EFFECTIVE JULY 1, 2026

A first-generation college student, Tom Hassan experienced the transformational power of education and has spent his career ensuring others have access to it as well. After graduating from Brown University, he worked in his alma mater’s admissions office, visiting schools across the country and gaining exposure to the world of independent schools he had not known. He went on to earn both a master’s degree and an EdD from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) while serving as assistant dean of freshmen at Harvard College.

Tom then planted his roots for 26 years at Phillips Exeter Academy (NH), where he held a wide range of teaching and administrative roles, including Harkness teacher of mathematics, director of college counseling, director of admissions, dean of both, assistant principal, acting principal, and ultimately the 14th Principal of the Academy. During his tenure, he worked to strengthen Exeter’s sense of community, expand its outreach to schools and programs throughout the globe, and deepen the school’s environmental commitments.

In 2016, Tom became President of School Year Abroad (SYA), an organization founded by Exeter, Andover, and St. Paul’s in the 1960s, where he had previously served as a trustee. Over the past decade, he has led a period of significant growth and renewal for SYA, including expanding experiential learning opportunities, strengthening partnerships with SYA’s 49 Member Schools (a network of boarding and day schools throughout the U.S. that send students for a term or a year to SYA campuses overseas), significantly increasing the organization’s endowment, and guiding SYA through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Committed to service beyond the institutions he has led, Tom more recently has served as a trustee of The Piney Woods School (MS), one of the nation’s few remaining historically Black boarding schools; United World College – USA (NM); and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). He has enjoyed working closely with heads of school and fellow board members on proper alignment of roles. From 2012 to 2016, he also served as First Gentleman of New Hampshire while his wife, Maggie Hassan, was Governor, championing community service initiatives across the state.

At heart, Tom is a teacher, a vocation his parents reminded him that he wanted to pursue from his earliest years. He has taught in public high schools, then throughout his decades at Exeter, and for a time at HGSE, where he developed and taught a graduate course on independent schools.

Tom lives in New Hampshire with his family and treasures time with his son, who experiences severe disabilities; his daughter, who works in state government around issues of special education; and his wife, Maggie, who now spends significant time in Washington, D.C., in her role as a United States Senator.