Transcription of Greg Powell for the show Inspiring Maine People #147
Dr.Lisa: We’re often fortunate, in the Dr. Lisa radio hour, to have people’s names on our list of who we want to get in, and then somehow happen across them in real life. Our next guest, Greg Powell, is just such an individual. I happened to see him out and about, and I said, “We really need to get this guy on the radio show, because he’s doing great things for the state of Maine.” He happens to be in Maine’s “50 people” list for “Maine” magazine, which is coming out in July.
Greg Powell is the chairman of the Harold Alfond Foundation, a private foundation organized to fund charitable causes in the state of Maine. He is also the CEO and president of Dexter Enterprises. Greg worked with Harold Alfond for over 13 years to build Dexter Enterprises, the family wealth management firm. He took the reins of the Harold Alfond Foundation in 2007, after Mr. Alfond passed away.
Thanks so much for coming in. You were pretty great about, we see you in a restaurant, we say, “You need to come on the show,” and you almost immediately said “yes” and “When can I come in?” That means a lot to us, so thank you.
Greg: My pleasure. I love your magazine, and I love what you do.
Dr. Lisa: We love what you do. You’ve been working with the Harold Alfond Foundation for quite a while, and I cannot turn around without seeing the Alfond name in some really great places, really important places; places that our college students are utilizing, our community members are utilizing.
You didn’t start out with such a high and mighty background and job title. You grew up in Waterville.
Greg: I grew up in Waterville, but the neat thing about Waterville was a wonderful community. Harold Alfond and his family also were residents of Waterville. I’ve had the privilege and pleasure of knowing the family for a long, long time.
Dr. Lisa: I’m not trying to disparage Waterville in any way whatsoever, when I say you didn’t start out where you are now. Having worked around the Waterville area before, I’ve noticed it’s a very close-knit community. I’ve noticed that people seem to … families seem to go back many generations, and really enjoy living in that area.
Greg: Yeah, I think that’s true. The town, however, like so many Maine towns, has suffered as there’s been a decline in manufacturing in the state of Maine, as well as nationally. One of the things that we are very interested in doing is promoting Waterville, and allowing it to grow from an economic standpoint and others. We feel a real affinity to the town, and like it quite a bit.
Dr. Lisa: I spent some time last summer working as a family doctor up near Sangerville, Newport, Dexter, and all the way up into the lakes region. What I noticed was there really was a significant issue with employment, that people who used to have manufacturing jobs that were based in some of those areas, no longer had those jobs, and sometimes didn’t have any jobs at all. That really does contribute negatively to the good fortune of a family.
Greg: It’s a concern all over the state. There are multiple towns that used to rely, for their livelihood, on major manufacturing businesses. As those have receded, the economic fortunes of those towns have suffered. It’s a problem that the state has to address overall; it’s not just Waterville.
Obviously, since this is kind of a show about health having a strong economic backbone of towns and cities, it’s pretty important to the state; something our foundation is very interested in, and Mr. Alfond was interested in as well.
Dr. Lisa: Education must have been an important thing in your family.
Greg: It was very important. Both my parents were graduates of colleges, and they encouraged me and my sisters to attend school. We all did that. Today, I see it as an incredibly important area to focus on for public health and well-being. The idea that education is important, just the growth of the soul, has certainly always been something I’ve believed in. As importantly if not more importantly, education is critical to putting food on the table and having income and stability and family life.
In today’s competitive world, having higher education, and access to higher education, is more important than ever. It used to be a luxury. Now it’s a necessity. Again, back to the business of the foundation; we feel very strongly that education is an important part of every community, and we try to promote it where we can.
Dr. Lisa: The Alfond Foundation has also been very, I’ll use the word ecumenical, in the way that they have made funds available to the state university system, to private colleges within the state, and also at not just the collegiate level. It seems to be that you’re in favor of education in general.
Greg: Yes, we are. I think for many, many years, Mr. Alfond’s personal philanthropy and interest was in athletics. He often made grants to provide colleges and universities with first-class athletic facilities, knowing that physical activity was very important to health and education, and to being well.
Today, we not only continue to fund athletic facilities, but we also fund many other aspects of education … higher education … everything from classroom buildings to programs to scholarships and whatnot.
Dr. Lisa: You also make $500 available to every single baby born in the state of Maine.
Greg: Right, I think it’s the foundation’s signature program; one we are quite proud of, and one we hope holds great promise for the state of Maine. We look at education and aspirations of parents as being critical to growth, not only of individuals, but to the state’s economy as a whole. We see a relationship between the quality of education given and received, the extent of education … meaning higher education being linked to providing high-quality work force that in turn leads to better business opportunity and economic growth.
Our college challenge program is designed really to serve the better economic interests of the state and really has 3 key parts. One is just to get $500 started and growing for every baby born in the state. The second is to communicate with parents at a very early age about things they can do to keep their child on track toward a good future, and ultimately toward higher education. Third, to encourage them to save what they can toward their child’s future.
There have been a bunch of interesting studies done since we launched the program, because we didn’t know about these studies when we started up, that show that the mere presence of a college savings account, in even low-income families changes the way the families feel about their child’s future. In other words, it gives them optimism, hope, aspirations that are higher than the families that don’t have this piece of the rock, if you will.
We’re trying to make sure that every baby born in the state has high aspirations and that their family does, for their future, by this grant program.
Dr. Lisa: When you make the $500 available to families, you’re not saying, “We expect that your child will go to a specific university.” You’re just supporting their education in general.
Greg: We are, and that’s a very important point. We’re also not saying that higher education has to mean Colby, Bates, Bowdoin or Harvard. Higher education in the future is going to change dramatically in form, and relatively modest amounts of money will be able to get students access to what I’ll call competency-based higher education at a fairly affordable rate through the Internet and otherwise.
Our program is designed to allow families to use that $500 for everything from a welding certificate to a Harvard education. It’s very broad-based. It’s simply to encourage people to improve themselves, and to develop a skill, a knowledge, that will help them live a better life, have a better job, et cetera.
Dr. Lisa: I really like hearing that, because I think that for some families … I grew up in Yarmouth, so obviously there are many families in Yarmouth who just assume that college is the next step, but college isn’t the next step. For some people, even if you’re going to a college, it may be a different sort of college. You may be going to a trade school. You may have very different aspirations than your classmates. To just be encouraged to go always with what you feel passionate about; I think that’s important.
Greg: Absolutely, I agree. I think in some ways the term “college” is inartful, because it’s not broad enough to describe what we’re trying to do. Basically, we are saying that in a world –connected, hyper-competitive economy, America’s leadership role in the world will depend upon our ability to have an educated workforce.
Right now, well over 60 percent of Americans do not have the benefit of any higher education, and yet well over 60 percent of the jobs of the future all will require higher education in one form or another. We see planting the seed for higher education at a very early age to be critical, to developing the mindset and aspiration of every citizen to be better, to be good, to have skills that make them valuable to the economy and proud of themselves and able to be successful in life.
Starting as early as possible is absolutely critical, because you just can’t, at the age of 17, suddenly decide, “I think I’m going to do this, or I’m going to do that.” You have to be thinking about it, and your parents have to be thinking about it, to do it well.
Dr. Lisa: There are some families for whom work has always been the most important thing, and it’s still a very legitimate thing after high school. If you have the availability of funds, then there at least is an opening there so that you can send a child on if you want to.
Greg: Work and having a good job, Mr. Alfond used to say, is first. You have to have enough to survive and to have a decent life. After that, a lot of other things are easier to do. To the extent education helps people find good work and good jobs that are paying jobs, we are all for it.
Dr. Lisa: There have been many studies that have shown a positive association between education levels and health. Within the medical field, it’s always good for us to know that there are people out there promoting education, because we know that it’s going to loop back around and enable people to be healthier longer in their lives.
Greg: Absolutely, so there are connections everywhere on that front, there really are.
Dr. Lisa: Some of the athletic facilities that the Alfond Foundation has funded, they’ve become used by people who are members of the community, in addition to the students who are going to school in these places.
Greg: That’s always been a key feature for the Alfond family; giving Mr. Alfond, who started it back in the 1950s, when he made a grant to Colby College to build its ice arena, which still stands today. The idea was, when the students weren’t using it, the community should be. We didn’t want assets, and he didn’t want assets, not being used fully by people in the community.
Educational institutions are usually better when they are closely related, supported by the communities in which they reside. Having athletic facilities available for the community is a big deal, and we support it.
Dr. Lisa: As a physician and a small business owner, I rely on Marci Booth, from BoothMaine, to help me with my own business and to help me live my own life fully. Here are a few thoughts from Marci.
Marci: When asked, most of my clients say the same thing about what keeps them up at night; money. Making certain cash flow is there to meet day-to-day operational needs. Oh my gosh, is payroll going to be able to make it? When we dig deeper, we understand that those sleepless nights are symptoms of poor planning and forecasting. More often than not, the reasons for not doing it are a lack of time and a lack of resources.
Here’s a suggestion; instead of living in fear of the numbers, and losing sleep over them, make peace with them by paying closer attention to the financials and creating positive cash flow.
I’m Marci Booth. Let’s talk about the changes you need; BoothMaine.com.
Male: This segment of the Dr. Lisa radio hour is brought to you by the following generous sponsors; Mike LePage and Beth Franklin of ReMax Heritage in Yarmouth, Maine; honesty and integrity can take you home. With ReMax Heritage, it’s your move. Learn more at RHeritage.com.
Dr. Lisa: It’s an interesting larger metaphor. The Alfond Foundation came out of the Dexter Shoe Company, and the Dexter Shoe Company made something that was very practical; something to put on your feet, so you could hit the ground and go out there and move about in the world. Now the foundation is doing things that carry on his legacy; enable people to do things that are very foundational, very fundamental.
Greg: Yeah, I think that’s nice of you to say that. I think the sports metaphor goes beyond that to say that I order to win, you have to have teamwork. Bringing people together to move in the same direction toward a common goal, especially in a state that has limited resources, which we have to frankly admit and candidly say we have; the way you get something really good is by bringing people together.
A key part of Mr. Alfond’s giving and the foundation’s giving today has always been to forge partnerships, collaborations, teamwork amongst differing parts of small communities and the state as a whole. That’s what we try to do, and we feel that by doing that, we can build something that is far better than if each constituency is sort of out doing its own thing.
Dr. Lisa: An article that I just wrote about Bill Caron of Maine Health is coming out in the same July issue that you are in, as a member of the “50 people” list. He said the same thing; we’re in this really interesting place right now with health care, that there are only so many resources. We have a lot of people out there who are aging, and you need to be more practical about the way that you’re doing this, and it requires collaboration.
The collaboration, I think, has been very challenging within the health care field. To be able to create a new hospital that is state of the art for that part of Maine is …
Greg: I think it’s fair to look at a problem and say, “What are our choices here?” It’s not good enough, and it’s not acceptable, to say, “We’re simply going to cut back on what we are doing. We’re going to have less, for less.”
I think what people want to do is, they want to see a vision of something that’s better and bigger, and will serve them better in the future. When you have that vision, together with some sacrifice and change, it makes the effort more palatable. I think it can actually engage and energize a community in a positive way.
You need to have the vision that you’re going to be building something bigger and better for everyone, coupled with austerity measures and efficiencies and collaborations. That’s the way the world needs to be moving, because we don’t have endless supplies of money, and we’re actually coming out of a very difficult financial time. There’s still a lot of work to be done. There’s a lot of young people who don’t have jobs. There’s still a lot of debt. We’ve got a lot of work to do.
I think it helps in doing that work to have a vision that at the end of your hard labor, you’re going to have something bigger and better than you had when you started out.
Dr. Lisa: Having good educational facilities, and having good hospitals and health care facilities, is really critical to … in addition to having good jobs … it’s really critical to bringing our young people back to the state of Maine, or keeping them in the state of Maine to live and work. This is what people are looking for; they need a place to live. They need a place to educate their kids. They need a place to get good health care. Having all of these things in place is really the only way that we’re actually going to get people back here, or keep them here.
Greg: Right. I think that’s a very interesting observation. People say, “What is the problem? Is the problem that we don’t have jobs, or is the problem that we don’t have as educated a work force as we have?” I’m not sure which one it is, but I can tell you that having a better educated work force, and a better quality of life, is attractive to people and makes them want to be here and stay here. We will be working in the future on ways to try to encourage more young people to say in Maine; help support those of us that are getting older.
Dr. Lisa: That’s important, and I can tell you, I’m sure you’ve seen the same thing in people that you have worked with. I can tell you that I’m very happy to meet the generation coming along behind me. They seem genuinely enthusiastic, and really adaptive and flexible. They have the same sense that most of us who live in Maine have, which is that you may come in with one job, but you’re more than likely going to have a different job by the time you leave this planet. In fact, many of us have many jobs all at the same time. I’m encouraged by that.
Greg: I think the mobility in the work force is greater than ever. The model has changed. When our parents were growing up, it would be often the case that you’d go to work for Scott Paper Company, and that would be your career. I think today, moving from one kind of work opportunity to the other will be more common. I’ve heard and read many things about this, including projections that you’ll change jobs as many as 15 or 30 times.
That would make sense, in an economy that is built around a worldwide access through the Internet, the ability to start new companies and new ventures with less capital because the computer power of the cloud now is available to entrepreneurs of all sorts. There just is going to be a lot of opportunities to contribute to the economy; it just is different.
When things change, they can be difficult, and it can be painful at times. We’re going through one of those periods.
Dr. Lisa: It sounds as though you’ve been through this as an individual. You didn’t start out thinking you were going to be the CEO of the Alfond Foundation. Many moons ago, when you were going through law school, I suspect you weren’t thinking, “My ultimate job is going to be working with Alfond.”
Greg: You’re so right. I had no clue. I really enjoyed very much debate and public speaking when I was in school. I always thought that a trial lawyer would be the right place for me. That’s where I started out. As I’ve said publicly recently, in another format, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.
It was on a golf cart in 1995, with Mr. Alfond, that he asked me if I would be interested in setting up a wealth management firm, and helping him with his philanthropy. It just changed my dots.
Dr. Lisa: Did you at the time feel intimidated in any way? Did you feel like you were fully capable of moving forward?
Greg: I think whenever you make a dramatic career change, there is a sense that there’s challenge and there are things you don’t know. There’s risk; will I be able to be up for the challenge? I felt that it was a very interesting opportunity, and he was pretty clear with me. He thought that a litigator’s background and attributes was perfect for the job he had in mind. I’m not sure I’ve ever quite understood that fully, but that was his view, and it didn’t bother him, and so we went for it.
Dr. Lisa: You have children of your own now who are … I believe one of them is at school at Colby.
Greg: That’s right. I have my younger daughter at Colby, and I have an older daughter who has just graduated from college. I’m just about to get relief from college debt payments.
Dr. Lisa: Congratulations on that. I’m still sort of in the middle of it myself. How has your work with the Alfond Foundation, and your work in the areas of philanthropy and education and health care … how has this shaped the words of wisdom that you have had for your own daughters?
Greg: I think I’ve always tried to be a good dad, and giving them advice about what I’m seeing in the world. Whether I was practicing law or working where I am right now, my morals and my messages, I think, have been the same. The difference has been that they’ve watched what I’m doing, and I think they probably find that having the privilege and the opportunity to shape grants that will benefit Maine in significant ways, is something they find maybe a little more inspiring than if I were to win a case in a trial somewhere.
That’s changed a little bit. Having them watch what I do and see how it’s done, and seeing me work with the wonderful board of trustees that I have … for us to get together as a group and do the things that we do, I think that’s been a good example more than anything. My messages have tended to be the same.
Dr. Lisa: You’ve also provided an example, as one who as a young adult, made the choice to live and raise your children in Maine.
Greg: Yes. I often say that that was my best decision and my worst; the same. Making a lifestyle choice to be in Maine probably means that you are accepting a little less on the economic ladder of success. You’ve traded in for that a quality of life which means a half an hour commute instead of an hour and a half. You’ve traded in lots of travel and money and whatnot, for being able to take a short drive and be on a state park beach, or be in a town like Portland, as wonderful as it is, with all the restaurants, and not have to put up with the traffic and the hassle.
Everybody has to sort of face that; where they want to be. There are certain things that you get, and certain things that you give up.
Dr. Lisa: Do you feel on balance, that you are in the right place, doing the right thing?
Greg: I do. I, as I said earlier, I feel privileged and honored to have the job that I have. It gives me a great sense of satisfaction to try to help Maine be a better place. I only wish I could do more.
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Dr. Lisa: What’s next for the Alfond Foundation? You give out … you’ve budgeted 35 million dollars in 2014?
Greg: That’s right. We have a huge responsibility to spend that money responsibility, and in a way that I like to think of as investing money. I think about it; what is my return on investment? What do I and my board of trustees in the Alfond family, who care deeply about how Mr. Alfond’s money is spent … we want to see a high return on our investments. We are looking at opportunities to improve the economy of central Maine, because we have a special sweet spot there. That’s where Mr. Alfond raised his family. That’s where I’m from.
We also recognize that central Maine is a place that maybe doesn’t have as much commercial activity and needs a little more help. We’re also interested in the state as a whole. Things that we can do to improve the education of Maine people, that can improve their health care, that can improve the economy, are all things that we’re focused on. We have a number of very interesting opportunities that we’re studying right now.
Dr. Lisa: How do people find out about applying for a grant, and what types of criteria you have for making these grants?
Greg: We have a Web site; doesn’t everybody? It’s HaroldAlfondFoundation.org, and on the Web site, there’s fairly detailed descriptions of what sorts of things we are looking for, and organizations applying for grants. There’s also an on line application process, which we require every entity looking for funds to follow in order to receive grants.
The key part of our mission is that we try to fund things in education and health care and youth development. We are looking for opportunities to bring constituencies together to provide services and improvement in health care education and youth development, in an efficient way, and doing it in a way that achieves a level of excellence that people can be proud of.
We want the community or communities to come together to really work hard together, to prove something really, really great. In the case of the college challenge, there is no other state in the country that is doing what we do. Nobody else does this. We have now been … we’re now being studied and followed by all kinds of groups. There are other states in the country, and cities that are trying to do the same thing, but we did it first, and we do it well, we hope.
Every single day, we try to do it even better. Stay tuned on that, but we’ve got some major work to do, now that we’re enrolling automatically all kids, we’re going to be ramping up the efforts to get parents more involved in savings, and having the community contribute to savings, and also to have our messages to parents accompanying the money be more helpful and enlightening, and hopefully leading them to have higher aspirations for their children, and hopefully allowing them to keep their child on track to be a good student and a good citizen.
Dr. Lisa: When I was thinking about the Alfond challenge, I was remembering an individual that we used to call governor, Angus King, who now is in a different role, and how much of a proponent he was of the laptop program, and how much flak he got, and how crazy he was called. I have now my third child in this laptop program, and I’m sure your daughters also had access to this.
I can’t imagine Maine not having it. It seems like everybody has to go through this. If you want to do something new and different, everybody has to go through being called crazy, before they get to do something which really makes a difference.
Greg: Yeah, but it’s appropriate that people call into question the wisdom of ventures. Otherwise, they get built wrong. You need to know what the problems and risks are that you undertake, and you can’t be irresponsible in the way you spend money or start an initiative.
It just so happens that Senator King’s initiative was a wonderful one, and it was ahead of its time, and Maine led the country in terms of getting these powerful tools in the hands of all teenagers. Now we’ve got to deal with the fact that maybe they have them in their hands too much. I don’t know about you, but if I watch my daughters in social settings, they can have 4 or 5 peers all around them, and they’re all looking at their iPhones instead of engaging in personal communications.
Be that as it may, the truth of the matter is that everything is moving in that direction, and Senator King saw it, and it was a wonderful initiative. Did he take some flak? Sure.
Dr. Lisa: I think it also says something about people with … people who live in the state of Maine, who are willing to take those risks, who are willing to have some vision. Even though they’re called into question, and rightfully so, they’re able to keep moving forward with something they really believe in. I believe that’s what the Alfond Foundation is encouraging people to do as well.
Greg: Yeah, and the other nice thing about Maine is, we’re not that big. We can do some things that other people couldn’t do. We can bring partners together in a way that’s a little easier to do. Counterbalancing that exposes the yankee independence that you spoke about earlier, but if you have a smaller population base, it’s easier to do some of the things that we do.
We can test them out. We can be the leader, and figure out how to do it, and then the rest of the country can follow. What is the old phrase, “As Maine goes, so goes the nation”? That was a phrase of Senator Smith years and years ago. That’s who we are, so we have a lot to be proud of. Sometimes being small, helps.
Dr. Lisa: I appreciate your taking the time to sit with me today. I can tell that you have a lot of enthusiasm for the work that you do, and it feels very gratifying. I wonder if I was you, and I was sitting in an arena that had the Alfond name on it, or if I was meeting a child who had benefitted from the Alfond Foundation money, I think that would give me a sense of pride. I would assume that the same is true in your case.
Greg: Yeah, it’s really neat. I think other … the Alfond family members, myself, members of the staff and the board … we get these notes from parents who have received their $500 at the moment of highest aspiration and hope. It’s a wonderful feeling. We receive that kind of input from folks on other things that are done.
The important part, though, is that what we are doing is really enabling the best of people to do more. Mr. Alfond’s view of teamwork and getting people to work together, sometimes it seems like a rarity in today’s society to have people actually all agreeing on something, and all working on something together. It does happen; it happens every day in Maine, and it’s a real honor to be part of it.
Dr. Lisa: We’ve been speaking with Greg Powell, who is the chairman of the Harold Alfond Foundation, and also the president of Dexter Enterprises. Greg, I know you’re a very busy person, and I appreciate your coming in and talking to me today, and talking to our listeners. I encourage our listeners to read also the “50 people” list, of which you are a part, in the July “Maine” magazine, and keep doing the good work you’re doing.
Greg: Thank you. It’s been a pleasure.
Dr. Lisa: You have been listening to the Dr. Lisa radio hour and podcast, show number 147; inspiring Maine people. Our guests have included Katy Kelleher, Susan Grisanti and Greg Powell. For more information on our guests, and extended interviews, visit DoctorLisa.org. Also, see our “50 people” list in “Maine” magazine.
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This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. I hope that you have enjoyed our “Inspiring Maine People” show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.
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Dr. Lisa Belisle is a physician trained in family and preventative medicine, acupuncture and public health. She offers medical care and acupuncture at Brunswick Family Medicine. Read more about her integrative approach to wellness in “Maine” magazine.
The Dr. Lisa radio hour and podcast is recorded in the studio of “Maine” magazine, at 75 Market Street, Portland, Maine. Our executive producers are Kevin Thomas, Susan Grisanti, and Dr. Lisa Belisle. Our assistant producer is Leanne Ouimet. Audio production and original music by John C. McCain. Our on line producer is Kelly Clinton.
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