Robert L. Culver
President and CEO
Robert L. Culver has been president and chief executive officer of MassDevelopment since his appointment by the board of directors in March 2004.
Before joining MassDevelopment, Mr. Culver served as vice president for administration and finance at Yale University; executive vice president and chief financial officer for the Boston-based, multi-national Cabot Corporation, and senior vice president and treasurer of Northeastern University. He has also been a partner in the consulting practice at Coopers and Lybrand and held administrative positions at the MBTA and City of Cambridge School Department.
He holds a bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and master’s degrees from the London School of Economics and Political Science and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He also completed an intensive non-degree program in Chinese language and history at the University of Cambridge.
Mr. Culver is a corporator of Northeastern University and a board member of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He is a past member of the Boston School Committee, the Wheelock College board, the Niagara Mohawk Power Authority board of directors, the U.S. Trust Company board for which he chaired the audit committee, the National Grid USA advisory board, and the Martha Eliot Health Center board.
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 and is a Massachusetts Certified Public Accountant.
Richard W. Holtz
General Counsel
Richard Holtz oversees MassDevelopment’s Office of the General Counsel and serves as the agency’s principal legal adviser. Prior to joining MassDevelopment, Mr. Holtz worked as an attorney at the Boston law firm Mintz, Levin, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, where he specialized in real estate law, including acquisition and development, financing, zoning and land use, and commercial leasing and licensing, as well as representing lenders and borrowers in all types of mortgage financings.
Mr. Holtz holds a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame, and a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School, where he was executive editor of the Suffolk University Law Review.
Anne Marie Dowd
Executive Vice President, Legislative Affairs
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.
Janet Hookailo
Executive Vice President, Marketing and Communications
Janet Hookailo brings extensive experience in marketing and public relations to the MassDevelopment team. In the private sector she held the posts of communications director and interim university relations director at Northeastern University. Earlier in her career she served in state government as director of communications for both the Executive Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation and the Massachusetts Office for Children and as assistant director of communications at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northeastern University.
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.
