Donald Dobbs is a retired director and executive vice president of Lane Industries Incorporated/Lane Construction Corporation, a 125-year-old family-owned business specializing in heavy and highway construction in both the United States and internationally, with annual revenues exceeding $2.0 billion. He retired in 2017 after a more than 43-year career with company. Although his formal education was that of a civil and environmental engineer as a graduate from Clarkson University in upstate New York, his tenure with Lane Industries exposed him to all aspects of the business. Dobbs’ final leadership role with the corporation was that of executive vice president of Administration. His versatile exposure and understanding of the business led to his election to the Board of Directors of Lane Industries and related subsidiaries in 2005, a position he held until the merger/sale of the corporation in 2016.

During his tenure as a director of Lane Industries, Dobbs’ was instrumental in the growth and transition of the board from a family legacy board to that of a fully functioning state-of-the-art board, complete with independent directors and functioning board committees, essentially in line with SOX requirements for publicly traded corporations. He also served on the Audit Committee and Compensation Committee and helped develop the Governance Committee.

One unique aspect of Dobbs’ board service was the development and implementation of a board sanctioned Family Communications Committee, designed to better promote two-way transfer of information between the board/management and the family shareholders. He served as chairman of that committee until the 2016 sale/merger of the corporation with Salini Impregilo s.P.a., in Milan, Italy, a global civil construction leader. The Family Communications Committee’s actions were critical to the shareholder understanding of and final consent to Lane Industries’ sale, which achieved a premium value for its shareholders.

Dobbs currently serves on the Board of the NACD Connecticut Chapter, as well as locally on nonprofit boards for the Southington-Cheshire YMCA, the Town of Cheshire Economic Development Committee, Cheshire Chamber of Commerce, and the Family Business Roundtable Group, an adjunct group originally started by the NACD Connecticut Chapter.

Dobbs studied Management at Northwestern University and holds a BA from the Saint Vincent College.