Laurie A. Derechin

MBA, Executive Director MCFAM

Laurie is responsible for MCFAM’s external relations and support for MCFAM through the development of collaborative partnerships with  the actuarial and financial mathematics community. She also leads career development services within MCFAM, including student workshops, online support tools, interaction with industry recruiters and student placement.   Her business career spanned more than 25 years in a variety of industry sectors. She was a hiring manager and has experience identifying talented individuals and helping them progress in their careers. Her expertise includes new product and organizational development, revenue and customer growth,  cross-functional teamwork and mergers and acquisitions. She was one of the founders and senior officers of Xcel Energy's wholly owned broadband subsidiary, which grew rapidly in the early 2000’s and was sold. She also founded and was President and CEO of a Minnesota company focused on broadband acquisition opportunities in the Upper Midwest.  In the 1990s she supported one of Xcel Energy’s former subsidiaries in the bid to acquire the electric distribution grid in the province of Victoria, Australia near Melbourne. Early in her career Laurie had marketing and product management roles at The Pillsbury Company (now part of General Mills) and Xcel Energy. She also spent time as an adult education teacher in Spain. She has an MBA from ESADE in Barcelona, Spain, a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a teaching certification from the Royal Society of Arts in the UK (RSA – now part of OCR within Cambridge Assessment).