Paul LePage grew up in Lewiston, the oldest son of 18 children, and left home at the age of 11 to escape domestic abuse. Finding families who mentored him, employment, and education became his path out of poverty.

A graduate of Husson College with an MBA from the University of Maine, he has had an extensive career in business management, heading his own consultancy firm and advising and leading businesses in several industries, including the forest products, retail, banking, and energy sectors. He served three terms as Mayor of the City of Waterville and successfully ran for Governor in 2010.

In both his private sector work and as the leader of the State of Maine, Governor LePage is a turnaround specialist. He took office in 2011 and won reelection in 2014 with the highest number of votes ever cast for a Maine governor as of that election. He was re-elected because voters saw the results of his efforts to balance the budget, reform welfare, and cut taxes.

Governor LePage has worked to reduce domestic violence in Maine, make government more efficient, and improve the business climate. Although he believes strongly that there was much work still to be done, he was extremely successful in turning around the state’s finances to the best they had been in decades, having paid off a $750 million debt to Maine’s hospitals, generating record-high revenues despite having cut taxes by 20 percent, and a rebuilding the state’s rainy-day fund from virtually nothing to almost $300 million.

Governor LePage had inherited an economy in turmoil from the recession and the loss of manufacturing jobs, especially in Maine’s heritage industries. Upon leaving office in January 2019, Maine’s economy had reached a record-high number of private-sector jobs, a record-high number of employers, record-low unemployment, and the fastest net-earnings growth in New England. Manufacturing jobs had stopped a decades-long decline, stabilizing and beginning to grow again. The state’s poverty rate had declined to the lowest since at least 2005, and Maine had the fewest number of children in poverty in the past 18 years.

Governor LePage’s personal motto is, “If it is to be, it is up to me.” Each individual must have the confidence to make the right decision and drive change in our lives and in our work. He believes leaders must have the integrity and the confidence to do the right thing to be effective.            

Maine People Before Politics is proud to have Governor LePage, a proven leader and change manager, serve as its inaugural honorary chairperson.