health, the Eaglebrook School, and the Dorado Community Library in Puerto Rico. Mr. Alfond was a graduate of Rollins College.
Lawrence R. Pugh served as chairman and CEO of VF Corporation, a lifestyle apparel company with over 14 brands, including Wrangler®, Lee Jeans®, and Vanity Fair®. He was also a president of Samsonite Luggage Company and a director of Black and Decker and UNUM Corporation, where he also served as chairman. He served on the boards or as an overseer of multiple community and educational institutions, including the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, where he served as vice chairman; his alma mater Colby College, where he was a director for nearly 30 years, eight of which as chairman; and the Alfond Scholarship Foundation, where he served as chairman.
Robert A. Marden was a retired Waterville attorney and founder of the Marden Dubord law firm. He served in the roles of director for the Sugarloaf Mountain Corp. and BankNorth Peoples Heritage Bank Group, the latter for 25 years, six of which were as chairman. Mr. Marden served on the boards of numerous community organizations and educational institutions, including Colby College for 25 years, two of which were as vice chairman, and Thayer Hospital. He has been elected to serve in various civic and government leadership roles, including president of the Maine State Senate and president of the Maine State Bar Association. Mr. Marden was a graduate of Colby College and the Boston University School of Law.