Lawrence Academy: A Community and a Family

by Frances Chaves

The education and values Mark Phelps ’78 took with him from Lawrence Academy have taken him from a successful business career to even greater achievements as an entrepreneur, then to volunteering his business acumen to help African and Indian businesses thrive. “Lawrence had such an extreme impact on my life — to point me in the right direction, as a stepping stone for me to achieve my wildest dreams,” says Mark, also the proud father of Austin Phelps ’13 (in photo on right)

When Mark was a public high school student in Leominster, Mass., his father’s employer, Ronald Ansin, suggested that Lawrence Academy would be a better fit for Mark. “I was a kid born on the wrong side of the tracks in a blue-collar neighborhood,” Mark notes. “My dad wasn’t impressed with the effort I was putting forward, so he challenged me to apply to LA.” Mark was accepted as a sophomore boarding student and was offered financial aid.

“Lawrence was a wonderful opportunity,” Mark reflects.

“Before LA, college wasn’t even an option. At LA, it wasn’t, ‘Are you going?’ It was, ‘Where are you going?’ Before, I ‘had’ to do the work; at LA, I ‘wanted’ to do it. I was influenced by the teachers’ love and care and stimulated by students from around the world. It opened options and possibilities in life that I didn’t know existed for me. It helped define who I am and what I've become.”

Indeed, Mark’s teachers made a big impact on him. “At my former school, I was just a number,” Mark remembers, but “LA faculty were on campus and more available. My advisor, Dick Jeffers, helped guide and teach me. When I struggled with calculus, Mr. Holmes’ door was always open.” Mark’s family, too, was important: His mom drove 20 miles to pick up his dirty clothes every week and drop off clean ones!

Mark completed his bachelor’s degree at the University of New Hampshire, where he was eligible for in-state tuition and tended bar 25-30 hours each week to help pay the remaining costs. After graduation, he applied for jobs in Minneapolis, Minn., where his parents had relocated. There he took a job with Land O’Lakes, Inc., launching Mark’s lifelong career in the food industry — or, rather, as Mark puts it, “I parlayed my college bartending into experience in the food industry!”

After multiple promotions, Mark moved to Quaker Oats in Hartford, Conn. Noticing that “most of what was happening at consumer product companies was driven by marketers,” he started an executive MBA program at the nearby University of Hartford, concentrating on marketing. After being promoted by Quaker and sent to Chicago halfway through the program, Mark completed his MBA coursework at Northwestern and transferred the credits back to Hartford. He would later attend Harvard Business School’s intensive management program for company owners and presidents, creating lifelong friendships with professional peers around the world.

In 1993, Mark joined Nichirei Foods, Inc., a Seattle-based Japanese frozen food company, as vice president of sales and marketing. When the company decided to close their Washington State operations, Mark and a partner purchased the company with capital raised from angel investors, rebranded it as InnovAsian, and built it into a $40 million company. From there, Mark explains, “In 2012, Nichirei came back and purchased a 51 percent stake in InnovAsian. I stayed on for seven years, then sold the rest of the shares and retired. When I left, the company was doing about $150 million; today the team that I built — and am still friends with — has brought it to over $300 million.”

Although Mark was fortunate to be able to retire at 58, he stresses that he’s “not one of those overthinkers or over-planners.” Rather, he adds, “I retired fairly quickly, which terrified my wife, Susan. I am not good at golf, and I don’t have any hobbies.” She asked, ‘What are you going to do now? Your career and company were your total identity. You have no other skills. You can’t run the dishwasher; you can’t use a screwdriver.’”

Fortunately, his research of possible next steps brought Mark to the Stanford Seed Transformation Program, where he feels he can still “give back and add value.” The organization “ships seasoned businesspeople like me to India and Africa to work directly with small and mid-sized enterprise CEOs and founders of established businesses,” Mark explains, and “when their business plans are complete, they can opt to hire their coach for six months.”

“I worked with a healthcare company in Nigeria, where it’s very ‘top down.’ Their mission wasn’t clear. On the last training session day, I challenged the CEO that it wasn’t good enough,” Mark shares. “We kept working, and they came up with a solution and very simple mission statement: ‘We provide outstanding care in a friendly environment.’ Everybody understood it, from top management to the janitor. Seeing them have the ‘lightbulb moment’ and change from their tough-guy mentality to employee-based open communication — that’s so rewarding!”

Mark’s work with one of the companies he coached in India has continued. He is the co-founder and head of strategy for Sattvico, a company that makes snacks and meals with yogis and their nutritional needs in mind.

In June, Mark will attend a “pretty special occasion” — his 45th Lawrence Academy reunion, and his daughter Austin’s 10th LA reunion. She is his youngest daughter and, in high school, “needed some guidance and care,” Mark describes — so, she decided to leave her high school in Seattle and move across the country to attend LA. “She and her mother visited the school and sat for three hours on a Sunday talking with John Curran. It blew them away!” Mark remembers, “attending LA was a wonderful experience for her. She learned how to learn.” After she graduated, Austin enrolled at Loyola University, then went on to nursing school; she is now an RN in the ER of a Chicago-area hospital.

Mark has continued his support of Lawrence Academy since his own graduation. “I stick with stuff that works, and I appreciate what LA did for me,” he reflects. “The school’s environment was a safe haven, where I could take risks. There was loving support. I remember I was in geometry class and the teacher asked where a missing student was. Someone answered, ‘He’s still sleeping.’ The professor said, ‘We’ll wait — go get him out of bed.’ The missing student arrived, and class started.

“That’s how the school works,” Mark adds. “There was accountability, and there were clear guidelines. If a student got into trouble and had to leave the school, there were repercussions, but it was talked about at assemblies. It is a community.”