Lonnie Labbe Corey shares this with us — about her impressive career. A second-generation immigrant, born and raised in Lewiston, ME, she spoke French as a first language. Lonnie attended a bilingual, parochial school until grade 9 and began to assimilate and acculturate in an English-only public high school. Lonnie realized at an early age the value of entrepreneurship, self-sufficiency, and calculated risk. She says that her advantage as a female entrepreneur was her confidence, independence, and especially her love of math, which was encouraged by the teachers at Lewiston High School and the student teachers from nearby Bates College. “Math has no language barrier,” she says.
She created the foundation of a service business in 1981 while working at Boston’s State Street Bank as a VP commercial lending officer, national utility specialist. In 1983, Lonnie left State Street Bank and launched the business as a sole proprietorship “DATASTROY” in the waste management industry, specializing in destruction of confidential information. Headquartered in Boston with a branch in San Francisco’s Greater Bay area, she ultimately won the respect and ongoing business of several international money-center banks, including Wells Fargo and Bank of America. She was the first woman in the country to own and lead a company in this industry, and achieved great success, especially in the Bay Area. Eventually, Lonnie’s brand/trademark was stolen by a classmate of her husband’s at his Harvard Business School reunion and subsequently sold to a NYSE company. This has recently become a case study in the law school and business school at her alma mater, Suffolk University’s Sawyer Graduate Business School. We are so glad to hear from you, Lonnie, and look forward to learning more about the case study.
Betty Loew White: as I write this, I am watching the fall foliage unfold here in Aroostook County. The potatoes are waiting in the ground ready to be harvested. By the time this edition of MAINE Alumni Magazine is released, the cold weather and snow will certainly be here. I recall sitting in the Fogler Library where I would often study for my exams in the stacks — and watching snowflakes, as huge as paper plates, fall gently past the window. What are some of your fondest memories?
Wherever you are, near or far, please know that your classmates enjoy hearing from you.