Gloria Larson

Gloria Cordes Larson is a respected lawyer, public policy expert, Boston business leader, and former university president. Following her eleven-year tenure as President of Bentley University, Larson served a sabbatical year as President in Residence at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. In recognition of her service as president, Bentley’s Board of Trustees named the university’s Center for Women and Business in her honor. Most recently, in December 2023, Governor Maura Healey named Larson Interim Executive Director of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, a role she held until December 2024, when the Authority named a permanent executive director. 

Prior to assuming the Bentley presidency, Larson had a wide-ranging career that included positions as a senior partner at the Boston-based law firm, Foley Hoag LLP; Secretary of Consumer Protection and Business Regulation and Secretary of Economic Development under Governor William Weld; and Deputy Director of Consumer Affairs at the Federal Trade Commission in Washington. In addition, Larson has served as a director on a number ofpublic and private company boards, for which she was named a NACD Directorship Top 100 honoree in 2019. She currently sits on the board of reacHIRE, a private company. Also active in Boston’s non-profit world, Larson presently serves as a trustee/director at McLean Hospital, Curry College, Umass Global, and NACD New England, as well as serving as board chair emeritus and on the executive committee of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and as the co-founder and president emeritus of the MA Conference for Women. 

Larson is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Boston Chamber’s Distinguished Bostonian and Pinnacle awards and honorary doctorates from Bentley and Northeastern universities. She is a graduate of Vassar College and the University of Virginia School of Law.