Dr. Paul J. LeBlanc

Board of Directors Member · Ellucian · company speakers →

Dr. Paul J. LeBlanc is the former president of Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). From 2003 to 2024, under Paul's leadership, SNHU grew from 2,800 students to over 250,000 learners and is the largest nonprofit provider of online higher education in the country. The university was #12 on Fast Company magazine's 'World's Fifty Most Innovative Companies' list and was the only university included. Forbes Magazine has listed him as one of its 15 'Classroom Revolutionaries' and one of the 'most influential people in higher education.' Washington Monthly named him one of America's ten most innovative university presidents. In 2018, Paul won the prestigious TIAA Institute Hesburgh Award for Leadership Excellence in Higher Education, joining some of the most respected university and college presidents in American higher education. Paul served as Senior Policy Advisor to Under Secretary Ted Mitchell at the U.S. Department of Education, working on competency-based education, new accreditation pathways, and innovation. He serves on the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) and on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine's Board on Higher Education and Workforce (and served on its Committee on Quality in Undergraduate Education). Paul is the Board Chair for Matter and Space, an AI and Education company he co-founded with noted researcher George Siemens. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for Chegg, a leading student-first online learning platform, Ellucian, the leading higher education technology solutions provider, the American Council on Education (ACE), and chairs the AGB Council of Presidents. Paul immigrated to the United States as a child, was the first person in his extended family to attend college and is a graduate of Framingham State University (BA), Boston College (MA), and the University of Massachusetts (PhD). From 1993 to 1996 he directed a technology start up for Houghton Mifflin Publishing Company, was President of Marlboro College (VT) from 1996 to 2003 and became President of SNHU in 2003. His wife Patricia is an attorney and they have two daughters, Emma and Hannah.

Is this you? Claim this profile →