There’s a new face in Plainsboro politics. This November a woman, and a Republican, will try to earn a seat on the currently all-male, and all-Democratic Plainsboro Township Committee.
Marjorie Doyle Lyons filed to run as a Republican candidate in the November general election. She will seek a three-year term as two incumbents, Deputy Mayor Neil Lewis and Narun Nabi, will both seek re-election.
During her 33-year career in finance Doyle Lyons most prominently worked for Merrill Lynch for over 23 years, serving as an investment analyst and manager. Her career at Merrill Lynch allowed her to live in three major cities (Chicago, New York, and London) and to cover many managerial aspects of corporate finance.
“From graduate school I went straight to Merrill Lynch in Chicago, and with them I worked in divisions including credit, treasury, administration, and mergers and acquisitions. I ended up in equity research, and then I joined Merrill Lynch asset management,” Doyle Lyons said.
A native of the Midwest, Doyle Lyons attended the University of Wisconsin School of Business, where she received B.B.A. and M.S. degrees.
Doyle Lyons decided to pursue a master of science in finance over a traditional MBA because it would offer her a clearer career path. She was able to bolster her passion and expertise by taking more finance classes through that program, and she says with Merrill Lynch that focus paid off.
“I really benefited from the fact that in finance, at a company like Merrill Lynch, there’s tremendous opportunity and a lot of flexibility. There are a small number of companies like that where, with a finance background, you can work in most divisions of the company, as opposed to most corporations where you’re in finance but relegated to work within the treasurer’s office or working under the CFO. I wanted to be part of the business end of the company and involved in operations,” Doyle Lyons said.
After working at Merrill Lynch’s New York offices throughout the 1980s, she moved to New Jersey 20 years ago to work at the company’s previous building at 800 Scudders Mill Road, the current site of Novo Nordisk’s new North American headquarters. During that time Doyle Lyons liked the development she saw happening in Plainsboro and decided to rent an apartment here from 1994 to 1999. She left town then because Merrill Lynch gave her a promotion to their offices in London, England.
Although she enjoyed London and was thrilled to work there, after just a year overseas Doyle Lyons transferred back to the company’s New York offices because of a re-organization at Merrill Lynch. She lived in New York City for another eight years and ended up taking a position with Schroders, a British multinational asset management company.
Five years ago Doyle Lyons heard from a former co-worker in the Princeton area who was starting a new business. In 2008, Doyle Lyons decided that she had lived the hustle-bustle city life long enough, and it was also a good time for her to purchase a home.
Doyle Lyons, who is unmarried and does not have children, immediately thought of Plainsboro as a perfect fit — albeit an updated version of the place she called home 10 years earlier. Doyle Lyons settled back into town with a home on Sayre Drive.
“I knew I wanted to live on this side of Route 1 in the Princeton area, with convenience to the Princeton Junction train station and I-95,” she said.
During her time in Plainsboro in the 1990s Doyle Lyons said she was not available to get involved with local politics or organizations, frequently heading out of town or up to New York for Merrill Lynch corporate meetings. But in the four years she has been back, Doyle Lyons has a renewed interest in local life. She’s noticed marked changes in the Plainsboro community, including the new town center and increased commerce.
One societal aspect that Plainsboro shares with the major cities Doyle Lyons has spent time in is its cultural diversity, which she identifies as one of the township’s strengths.
“It is great to live in an area that’s so suburban or rural and yet has that diversity. That plus our excellent schools and location midway between New York and Philadelphia, with all those cities have to offer, makes Plainsboro unique,” she said.
Doyle Lyons currently works remotely as the treasurer of a start-up company, Healingscenes, which was started by her sister, who lives in San Francisco.
Doyle Lyons was born in Evanston, Illinois, and grew up in Chicago’s northern suburbs. Lyons’ mother was a housewife who eventually became a travel agent. Her father was a marketing and sales executive with a paper company, and his career led the family further north, about halfway between Milwaukee and Minneapolis, to the small town of Port Edwards, Wisconsin, where the paper company her father worked for was headquartered.
Doyle Lyons currently volunteers with the Junior League of Greater Princeton, a women’s group that has local chapters and works with local charities in trying to meet the needs of communities. Doyle Lyons is quite proud of the educational aspect the organization aims to provide.
“One thing they do is put on programs for grammar school children to make science exciting and fun, and to improve girls’ learning in various fields of science,” she said.
Doyle Lyons also volunteers with a recreational women’s golf group in Central New Jersey.
“It’s recreation as well as networking and getting more women to play golf,” she says.
One of the main factors which compelled Doyle Lyons to run this year is a perceived lack of transparency that goes on in Plainsboro. Lyons has been involved with the Plainsboro Republican Club for three years, lending her career expertise to the group by serving as treasurer of the three most recent GOP campaigns for Township Committee: Neil Sutter and Anthony Cook, who both ran and lost in 2010, and Krishna Jagannathan’s bid last year.
A higher voter turnout due to the 2012 presidential election may assist an otherwise steep uphill battle, since there are many more registered Democrats than Republicans in Plainsboro.
If Doyle Lyons is successful, she will become the first woman elected to the committee since Ginger Gold Schnitzer in 2006 (she left the committee in 2007, and Nabi was appointed as her replacement). But she says that her extensive career in finance has led her to work and compete in a traditionally male-dominated industry. She’s not fazed by a challenge, and she’s ready to offer the township her experience and perspective as a new resource.
“We want to see different Republican candidates challenge for a seat because the Township Committee has been all Democrats for nearly 20 years. With this administration there doesn’t seem to be much transparency. There doesn’t seem to be much input from the residents’ voices, and I feel it’s important for the town to have a choice,” she says.
The Plainsboro Republican Club is currently planning its April meeting, and the public is invited to attend any of its functions. For more information please contact the Plainsboro Republican Club through Chairman Kip Luther at 609-799-0439.
