UNE President James Herbert named 2025 Business Leader of the Year by Mainebiz
University of New England President James Herbert has been recognized as one of Mainebiz’s 10 Business Leaders of the Year for 2025. This prestigious accolade acknowledges Herbert’s significant contributions to UNE and his leadership in Maine’s higher education landscape.
“I am very grateful and humbled to have been selected as one of the MaineBiz 2025 Business Leaders of the Year, alongside a number of inspirational leaders,” said Herbert. “While it’s a challenging time for higher education, I am proud that the University of New England has remained at the forefront of innovation in our region.”
Under Herbert’s leadership since 2017, UNE has experienced substantial growth in its academic and research programs. A cornerstone of this expansion is the relocation of UNE’s medical school to a new state-of-the-art facility on its Portland Campus for the Health Sciences in July 2025.
This move represents a transformational step for the University and its 47-year-old College of Osteopathic Medicine. The new campus will unite Maine’s only medical school with the state’s only dental college, physician assistant program, and doctorate-level pharmacy program as well as other nationally ranked health programs. This consolidation creates a unique, first-of-its-kind collaborative learning environment in New England, fostering greater interdisciplinary education and better preparing graduates for an evolving health care landscape.
Herbert emphasized the importance of the new $93 million health sciences facility and the associated consolidation of health profession programs in Portland to meeting the critical health care workforce needs throughout the state. In addition, the space vacated by the medical school on UNE’s Biddeford Campus will be used to support the growth of programs there.
In an interview with Mainebiz, Herbert described how the University is focused on finalizing the medical school’s move to the Portland Campus for the Health Sciences this spring and reimagining the Biddeford campus to accommodate both existing and new programs in key, market-aligned disciplines such as business, computer science, statistics, marine sciences and other natural sciences.
Specific investments, such as a new production studio for the Communications and Media Arts major and an innovation makerspace in the Girard Marine Science Center, have already been realized. Many more projects are in various stages of planning and execution, including new teaching and research laboratories, classrooms, art spaces, athletic facilities, and residence halls.
Despite challenges facing higher education, including demographic shifts and public skepticism, Herbert expressed optimism about UNE’s future enrollment growth, citing new programs in the College of Business and expanded undergraduate, graduate, and online offerings, including new master’s degrees in climate change leadership and business administration.