Open Door from the Maine Trust for Local News

Open Door features personal reflections from local leaders about their career trajectory, management style and lessons they've learned along the way. Our president & publisher Stefanie Manning interviews local CEOs and business leaders for a behind the scenes look at their career paths, the ups and downs of running their businesses and the trends shaping them. Kaveri Subbarao Nauhaus, CEO of Berns...

Heather Paquette, CEO of Good Shepherd Food Bank sat down with Maine Trust for Local News managing director, Stefanie Manning for a conversation at the Roux Institute at Northeastern University on Thursday, October 23, 2025. About Heather Heather Paquette came to Good Shepherd Food Bank after a dynamic 24-year career with the companies of Ahold Delhaize USA, including 22 years at Hannaford Superma...

If you enjoyed our Like a Boss series, please join us for Open Door. Open Door features personal reflections from local leaders about their careers, management styles and lessons they've learned along the way. Steve Mills, CEO of Maine Beer Company sat down with Maine Trust for Local News Managing Director Stefanie Manning for a conversation at the Roux Institute at Northeastern University on Wedn...

About Safa Zaki Copyright Jessica Scranton Safa R. Zaki is the sixteenth president of Bowdoin College, a renowned psychologist and cognitive scientist, and the first woman to lead the College since its founding in 1794. Safa's research focuses on how people divide the world into categories, using computational approaches to model cognitive processes in order to enrich our understanding of the huma...

On Wednesday, March 6, Portland Press Herald CEO and Publisher Lisa DeSisto interviewed Tate's Bakeshop CEO, Esi Seng at The Roux Institute at Northeastern University. About Esi Seng Esi Seng is a proven, inspirational global leader with more than two decades of accelerating business growth and building high-performing CPG businesses and teams across the globe including Switzerland, Malaysia, Sing...

Like A Boss is a live Q&A business event where you can hear insightful, first-hand accounts of the realities of running a business. Our CEO and Publisher Lisa DeSisto interviews local CEOs and business leaders for a behind the scenes look at their career paths, the ups and downs of running their businesses and the trends shaping them. Maine State Director of AARP,  Noël Bonam  sat down with Portla...

President of The Boulos Company,  Jessica Estes  sat down with Portland Press Herald CEO  Lisa DeSisto  for a conversation at  The Roux Institute at Northeastern University  on Tuesday, April 4.

President and CEO of Central Maine Power, Joe Purington sat down with Portland Press Herald CEO Lisa DeSisto for a conversation at The Roux Institute on Wednesday, March 1. About Joe Purington Joe Purington was appointed President and CEO of Central Maine Power (CMP) in September 2021. CMP serves approximately 646,000 electricity customers in an 11,000 square-mile service area in central and south...

President of Baxter Brewing, Jenn Lever joined Portland Press Herald CEO Lisa DeSisto for a conversation at The Roux Institute on October 19, 2022 Jenn is an Auburn, Maine native who graduated from Edward Little High School in 2004, and then attended Hobart and William Smith Colleges, earning a BA in Economics and Sociology. In 2008, Lever ignited her career in the Food & Beverage Industry when sh...

Don Perkins  has served as  GMRI 's President/CEO since 1995. Don works with GMRI's staff, board, and external partners to drive GMRI's evolution as a strategic science, education, and community institution that serves the Gulf of Maine bioregion and to scale GMRI's impact beyond.

Like a Boss conversation between Lisa DeSisto, Publisher of the Portland Press Herald and CEO of Masthead Maine and Andrew Mueller, CEO of MaineHealth on Friday, April 29, 2022

Josh Broder  serves as CEO of  Tilson , which under his leadership, has grown from fewer than 10 employees to 600, earning a top spot on the Inc. 5000 list for the past 11 years. He is also the founder of Tilson's public utility affiliate, which develops, owns and leases back 5G infrastructure including poles, towers and fiber nationwide. 

Mr. Mazelsky has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of IDEXX since October 2019. Prior to that, Mr. Mazelsky served as Interim President and Chief Executive Officer from June 2019 to October 2019, and he was an Executive Vice President responsible for the North American Companion Animal Group Commercial Organization and key elements of the innovation portfolio, including the IDEXX Vet...

Like A Boss is a live Q&A business event where you can hear insightful, first-hand accounts of the realities of running a business. Our CEO and Publisher Lisa DeSisto interviews local CEOs and business leaders for a behind the scenes look at their career paths, the ups and downs of running their businesses and the trends shaping them. About Clayton Rose Clayton S. Rose, who was inaugurated as Bowd...

Like A Boss Now is a series of live webinar interviews where you can hear insightful, first-hand accounts of the realities of running a business. Portland Press Herald CEO and Publisher Lisa DeSisto will interview Maine CEOs for insights on how they are managing, adapting, and problem solving in these ever-changing times.   As a lifelong advocate for ending food insecurity, Kristen Miale, presiden...

Portland Press Herald Publisher and CEO Lisa DeSisto interviews Tony Shurman at the Portland House of Music in Portland Maine on February 28, 2020. Shurman is President and CEO of Jasper Wyman & Son ("Wyman's") the second largest brand in the retail frozen fruit category in the U.S. with its most notable product being wild blueberries. Founded in 1874, Wyman's is a family-owned business headquarte...

Lindsay Skilling is the CEO of Gifford's Famous Ice Cream in Skowhegan, Maine. Gifford's is a fifth-generation owned family business with roots back to the late 1800s. Today, Gifford's sells almost 2 million gallons of ice cream, frozen yogurt, sherbet and sorbet each year and serves more than one million cones each summer from 5 family-owned and operated stands in Maine. You can find over 100 fla...

Press Herald CEO and publisher Lisa DeSisto sat down to interview BlueTarp Financial COO Shawn Cunningham Friday morning for our 'Like a Boss' series of interviews with local CEOs and business leaders. The series offers a behind-the-scenes look at their career paths, the ups and downs of running their businesses and the trends shaping them. BlueTarp Financial is a B2B credit management company in...

Like A Boss is a live Q&A business event where you can hear insightful, first-hand accounts of the realities of running a business. Our CEO and Publisher Lisa DeSisto interviews local CEOs and business leaders for a behind the scenes look at their career paths, the ups and downs of running their businesses and the trends shaping them. About Michelle Hood Michelle Hood is the president and CEO at N...

Portland Press Herald CEO and publisher Lisa DeSisto sat down with Deanna Sherman, president and CEO of Dead River Co., on Friday, Oct. 26, to chat about her work in the energy industry. Sherman oversees one of the largest energy companies in Northern New England. Founded in 1909, Dead River Co. is family-owned with over 1,000 employees serving customers in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and northe...

On Friday, Sept. 7, 2018, publisher Lisa DeSisto sat down with Cummings, who began his academic career in Gorham as a high school history teacher and department head. He served as a faculty member at the Southern Maine Community College and was a long-serving member of the USM faculty. Prior to becoming president of USM, Cummings served as interim president of the University of Maine at Augusta. I...

Portland Press Herald Publisher Lisa DeSisto talks with Andrew Silsby about his career at Kennebec Savings Bank , which he joined in 1993. Silsby discusses why email isn't the best medium for solving problems, the bank's move into Freeport, and just how far ahead he likes to be with new technology.  This interview was recorded July 27, 2017 in Augusta.

Portland Press Herald Publisher and CEO Lisa DeSisto chats with Chuck Hays, whose career took him from Massachusetts Maritime Academy, to marine nuclear engineering, to the helm of Maine General Medical Center. Hays talks about the role of MGMC in the community, and their objective, "... to be the leading community health care system in Maine, recognized for clinical excellence, customer satisfact...

Portland Press Herald President and C.E.O. Lisa Desisto talks with Laurie Lachance, the first female President of Thomas College, about how she came to that job and what Thomas College means to its students and the business community in Maine.

Mike Vail became president of Hannaford Supermarkets in 2015. He is responsible for all operations, including strategic direction, financial performance, product assortment, pricing, customer service and marketing. He also serves as a member of the Delhaize America Leadership Team. Vail has more than 30 years of experience working in retail. Immediately prior to leading Hannaford, he served as chi...