PORTLAND, Maine, March 14, 2011 – President and CEO John T. Leonard has announced the appointment of Michael P. Bourque to the post of Senior Vice President for External Affairs for the MEMIC Group. 

Bourque is a 15-year veteran of the company, having first joined Maine Employers' Mutual Insurance Company (MEMIC) in 1995. He was appointed Vice President for Corporate Marketing and Communications in March 2004. Leonard said Bourque's new title reflects his continuing responsibilities in communications, corporate marketing and community relations with the addition of responsibilities in government relations that he took on last year.

Bourque is a former journalist and holds a degree in Journalism from the University of Maine. Before joining MEMIC, he was senior editor at the American Association of Community Colleges, based in Washington, DC. He earned his Accreditation in Public Relations in 1998 and completed the Maine Development Foundation's Leadership Maine program in 2004. In 2004, he was awarded the Edward L. Bernays Award, the top honor of the Maine Public Relations Council.

He has served on several nonprofit boards and committees. Currently, he is vice president of the board of directors of the Portland Community Chamber of Commerce, and also vice president of the board of directors of the Children's Museum and Theatre of Maine. He serves as a member of the board of the Southern Maine Community College Foundation.  He also serves on the Communications Advisory Committee of the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC).

He lives in Portland with his wife, Melissa, and their two children.

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About MEMIC

MEMIC is the leading workers' compensation insurer in Maine and is among the top five in the New England. The company is also New York's fastest growing workers' comp insurer among the top 50 in that state.  The MEMIC Group, including Maine Employers' Mutual Insurance Company and MEMIC Indemnity Company, holds licenses to write workers' compensation in 45 states plus the District of Columbia.