About Eliot

Maine Roots

Eliot R. Cutler was born and raised in Bangor, Maine.  Following his graduation from Harvard College and the law school of Georgetown University, he forged a career in private enterprise and public service.  Widely respected for his strategic acumen, Eliot Cutler has helped governments, citizens groups and corporate clients grapple with complicated legal and public policy problems during a career in government service, law and politics that has spanned more than 40 years.

A Tradition of Public Service

His parents were the children of immigrants who came to this country – to Bangor and Old Town, Maine – in search of freedom and a better life.  Catherine Cutler devoted herself to improving family and mental health care services and to the protection of women and children from domestic violence and abuse.  Lawrence Cutler was a Bangor physician and the longtime head of the medical service at Eastern Maine General Hospital.  His passion was public education, and he served as chairman of the Bangor School Board and for two decades as a member and as president of the board of trustees of the University of Maine.

Eliot inherited from his parents a lifelong commitment to public service.  Immediately after his graduation from Harvard, he worked in Washington, D.C. from 1968 to 1973 for U.S. Senator Edmund S. Muskie of Maine, where he helped craft the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and other environmental laws.

Eliot later served in the White House as Associate Director for Natural Resources, Energy and Science in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), where he was responsible for overseeing the policies – and billions of taxpayer dollars – at the Departments of Agriculture, Energy and Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency.  His job was to make the tough decisions, to eliminate programs that weren’t working, to reshape others and to force necessary changes in government policies.

A seasoned negotiator in both private disputes and public sector matters, Eliot represented the President of the United States in the negotiations that led to the settlement of the Maine Indian land claims case and in other claims and matters involving Native American tribes and the Alaska public lands.  He also served as White House energy policy chief during the energy crises of the late 1970s and represented the United States in international negotiations.

As an Independent candidate in Maine’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign, Eliot garnered 36.3% of the votes, the highest percentage of any independent candidate for major office in the United States in 2010 and the strongest finish among all first-time independent candidates for governor in Maine, including former independent Governors Angus King and James Longley.

Private Sector Experience at Home and Abroad

Eliot has been a successful lawyer, businessman and entrepreneur. He has created jobs and businesses, met payrolls and understands from direct experience how governments and the private sector can cooperate to create lasting solutions to vexing problems.

Eliot founded the law firm of Cutler & Stanfield LLP, which under his leadership grew to be the second largest environmental law firm in the United States, representing both private sector and public jurisdiction clients in nearly 30 states in complex infrastructure projects involving airports, highways and other major facilities.  Among a series of successes during the 1980’s and 1990’s, he conceived and implemented the legal and political strategy that led to the development of the Denver International Airport, the only new commercial airport built in the United States in decades and one of the most successful in the world.

Following his firm’s merger with the international firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP in 2000, Eliot’s law practice became increasingly international.   From 2006 to 2009 he lived in Beijing, where he opened the first office in China for Akin Gump, was the partner in charge of the firm’s Asia practice and represented Chinese clients in making investments outside China.

Eliot has been active in business, as well as in politics, government and law.

In 1988 he was part of a small group that bought the United Electric Co., a manufacturer of air conditioning components. He served on the company’s board of directors for many years and helped guide the turnaround of the company and its sale to the Carrier Corporation.

As a lawyer and business advisor for Skanska USA, the American subsidiary of one of the world’s largest construction companies, Eliot helped it grow from annual revenues of about $30 million in 1980 to about $3 billion in 1995.  He later served for four years on the board of directors of the Swedish parent company Skanska AB, where he was the first American and only the second foreigner to serve as a member of the board.

Eliot helped to create the first of the Thornburg Investment Company mutual funds in 1981 and has served on the board of trustees of the Thornburg mutual funds for 30 years.  The Thornburg family of funds now numbers 16 and has assets of more than $50 billion.

Today

Eliot Cutler resigned as a partner in the Akin Gump law firm when he began his 2010 gubernatorial campaign, and he serves today as a Senior Counsel to the firm.  He is Chair of MaineAsia LLC, a business development and consulting firm, and he is a principal in Maine Seafood Ventures LLC, a company formed to export lobster and other Maine seafood products to China and other foreign markets.  He is also a principal in Pacific Islands Development LLC, a firm formed to undertake sustainable and eco-friendly projects in the tourism, agriculture and fishery sectors of Palau and other island nations in the western Pacific.

In the public service area, Eliot serves as Chair of OneMaine, a political organization that organizes and marshals the collective strength of political moderates in the State of Maine.  He is President of the Lerner Foundation and a member of the Board of Directors of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.  Eliot continues to serve on the Board of Visitors of the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine, where as Chair for more than a decade he helped lead the School to its position as one of the leading graduate schools of public policy in the United States.

Eliot and his wife Dr. Melanie Stewart Cutler have been married for 38 years and live in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.  They are the parents of two grown children, Abby (30) and Zack (28), and Katherine Cochrane (24) joined their family in 2004.