Martin T. Meehan
Marty was elected to the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Board in 2017. As a director, he helps set the company’s strategy and overall direction. Within a highly competitive and heavily regulated business environment, the board oversees and governs the company’s operations, which includes providing health care coverage to individuals and public and private employers. Marty serves as chair of the board’s governance committee and is a member of the health care quality and affordability committee.
Marty is the President of the five-campus University of Massachusetts system, the third largest employer in the Commonwealth with a $3.5 million budget.
Under Meehan’s leadership and with his support and advocacy, UMass has reached new heights and achieved historic milestones:
- Enrollment has risen to a record 75,000 students
- Research expenditures increased to more than $680 million
- University-funded financial aid increased by $111 million or 47 percent with 94 percent going to Massachusetts residents.
- UMass students received nearly $1 billion in federal, state, private, and institutional financial aid in FY20.
- The university’s statewide annual economic impact has grown to a record $7.5 billion
- For the fourth consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report has ranked all four UMass undergraduate campuses as top-tier national universities, making UMass one of the few university systems in the nation with that distinction.
- UMass Law, the only public law school in Massachusetts, achieved full ABA accreditation and its bar pass rates rose to the fifth-highest in New England, with an 82.6 percent pass rate for first-time test-takers in July 2019.
Previously he served as chancellor of his alma mater, UMass Lowell. Before that he had a long career in public service including serving for 14 years in the U.S. House of Representatives representing Massachusetts 5th Congressional district and as First Assistant District Attorney for Middlesex County.
Marty currently serves on the Natixis board of trustees and serves as an audit committee financial expert, as defined by the SEC. He also serves on the board of directors at The Association for Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU).
A native of Lowell Massachusetts, Marty graduated cum laude from UMass Lowell in 1978 with a degree in education and political science. He earned a master's degree in public administration from Suffolk University in 1981 and a juris doctor from Suffolk University Law School in 1986.