Champlain College to honor Alumni Leaders

Alumni Leadership awards banner

Champlain College will honor three alumni for their leadership during an Awards ceremony on Thursday. President Donald J. Laackman will present the 2015 Alumni Leadership Award at 5 p.m. in the Morgan Room of Aiken Hall, followed by an Alumni BBQ at the IDX Student Life Center.
The Champlain alumni being honored this year are:

  • Career Achievement Award: George F. Bond '73, Trustee Emeritus
  • Audeamus...Let Us Dare Award: Sandi L. Earle '14 
  • David F. Finney Alumni Leadership Award: Samantha J. Bond '08 G'14

The Alumni Awards recognize graduates of Champlain College who have shown strong leadership and success in their careers, outstanding service to the community, or other notable accomplishments.
George BondGeorge F. Bond '73, is the Chief Executive Officer of Bond Auto Parts, which began as a family business in 1956 and now encompasses 37 stores in northern New England. He joined Bond Auto in 1973 after graduating from Champlain College with a degree in Management. He wore many hats from the beginning, including supervising a number of regional stores, working in sales, and overseeing financial operations as the company expanded. Bond also served on the Champlain College Board of Trustees from 2003-2013 and received the C. Bader Brouilette Alumni Leadership Award in 2003. He is a member of Champlain's Audeamus and Legacy Societies. George and his wife Cynthia live in Wilmington, NC.

Bond WinnerSamantha J. Bond '08 G'14 along with her oldest brother, is part of the fifth generation working at their 108 year-old family-owned construction company - BOND, located in Everett, MA. She is currently working in dual roles as an assistant project manager for a project at Boston College, while also transitioning into the company's Human Resources department. She has previous experience working in the BOND Marketing department, Estimating department, and Select Projects group. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Multimedia and Graphic Design from Champlain College in 2008; in 2014 she received her Masters of Business Administration from Champlain College. She is a member of the Stiller School of Business Leadership Council.

Sandi EarleChef Sandi Earle '14 is a longtime foodie and veteran of the culinary industry. She has worked for Sodexo Corporation since 2002, and is currently the Executive Chef at Champlain College. She graduated from Champlain College in May 2014, with a Bachelor's of Science degree in Business Management with a focus on Hotel/Restaurant Management, and also earned a certificate in Business Management, a certificate in Entrepreneurship, and a certificate in Web Marketing. Plans for the future include a series of recipe books based on local Vermont foods and beers, a new website and blog that should be active in the fall of 2015. She is married to Albert Earle, and is the mother of four children, Katie, a professional photographer in New York City; David, an IT specialist and web designer in Sanford, Fla.; Catherine, a lab technician at UVM Medical Center; and Jennifer, the youngest, a graphic designer in Sanford, Fla. She will welcome her first grandchild in early October.


Founded in 1878, Champlain College is a small, not-for-profit, private college in Burlington, Vermont, with additional campuses in Montreal, Canada, and Dublin, Ireland. Champlain offers a traditional undergraduate experience from its beautiful campus overlooking Lake Champlain and over 90 residential undergraduate and online undergraduate and graduate degree programs and certificates. Champlain's distinctive career-driven approach to higher education embodies the notion that true learning occurs when information and experience come together to create knowledge. Champlain College is included in the Princeton Review's The Best 384 Colleges: 2019 Edition. For the fourth year in a row, Champlain was named a "Most Innovative School" in the North by U.S. News & World Report's 2019 "America's Best Colleges,” and a “Best Value School” and is ranked in the top 100 “Regional Universities of the North” and in the top 25 for “Best Undergraduate Teaching.” Champlain is also featured in the Fiske Guide to Colleges for 2019 as one of the "best and most interesting schools" in the United States, Canada and Great Britain and is a 2019 College of Distinction. For more information, visit champlain.edu.