Speakers, Marshals & Honorary Degrees
Commencement at Thomas College is a joyous celebration of the achievements of our graduating students. The festivities span two days and begins with Honors Convocation and Senior Class Dinner and finishes triumphantly in our time-honored commencement ceremony.
2026 Class Speakers
Charles Foster-Major
Cum Laude
Representing the Undergraduate Division as Class Speaker will be Charles Foster-Major. Charles is from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England and is graduating cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a minor in Finance. After graduation, Charles plans to return home to explore full-time opportunities in business development, sales, or management.
Abigail Farone
2026 Class Marshals
Assisting the graduating class this year as marshals will be Adison Laura Keefe from Naples, Maine, and Patrick McKenney from Skowhegan, Maine.
Adison Laura Keefe
Cum Laude
Adison is graduating cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Digital Marketing Management. After graduation, Adi plans to complete her online master’s in business administration degree from Thomas College.
Patrick McKenney
Cum Laude
Patrick is graduating cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Sport Management with a minor in Coaching. After graduation, Patrick plans to complete his online master’s in business administration degree from Thomas College.
Commencement Speaker & Honorary Degree Recipient
Bill Burke
Founder of the Optimism Institute
Bill Burke, Founder of The Optimism Institute, will be awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree and be this year’s Commencement speaker.
Bill founded The Optimism Institute after a career in media and sports as an executive, writer, and producer. He developed the idea in 2022 while he was a Fellow in Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative. A lifelong optimist (he has to be, he’s a Detroit Lions fan) Bill launched The Optimism Institute and the Blue Sky podcast to combat the negative effects of news and social media on mental health. Through his podcast, he shares an optimistic vision of the world and its future and is a public speaker on the subject.
Bill spent his early career in the media business. After joining Turner Broadcasting in 1992 he wrote the business plan for Turner Classic Movies and became the cable network’s founding general manager. He then went on the become president of TBS Superstation and following his time at Turner Broadcasting, served as CEO of The Weather Channel companies.
In 2005, Bill wrote an article about leadership lessons he learned from Ted Truner and after reading it, Ted asked Bill to ghostwrite his autobiography. The result was Call Me Ted which was published in 2008 and was a top ten New York Times bestseller. Bill was also the co-writer/producer/director of the 2016 award-winning documentary feature “Live Another Day”, about the bailout of the US auto industry.
The state of Maine has been home to Bill and his family for many years. Bill’s late father Dan founded the Portland Sea Dogs and when his health began to fail, Bill succeeded him as the team’s chairman, serving in this capacity for 15 years. Bill also served on several non-profit boards in Maine and was the board chair of Maine Medical Center, MaineHealth, The Gulf of Maine Research Institute, and the US Biathlon Foundation.
Bill graduated with a B.A. from Amherst College and an M.B.A. from Harvard University.
Honors Convocation Speaker
Roberta Tibbetts, '69, '71
Associate Professor, Thomas College
Roberta Tibbetts has served as a faculty member at Thomas College for 55 years. A 1969 and 1971 alumna of the College, Roberta became a faculty member at Thomas directly after graduation and has been here ever since.
As an associate professor of management, Roberta has served as the FBLA Collegiate (Future Business Leaders America) Advisor since founding the group on campus in the late 70s. She was awarded advisor of the year in 2023.
At the College, Roberta served on several committees including Chair of the Senate, and Alumni Association President. She has had the privilege of shaking hands with every Thomas College president beginning with John Thomas, Sr.
She began as a student at Thomas College on the Silver Street campus and saw the building of the West River campus from bare ground and a single building to its eleven- structure campus.
Roberta earned her associate’s degree in business, medical assistant and bachelor of science degree in business education, both from Thomas College, and her Master of Education in Psychology from the University of Maine at Orono.
Roberta served on Boy Scouts of America Council and on the Maine Criminal Justice Academy Board for ten years as the Board’s Education Liaison. She was named Maine Business Educator of the Year for 1997-1998.
Roberta met her husband David (also a Thomas graduate) at Thomas in 1968. They were married 52 years and have two sons, Ryan and Peter. Her family includes Thomas graduates (Melissa and Zeno Corrigan), and she is known as Gram to eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
Honorary Degree Recipient
Conrad Ayotte, ’77, H ’98
Retired CFO of J.S. McCarthy Printers in Augusta Thomas College Board of Trustee
Conrad Ayotte, retired long-time CFO of J.S. McCarthy Printers in Augusta, will be awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at this year’s Commencement ceremonies.
Born the 11th of 12 children in Sidney, Maine, he was raised by a single parent after his father died suddenly when Conrad was two. His mother, Laurette Ayotte, became the inspiration of his life. She somehow managed to raise 12 kids with very limited resources. She did the seemingly impossible. She taught through example that hard work and perseverance were essential traits. She consistently preached about the value of education. Education would provide the opportunity to get ahead in life.” Her children, the recipients collectively of 13 college degrees, listened.
Conrad attended grammar school in Sidney and high school at Messalonskee before earning his degree at Thomas College. At Thomas at he graduated at the top of his class and became the first Thomas graduate to pass the CPA exam on the first sitting. May 1977 was an eventful month in his life – CPA exam, marriage and graduation in a span of three weeks! His wife of 49 years, Lois, also a Thomas graduate grad, is with us here today along with their children, Michelle and Brian and their families.
Conrad earned his MBA at Notre Dame and began his career with Price Waterhouse in Providence RI. After having their first child, they yearned to return to Maine and embarked on the risky decision to abandon a promising career with Price Waterhouse to return home. He spent the 80’s as a partner with Schatz Fletcher & Associates, a rapidly growing CPA firm in Augusta.
Despite a comfortable career path, Conrad’s entrepreneurial instincts were yearning for a greater challenge. That came with the opportunity to acquire a 50% stake in Benton Plastics, a promising local manufacturing company that seemed prime for explosive growth. After an initial stumble when the US economy turned down steeply in 1990, and with a bankruptcy attorney on retainer, the company persevered, survived and ultimately flourished. Growing from the $3M to $20M in 5 years, Conrad and his partner sold the business. Conrad retired at 39.
Retirement was short lived. Another opportunity presented itself when JS McCarthy Printing became available for purchase. A fifty year old company with a reputation as one of the finest printers in New England, it, too, seemed poised to grow under the right leadership. Conrad partnered with Rick Tardiff, a lifer in the printing industry, and they proceeded to grow the company from $16M to $40M over the next decade. Conrad sold his stake as the next generation of Tardiffs took the reins. A second retirement.
Throughout all these years Conrad also used his business acumen to serve the greater community. As treasurer, he helped the YMCA in Augusta regain its financial footing in the 80’s. In the 90’s he did the same for the local Chamber of Commerce. In the 2000’s he joined the MaineGeneral board and became a key player in making the new hospital a reality, even participating in the presentation to the Wall St investors that financed the project. In the 2010’s, as treasurer he guided the Augusta Country Club back to financial health.
His greatest community service has been right here at Thomas College. He joined the Board in the mid 80’s when the College was on the verge of collapse. He became chair of the Board in 1990 and has overseen the emergence of Thomas College to what it is today serving in that capacity for 34 years until 2024. He has chaired every capital campaign through those years and made the first gift to each campaign. The campus growth from the Laurette Ayotte Auditorium to the Alfond field house to Bartlett Hall to the KSB turf fields to the Alfond Academic Center to Hinman Hall and the Sukeforth Family Athletic Center all happened during his Chairmanship. And to cap his long career at Thomas he recently became the first million dollar alumni donor with a 2 million dollar pledge.
He started with nothing, learned perseverance, obtained a great TC education and applied his God-given talents through hard work to achieve success which he has shared to the benefit of us all.
Honorary Degree Recipient
Kim Lindlof ’91
President & CEO, Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce
Kim is a 1986 graduate of Lawrence High School in Fairfield, Maine. She received her associate’s degree from the University of Maine at Augusta in General Liberal Studies in 1988 and graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Marketing Management in 1991 from Thomas College. In June 2009, Kim completed her IOM, a non-profit certification, at the U.S. Chamber’s Institute of Organizational Management.
Kim began her career with the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce as its President and CEO 25 years ago. In this position, Kim is responsible for working with Chamber member businesses and 24 municipalities –marketing both the businesses and the region, and working with the education community and all economic and community development entities within the area and statewide. She oversees a staff of five, a volunteer base of approximately 100 people, and serves over 650 area businesses and organizations.
Additionally, she became the executive director of Central Maine Growth Council in August 2014. This organization provides business attraction, retention, planning, workforce development, and grant-development services to the city of Waterville and the towns of Fairfield, Oakland, and Winslow. Moreover, Kim oversees the nonprofit (c3) arm of these two organizations, known as the Central Maine Community Betterment Collaborative.
In a nutshell, she, through the Chamber, Growth Council, and Betterment Collaborative, strives to nurture the region economically and sustainably, promoting the communities and member businesses to help them grow and expand.
In addition to her own three boards, Kim sits on the boards of the Industrial Energy Consumers Group, Mid-Maine Regional Adult & Community Education, is chair of the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame, board secretary for the Waterville Historical Society, and treasurer, past vice chair, and past chair of the Kennebec Valley Tourism Council. She is a member of the C.E.D.S. (Community Economic Development Strategy advisory board) and is past president of the Maine Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives, past board member of the Maine State Chamber, and president of Waterville Business & Professional Women. Kim has served as a proud member of the Waterville Rotary Club and has been on and off its board since 2001.
Kim was awarded the Star Award in 1996 by Volunteers of America and was the Mid-Maine Chamber’s Volunteer Director of the Year in 1999. In 2005, she received the Bulldog Award from the Lawrence High Alumni Association, was the 2006 Chamber Executive of the Year from the Maine State Chamber, and Woman of the Year in 2007 and 2011, presented by Waterville Business and Professional Women. 2010 brought the Board Member of the Year Award from the Maine Downtown Centers for her work with Waterville Main Street. She was awarded the Maine State Woman of the Year presented by the Maine State Chapter of Business and Professional Women in October 2011. In 2012, Kim was awarded KVCAP’s Community Teamwork Award by its board of directors. In 2014, Kim received the first Citizen of the Year award presented by the local Boy Scouts of America Pine Tree chapter. She was awarded the 2014- 2015 Waterville Elks Club Distinguished Citizenship Award. She was awarded Board Member of the Year by Waterville Main Street in 2016. In addition, she received the Community Award in Aug. 2016 from the Waterville Board of Education for championing perfect attendance.
Kim resides in Fairfield with her husband, Ted Helberg.
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