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Executive prunes CEO trappings,
returns to his roots

By Martha E. Mangelsdorf, Globe Correspondent, 4/13/03

Each month in ''Transitions,'' we profile individuals who have made significant changes in their work lives -- and highlight the techniques they used to make the changes.

Globe Staff Photo Hank Schmelzer at his office in Portland, Maine. He left his job in financial services to become president of the Maine Community Foundation.

Hank Schmelzer, 59

Career transition: Leaving an executive position in the corporate world to head a nonprofit foundation in Maine.

What he used to do: Schmelzer was president and CEO of New England Funds, a Boston mutual fund business.

What he does now: Schmelzer is president of the Maine Community Foundation, based in Ellsworth, Maine.

Making the switch: Ask Hank Schmelzer about his career change, and he may tell you about pruning apple trees.

Schmelzer grew up around apple trees; he jokes that when he was growing up in Stow, the place had about 2,000 people, 4,000 cows, and 80,000 apple trees. So perhaps it's not surprising that his metaphor for career transition comes from a course he took, four or five years ago, on restoring old apple trees. Someone asked the instructor - a Maine old-timer - how much to prune from a tree. ''Stand back and take a look at the tree,'' Schmelzer remembers the old-timer saying - and ''when you've cut enough out of the middle of the thing so you think you can pick up your cat and throw it through it, you've cut out enough.''

That, according to Schmelzer, is what career change is like. You need to step back and take a look at your career, cut out the deadwood, and create enough space and perspective that you can see through and see what's really there. In both apple trees and careers, Schmelzer said, ''that's what makes the tree bear fruit most effectively.''

There aren't very many apple trees on Boylston Street in the Back Bay, where Schmelzer worked as a financial executive. But Schmelzer was ready for a change. A lawyer by training, he had worked in the financial services industry in Massachusetts for almost 30 years, ending up as CEO and president of New England Funds, a mutual fund business. By the time he left in 1998, he said, New England Funds, then part of Nvest financial services, had aboout 240 employees and about $8 billion in assets.

But by the mid-1990s, Schmelzer had reached his early 50s, and he was thinking about doing something different. In particular, he set a personal goal of making a job change by age 55. ''I felt that I had time to put 10 years or so into another career,'' he said. ''But I really did not know where it would be.''

As a young man, Schmelzer had considered a career in public service. And he wanted to return to that goal. But, Schmelzer said, it wasn't really possible to explore other career possibilities while doing a demanding executive job. ''You have to get yourself out of it'' to look into your next steps, he said.

It's not easy to walk away from an executive position. ''To pull yourself away from that income stream and a lot of the ego trappings that go along with it is a little bit of a gut-wrenching experience,'' Schmelzer admits. But, fortuitously, at about the time of his 55th birthday in 1998, Schmelzer's company was going through a reorganization - which made it easier for him to decide to move on. His boss, Peter Voss, recalled that Schmelzer approached him about leaving and ''we worked on it together.''

Schmelzer stuck to his plan and left the New England Funds in 1998. For advice on career transition, he turned to New Directions Inc., a Boston-based career specialist. ''We urge them to slow down,'' said Dave Corbett, CEO of New Directions. Corbett notes that many senior executives have devoted much of their lives to building their careers. Having some ''downtime,'' he said, helps people think creatively and see new paths.

Schmelzer traveled to Italy and then worked on a research project about hedge fund regulation through Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. It became clear that ''he really wanted to give back'' to the community, Corbett recalled. So, when Schmelzer heard in October 1999 that the Maine Community Foundation had an opening for its president, it sounded like a good fit. Schmelzer has longtime affiliations with Maine: as a child, he vacationed there and later attended the University of Maine. He and his wife, Cynthia Livingston, already had a house in Somesville, Maine - on Mount Desert Island and only about 14 miles from the foundation headquarters. With the foundation job, Schmelzer went ''right back to his roots,'' Voss observes.

Choosing someone who did not have not-for-profit management experience was ''a bold move'' for the Maine Community Foundation and also ''risky,'' said Charlie Roscoe, chairman of the foundation's board. But Schmelzer was the ''unanimous'' choice for the position, Roscoe said. One reason? His familiarity with the investment advisory business. The foundation's mission involves managing funds from a number of donors and connecting the donors to nonprofits that have funding requests that will strengthen the state of Maine.

For Schmelzer, the new job involved some significant changes. Working with a staff of 19 rather than 240 means getting more involved in the administration and execution of tasks. Many days, he doesn't have to wear a suit. Instead of having a 10th-floor corner office not far from Shreve, Crump & Low, he now has an office with oak veneer furniture across the road from a blueberry packing company.

There are challenges, too. Livingston is a cofounder and partner in Cambio International, a consulting firm specializing in international change management. Since Livingston's company is Boston-based, the couple had to adjust to not always being in the same state. ''The first year, it was a little testy,'' said Livingston.

Schmelzer said his old job paid approximately six or seven times his current compensation, which he describes as ''barely into six figures.'' Then, too, being in a new environment was sometimes hard on his ego at first. ''You have to prove yourself all over again,'' Schmelzer said.

But the benefits are also substantial. Schmelzer loves being in Maine and finds his work ''more satisfying.'' And, although he works hard, he finds the pressure less intense; after a day at his old job, he sometimes had trouble sleeping. ''All in all, ''I'm probably a lot happier person at this stage of the game,'' he said. And leaving behind the corporate executive suite for a smaller organization - one whose office view includes a massive sugar maple, spruces, pines and yes, a few apple trees - has its benefits, too. ''It sort of brings you down to earth very nicely,'' Schmelzer said.

Martha E. Mangelsdorf (m_e_mangelsdorf@hotmail.com) writes ''Transitions'' each month. She is a former senior editor of Inc magazine.

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