Globe CEO and Saint Anselm grad Michael Sheehan to deliver commencement address

MANCHESTER, NH –  Michael Sheehan, Chief Executive Officer of The Boston Globe, will be this year’s commencement speaker at Saint Anselm College.

Sheehan, a 1982 Saint Anselm graduate, received an honorary degree from the college in 2011. He is the award-winning former Chairman, CEO, President and Chief Creative Officer of Hill Holiday, one of the largest advertising agencies in the country.

The ceremony will be held on May 21 at 2 p.m. at Saint Anselm College. It was also announced Wednesday that the college will award three honorary degrees to individuals who have excelled in their fields:

• Sister Maxyne Schneider, S.S.J., President of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield, Mass.
• Paul Montrone, Ph.D., Chairman of Perspecta Trust LLC, Liberty Lane Partners and Liberty Lane Service Company.
• Charles Pollard ‘79, former president and Chief Executive Officer of Omni Air International.

“Each of these extraordinary leaders impacts the world in meaningful, positive ways,” said college President Dr. Steven R. DiSalvo. “They represent the values and ideals that are at the heart of Saint Anselm’s mission – to educate individuals who make and find opportunities to engage in the service of diverse local, national and global fields and communities.”

Michael Sheehan ‘82

Mike Sheehan is the CEO of The Boston Globe. Prior to joining the Globe in January 2014, he spent 20 years at Hill Holliday, where he served as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, President, and Chief Creative Officer. During his tenure as CEO, the agency grew 85%, becoming the 12th largest agency in America and the second largest outside of New York.

Sheehan began his career as Sports Editor of the Weymouth (Mass.) News when he was 15, and he worked his way through college in the library of The Boston Globe. After stints at Boston Magazine and the Quincy Patriot Ledger, he became an advertising copywriter and by the age of 25 had been awarded his first One Show Gold award and Cannes Lion. He won additional One Show Gold, Cannes Lion, Grand Clio, Communication Arts, and Hatch Best of Show awards after joining Hill Holliday. In 1996, he was named Adweek’s National Creative Director of the Year. In 2013, the Ad Club of Boston inducted Mike into their Hall of Fame. In addition to Hill Holliday, Sheehan served as an Associate Creative Director at Leo Burnett and as Executive Creative Director of DDB Chicago where he oversaw McDonald’s.

He has served on the Board of Directors of BJ’s Wholesale Club and the American Association of Advertising Agencies, and has chaired the Board of Directors of his alma mater, Saint Anselm College. He currently serves on the boards of ChoiceStream, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Boston, Thayer Academy, and One Fund Boston, Inc.

He attended the United States Naval Academy and graduated from Saint Anselm College in 1982 with a B.A. in English. Saint Anselm awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 2011.

Sister Maxyne Dorothy Schneider, S.S.J.

Sister Maxyne entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield, MA from North Adams, MA in 1960, having graduated from St. Joseph High School, where she first became familiar with the Congregation.

She received a B.A. in Chemistry from Elms College and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Boston College, and was an educator and academic leader at both the high school and college level before founding the House of Peace & Education, Inc. (HOPE) in Gardner, MA in 1996 with three of her Sisters. HOPE provides training for women and after-school and summer academic support for children from kindergarten through high school, and is completing its 20^th year, now under the leadership of people of North Central Massachusetts.

In 2008, she joined two other Sisters of St. Joseph at Weston Rehab Associates, Inc. as grant writer helping women who had been incarcerated to learn and practice essential skills for life and work. Sister Maxyne has served as President of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield since 2011, where along with the Leadership Team, she is leading an initiative and fundraising campaign to repair the finances of the Congregation in the interest of providing future support for two hundred Sisters.

Paul Montrone, Ph.D.

For more than three decades, Paul M. Montrone has directed the development of a number of businesses in a diverse set of industries. These include both the public companies indicated below, and his private business interests which have been conducted through Liberty Lane Service Company (formerly, Latona Associates), Liberty Lane Partners, and Perspecta Trust LLC. He is presently Chairman of these entities.

Mr. Montrone was the CEO of Fisher Scientific International Inc. from its initial public offering in 1991 until its merger with Thermo Electron in 2006, forming Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. Under Mr. Montrone’s leadership, Fisher was transformed from a North American manufacturer and distributor into a global enterprise supplying research, testing and clinical laboratories in 150 countries with over 600,000 products and services. Annual sales increased from $760 million in 1991 to approximately $6.0 billion in 2006. Over this 15-year period, the equity value of Fisher increased from approximately $200 million to $12 billion and the annual return to shareholders was 26% compounded.

Prior to leading Fisher Scientific, Mr. Montrone was the Chairman and CEO of Wheelabrator Technologies Inc., a leading environmental services company that became a wholly owned subsidiary of Waste Management, Inc. Annual shareholder returns at Wheelabrator under his leadership were 22% compounded.

Previously, Mr. Montrone was Executive Vice President of The Signal Companies, Inc. and its successor, AlliedSignal Inc. (now Honeywell International Inc.), as well as President of The Henley Group, Inc. and Executive Vice President and CFO of Wheelabrator-Frye Inc.

Mr. Montrone began his career at the Pentagon, serving in the Systems Analysis Group in the Office of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara while a Captain in the U.S. Army. A helicopter pilot, he is now Chairman of the New England Helicopter Council.

For many years, Mr. Montrone also participated in healthcare policy matters at the national level.  During the Clinton Administration, he was a member of the

President’s Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry, as well as a founder of the National Forum for Health Care Quality Measurement and Reporting. He was a Director of The Healthcare Leadership Council and the New England Healthcare Institute, a member of the Health and Retirement Task Force of the Business Roundtable, and is currently a Director and was the Treasurer of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health.

He has also been involved in Washington, D.C. business policy matters, mainly through his activity with the Business Roundtable, where he was a member of its Planning Committee, and Chairman of the Civil Justice Reform Taskforce.

Mr. Montrone has served on a number of corporate boards and has also been active in many non-profit institutions and government related committees. In New Hampshire, he is a founder of the Live Free or Die Alliance (Citizens Count NH) a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that facilitates citizen engagement in government policy. He is also a founder of The Coalition for Job Creation, an association of N.H. business people dedicated to implementing policy changes in N.H. to create more and better jobs in the state. A music aficionado, for over three decades he served in various capacities at The Metropolitan Opera in New York City, including President and CEO. He is now President Emeritus. His current other non-profit boards include the New England Conservatory of Music, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Columbia University Graduate School of Business.

Born in Scranton, PA, Mr. Montrone was graduated magna cum laude from the University of Scranton and holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Charles W. Pollard, ‘79
Charles Pollard served in various executive positions for Omni Air International from 1997 until July 2009, including as its president and chief executive officer from January 2007 until September 2008. Prior to his employment with Omni Air International, Mr. Pollard served in various executive positions for World Airways from 1987 until 1997, including as president and chief executive officer from 1993 to 1997.

Mr. Pollard began his career as an attorney in the corporate practice group of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP from 1983 to 1987. Mr. Pollard has also served as a director of Air Partner, PLC since June 2009 and as a director of Aircastle Limited since June 2010. He was elected to Forbes board in June 2009.

He served on the Board of Trustees at Saint Anselm College from 2000 until 2013, including as Chairman from 2009-2013. He was active in the governance change at the college and was on the recent Presidential Search Committee. He is a graduate of George Washington University Law School, the Maxwell Graduate School of Syracuse University, and Saint Anselm College.

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