Danvers, MA – Essex County Community Foundation has announced that John D. Colucci, Director of the Corporate Department of the law firm of McLane Middleton and Managing Director of its Woburn office, has been named Chair of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees.
Colucci, who has served on the ECCF board since 2016, replaces Chair Jon Payson, who held the role for seven years and retired June 30 after nine total years of board service. Payson joins fellow ECCF board member Matt Doring of Rowley, who is also retiring after serving for nine years on the Board, most recently as the Grants and Services Committee Chair.
Payson, who led the Board during an evolutionary phase of incredible growth and an increased presence in the county, said that Colucci is well suited to help lead ECCF into the future.
“As ECCF’s work in the community grows in importance and impact, John’s impressive combination of skills, experience, and deep connections to the nonprofit and business sectors of Essex County will be invaluable,” Payson said about Colucci. “John is also one of the nicest, smartest, most generous people I know. He’s going to be a terrific Board Chair and ECCF will thrive under his leadership.”
In his first four years as a member of ECCF’s Board of Trustees, Colucci has played a critical role in the Foundation’s growth and emergence as a regional leader. Since 2016, not only has ECCF significantly expanded its family of funds, increased its assets and more than doubled the number of grants awarded to area nonprofits and students, but the Foundation has also been focused on working collaboratively with partners across the county on a series of innovative solutions to some of the region’s most pressing challenges.
“It has been incredibly exciting to work with ECCF during this period of growth and impact,” said Colucci. “I see the Foundation’s work as vital to the health of our region – to the people who live and work in our 34 cities and towns – and I am honored and privileged to continue to help build on this work as Board Chair.”
Over the last four years, ECCF’s community leadership work has been centered around income inequality, workforce development, the creative economy, small business support and, most recently, working collaboratively with community leaders to help Essex County navigate through the fallout from COVID-19.
“The Foundation’s strength lies in its passion for the people of Essex County and at no time has this passion been more apparent than when we find ourselves in crisis,” said Colucci. “Jon Payson has certainly demonstrated that. ECCF staff exhibits that. And, most importantly, ECCF’s partners in this work – donors, fundholders, nonprofits, community, business and government leaders – remind us every day that ECCF’s mission is their mission.”
“It is incredibly rewarding to be part of an organization that convenes so many towards a common goal: ensuring that all residents have a chance to thrive in Essex County,” he added.
Colucci has a long history of leadership, both in his professional life as an attorney and CPA and in his involvement with the community. In addition to his role at ECCF, Colucci has served in leadership roles with the Peabody Essex Museum Corporate Committee, the Montserrat College of Art, the Greater Beverly YMCA, the Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants, the North Shore United Way, the Beverly Chamber of Commerce, the Kiwanis Club of Beverly and the North Shore Technology Council, among others.
“John’s extensive leadership experience is an enormous asset to the Foundation, and we are so fortunate he joined ECCF back in 2016 and will continue to lend us his skills as Board Chair,” said ECCF President and CEO Beth Francis. “He truly embodies the spirit of collaboration, strategic thinking and innovation that is so critical to the work we do at ECCF, especially during these extremely challenging times.”
Colucci, who officially began his role as Board Chair on June 10, lives in Wenham with his wife, Lisa, and their two teenage sons.
