Image taken from Chelmsford Telemedia broadcast of Town Manager interviews, held July 6, 2026.
Alex Magee, who got his start in municipal government with the City of Lowell in 2014, has been named the next Chelmsford Town Manager.
The unanimous 5-0 vote by the town’s Board of Selectmen came right after Magee and Thomas Gregory, the two finalists, interviewed with the Board early Monday evening.
Magee did not have Town Manager experience on his resume, which a few of the board members acknowledged made him a more risky selection. The overriding feeling, however, seemed to be that he possessed the bigger “upside” and was worth the gamble. Magee seemed to score significant points by acknowledging he passed up another offer because Chelmsford was more of his dream job.
Chelmsford’s new leader was most recently employed as Deputy Town Manager in Andover from September of 2025 through February of 2026. As mentioned, he got his start in municipal government with the City of Lowell in 2014, working his way up the ladder from Application Specialist in the MIS Department to Data Management Analyst in the office of then City Manager Eileen Donoghue.
He became Assistant to Manager Donoghue in 2019 before moving on to Deputy Director in the Public Works Department. There, he worked under DPW Commissioner Christine Clancy, who now serves as Director of DPW/Facilities in Chelmsford and was one of the names mentioned as a potential Interim Town Manager upon Paul Cohen’s departure on May 25, 2026.
Magee eventually moved on from the Mill City to become Finance Director for the Town of Hamilton from May of 2021-February 2023, followed by a stint as Deputy Town Manager in Arlington from February of 2023-August of 2025.
The board adjourned the meeting by laying out the process for putting together a contract proposal, with hopes the permanent Town Manager would be signed, sealed, delivered in “a few days.”
