David Roux, Managing Partner of BayPine

By Paul Koenig

At the beginning of last year, Northeastern University announced it was partnering with entrepreneur, investor, and Maine native David Roux to launch a graduate education and research campus in Portland. The Roux Institute, which was envisioned by Roux and his wife, Barbara Roux, and kickstarted with a $100 million gift from their family foundation, aims to bring Maine into the advanced technology economy and provide sustained economic growth. The state-of-the art graduate education program blends academic instruction with advanced research opportunities and work experiences at the institute’s business partners. In its first year, the Roux Institute enrolled more than 500 students and attracted 45 corporate partners, raising the profile of the state as a source for advanced computing talent and an appealing location for corporate research labs and new business initiatives, Roux says. “The response of the workforce has demonstrated the wisdom and reinforced the soundness of the core strategy, which is that people want to participate in an advanced economy but have more geographic diversity of how to do that,” he says. Roux, who spends summers in Maine and has extended family here, says he wanted to establish the institute in Maine because he loves the state and wants to make sure as many people as possible have a chance to live, work, and prosper here. “Eventually, in life,” Roux says, “you look ahead and hope the next generation and the generation after that have an opportunity to grow and prosper in a place you know and love.”