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“We said every program we are going to build at the Roux Institute is going to start with our partners — our business partners, our civic partners, state partners, the city,” President Joseph E. Aoun said.
PORTLAND, Maine — Northeastern officially broke ground on a new permanent campus on the Portland waterfront Friday — a state-of-the-art, multi-building complex that will serve as a hub for education and research on AI and other high-tech, high-growth fields.
It was also a celebration of the university’s global impact and local partnerships.
That was the message delivered by Northeastern President Joseph E. Aoun, who was joined by Maine technology entrepreneur David Roux, his wife, Barbara, representatives of the Harold Alfond Foundation, elected officials and business leaders.
The former industrial site of B&M Baked Beans will include the Roux Institute and the new Alfond Center.
“We said every program we are going to build at the Roux Institute is going to start with our partners — our business partners, our civic partners, state partners, the city,” Aoun said. “They are going to tell us what is needed, and our job is to work with our partners to build solutions and to educate the talent for the future.”
That philosophy has guided Northeastern while building a global university system that now includes 13 campuses in three countries, according to Richard D’Amore, chair of the Board of Trustees.
“This is a superb example of Northeastern’s unique, experience-driven research and curriculum that is powered by partnerships with the real world,” D’Amore said.
Northeastern launched the Roux Institute in January 2020 — with a $100 million investment from the Rouxes, followed by a $100 million investment by the Alfond Foundation. Both are making additional investments in the permanent campus.
The Rouxes’ vision four years ago was to build a Portland-based research hub that would educate generations of local talent for the digital, artificial intelligence and life sciences sectors, and drive sustained economic growth in northern New England.
“The idea here really couldn’t be more simple — we wanted to create a place where ambitious people with ability and drive can be transformed into technically fluent professionals capable of starting, managing and working at future-facing companies that will end up forming a foundation for a modern economy,” David Roux said.
Roux said this plan has been refined over the past four years — over 100 faculty and staff have been hired, the student body has grown to an incoming class of 1,000 students, and the alumni network includes nearly 300 graduates.
“We can look around at this point and say, ‘OK’ — as we say in Maine — ‘the dog hunts,’” Roux said. “We’ve got something that’s working, and we’re at a point where we can confidently put a stake down and say, ‘Let’s make this permanent, and let’s grow it!’”
That growth already includes building relationships with several partners, many of whom were in attendance at Friday’s ceremony.
“It’s just an amazing, amazing effort of so many, with so many partners and so many people in this room that have come to celebrate this moment with us,” Barbara Roux said.
Northeastern’s growth in Portland and Maine has involved working closely with nonprofits, businesses and other colleges and universities, according to Gregory W. Powell, CEO of the Harold Alfond Foundation.
“As we look out over Casco Bay this morning and reflect on our state’s future, we know that the moment has come to build a permanent home for the Roux Institute — for our state, for our future — and that the time is now,” Powell said.
“So as this is a groundbreaking, let’s remember we are not putting a shovel in the ground this morning to catch up. We are not putting a shovel in the ground to keep up. We are putting a shovel in the ground to lead — and to lead, we will.”
Indeed, Portland campus has already produced leaders.
Event emcee Courtney Bloniasz said Northeastern has not only provided her with a master’s degree in analytics; its partnership with a local company led to a job that enabled her to stay in Maine.
Robert Montgomery-Rice, president and CEO of Bangor Savings Bank, one of the Roux’s founding partners, said experiences like Bloniasz’s show “the power of the Roux.”
“If you had the opportunity like I have to see the graduates in action — doing projects, impacting companies — it is huge,” Montgomery-Rice said. “If you’re an employer, make sure you hire one of these young people and, most importantly, make sure you give one of their co-ops an opportunity to test your company, push your company and, more importantly, share what they have.”
Portland Mayor Mark Dion said more leaders will come — benefiting not just his city but all of Maine and northern New England.
“Every day, people across Maine are reinventing the state — in their communities, in their households, at their place of work — it’s what we do, and I think the Roux is symbolic of that cultural effort,” Dion said. “We will be solving new problems — complex problems — one day at a time to meet the needs of this state and the New England region.”
As the ceremonial shovels were distributed and hard hats donned, Aoun returned to the theme of partnerships in his closing remarks.
“We are only in chapter one of what could be done,” he said. “We have achieved a lot, but this is only the beginning.”
Aoun urged the Rouxes, the Alfond Foundation and other partners to “keep the pressure on” the university by providing input and feedback.
“We will give back, we are giving back,” Aoun said. “But we need your help, we need your support, we need your guidance. That’s really the model that we cherish, and that’s a model that I think is going to be the most impactful here in Maine.”