"Zig when others zag.” That’s the advice Lorna Boucher ’86 gave to a group of UMass Lowell students at a recent talk on creating personal branding. “Don’t go with the crowd. You can show your value as an employee by rethinking conventional wisdom.”

Now the chief marketing officer at Instinet, a global financial securities company, Boucher has always taken her own advice—and has frequently gotten noticed for her ability to provide inventive solutions to problems. She got her start as a business student at the University of Lowell when she proposed a marketing plan for downtown businesses to help them compete with the growing popularity of shopping malls. Following the success of that experience, she was offered an internship by the Lowell Plan, and then her first professional job with the Lowell Cultural Plan. More recently, she was asked to head up a company’s product branding strategy after making the case that the firm needed better brand oversight over their departments. “The university helped me hone my problem-solving skills,” Boucher says. “I graduated from business school better able to learn and better able to analyze situations. The faculty were demanding and we engaged in case-based learning, which gave me great experience and confidence in putting my ideas forward.”

A Lowell native, Boucher worked part time at her parents’ diner while earning her degree in marketing and international management. Today, she lives in New York City, and has a home in Dennisport, Mass., but still makes it back to Lowell to visit family and to volunteer with her alma mater. Boucher is a member of the Manning School of Business Advisory Board, has served as keynote speaker for the university’s annual Women’s Leadership Conference and a judge for the university’s DifferenceMaker competition. She has also shared her expertise as a branding expert—in talks to students and a summit she facilitated to help develop a branding strategy for the business school. Recently, a space in the new Pulichino Tong Business Center has been named in her honor, recognizing her generous support of the Manning School of Business.

Boucher has a passion for mentoring those entering the field, especially other women navigating the male-dominated financial services industry. “I was fortunate to have a mentor who was very generous with her time and in giving me advice,” she says. “This had an incredible impact on my career and I want to pay it forward by helping others.” To further assist, she established the Lorna Boucher ’86 Endowed Scholarship, which benefits women majoring in business administration at the Manning School of Business.

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