Mike Franco

Michael Franco has not let retirement interrupt a lifelong involvement in nonprofit philanthropy and executive management. His forty-year professional career included senior advancement roles at Boston College, his undergraduate alma mater, as well as the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), the University of North Carolina, the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), and the University of Rochester, where he earned a doctorate in higher education economics. Along the way, he also provided independent consulting support to a variety of nationally significant arts organizations.

A Chatham summer homeowner since 1988, Mike and his wife made the Cape their primary residence in 2018. He picked up where his professional career left off and is now actively involved with numerous Cape Cod nonprofits, both as a board member and pro bono philanthropic consultant. He has also harkened back to his early career in journalism, publishing freelance articles in Cape publications on, as he puts it, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

A self-described South Coast “water bug” from his earliest childhood days in the Westport Harbor watershed, Mike still recalls the profound sense of disconnect he felt during an early-career stint in “the somewhat alien, bone-dry, brown mountain world” surrounding Santa Fe, New Mexico. These days, he relishes walking the Pleasant Bay shoreline and is excited to bring his experience to the FoPB Board to help protect and preserve what he calls “our truly majestic Bay.”