Executive Team
Marty Jones
President and CEO
At its April 14 meeting, the MassDevelopment Board of Directors unanimously chose Marty Jones as the Agency’s new President and CEO. Ms. Jones, previously the president of Boston building, development, and property management company Corcoran Jennison, has spent decades in the real-estate industry. She got her start at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in both the Washington and Boston offices.
At Corcoran Jennison, Ms. Jones managed staff and project teams for new development projects that transformed communities, directed asset management for multifamily portfolios, chaired a joint venture between Corcoran Jennison and Beacon Communities, and directed all aspects of the Westminster Company, a 175-employee operation with 66 properties and 5,000 apartment units in North and South Carolina.
A member of the Board of Directors of MassEcon, the New England Council, and the Urban Land Institute, Ms. Jones graduated from Brown University and resides in Winchester.
Nancy Howard
Chief Operating Officer
Nancy Howard oversees day-to-day operations of MassDevelopment and manages the finance and real estate programs. She has nearly 30 years of business experience in finance and banking.
Before joining the Agency, Ms. Howard was a group executive at BankBoston, responsible for the bank’s specialized finance business, a portfolio of approximately $10 billion in assets. She was also a member of the bank’s Senior Loan Committee. She has extensive new business development and credit experience.
Ms. Howard holds a B.A. in English Literature from Emmanuel College, a M.Ed. from Boston State College, and an MBA from the Simmons Graduate School of Management.
John Champion
Chief Financial Officer
John Champion is responsible for leading MassDevelopment’s financial planning, investment, and accounting practices. Other duties include oversight of treasury, budgeting, accounting, purchasing, human resources, risk management, grant writing and administration, and information technology.
Mr. Champion has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry and currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Veteran’s Northeast Outreach Center in Haverhill.
He holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Suffolk University.
Anne Marie Dowd
Executive Vice President, Legislative Affairs and General Counsel
Anne Marie Dowd has served as executive vice president of legislative affairs since March 2005, prior to which she served as general counsel for MassDevelopment for five years, and as Agency counsel and administrator of the Brownfields Redevelopment Fund. Before joining MassDevelopment, Ms. Dowd helped establish Smartcity.com, Inc., an Internet real estate company where she served as general counsel and vice president of content. She also was a real estate associate in the Boston office of Sherin and Lodgen LLP, where she represented clients in real estate acquisitions, dispositions, and financings throughout the country. In addition, she served as legal counsel to the Department of Food and Agriculture of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, where she represented a land preservation program.
Ms. Dowd graduated from Middlebury College and the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she was an editor of the Wisconsin Environmental Law Journal.
Richard Henderson
Executive Vice President, Real Estate
Richard Henderson brings more than 20 years of economic development and urban planning experience to MassDevelopment. As director of planning and development for the Massachusetts Port Authority, he played an instrumental role in planning and developing Massport’s South Boston waterfront properties including the World Trade Center complex, Manulife USA Headquarters, the Marriott Renaissance Hotel, and several industrial and residential projects. Prior to his work at MassPort, Henderson was assistant secretary of economic affairs for the Commonwealth and principal author of a statewide economic strategy, Choosing to Compete. Mr. Henderson also served as director of policy planning for the Boston Redevelopment Authority.
He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Williams College and holds a Master of Philosophy in Urban Design and Regional Planning from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
Laura Canter
Executive Vice President, Finance Programs
Laura Canter is executive vice president and division director for the Finance Programs Division. Reporting to Ms. Canter are the Economic Development Lending, Investment Banking, Community Development and New Markets Tax Credit practices, with teams in each of MassDevelopment’s five regional offices. The division serves governmental entities, private and public businesses, and nonprofit organizations with alternative financing products. Ms. Canter’s career has been spent in finance, public policy, and economic development.
Ms. Canter joined MassDevelopment in 1996. Prior to that, she was employed by State Street Bank and Trust Company, where she represented the interests of bondholders of distressed and bankrupt companies. She negotiated the workout and restructuring of more than $1 billion in publicly and privately placed debt.
She holds an undergraduate degree in communications from Emerson College and a M.B.A. in finance from Bentley College. She is a former director of the Melrose Housing Authority and of the Council of Development Finance Agencies.
Mary E. (Meg) Delorier
Chief of Staff
Meg Delorier was appointed MassDevelopment chief of staff in March 2005. Ms. Delorier joined the MassDevelopment team in 2001 as vice president for community relations in Devens, where she was responsible for outreach to local businesses, residents, media and the surrounding towns of Ayer, Harvard, and Shirley. Her current responsibilities include coordinating agency priorities and projects. She oversees outreach efforts to MassDevelopment constituencies including state and federal legislators, executive branch offices, municipalities, business leaders, and other groups engaged in building the Commonwealth’s economy.
Prior to joining MassDevelopment, Ms. Delorier worked as executive director of the Nashoba Valley Chamber of Commerce, regional director for the American Heart Association, and station manager for the American Red Cross Military and Social Services Division.
She attended Nathaniel Hawthorne College in New Hampshire, where she studied criminal justice.
George A. Ramirez
Executive Vice President, Devens Operations
As executive vice president of Devens operations, George Ramirez oversees the continued redevelopment of the former military base into an economic engine for north central Massachusetts.
Mr. Ramirez brings nearly two decades of expertise to MassDevelopment. He worked most recently as deputy director and general counsel in the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, where he played a key role in managing six agencies and more than 80 fulltime employees. In that capacity, he facilitated state support for economic development, chaired the Economic Assistance Coordinating Council, served as a member of the Emerging Technology Fund Advisory Committee and coordinated the Governor’s Development Cabinet. In addition to his service as a member of the Lowell City Council, Mr. Ramirez has also run a private law practice for six years. A resident of Lowell, he holds a B.A. from UMass-Lowell and a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School, where he is a member of the Board of Trustees.
Doreen Lindsay
Director of Human Resources and Organizational Development
Doreen Lindsay joined MassDevelopment as Director of Human Resources and Organizational Development in November 2011.
Ms. Lindsay has been instrumental in assisting senior executives in the not-for-profit sector achieve their HR, diversity, and strategic business goals and objectives. Prior to joining MassDevelopment, she served first as workforce diversity specialist and then as administrative manager chiefly responsible for HR functions within the Pharmacy Department at Boston Medical Center.
Ms. Lindsay received her B.S. from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and an M.B.A. from Simmons College School of Management in Boston.
