ANTHEM NH PRESIDENT GUERTIN TO RETIRE

Lisa Guertin, president of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in New Hampshire for the last 18 years, has announced she will retire in March after a total of 32 years at the company.

During her tenure, Guertin led Anthem to retain its position as the largest health insurer in the New Hampshire market and navigated the company through the broad changes to the healthcare marketplace brought by the Affordable Care Act. Under Guertin, Anthem began participating in the ACA insurance exchange in its first year, 2014, the only insurer in the state to do so.

More recently, Guertin has led Anthem’s efforts to respond to the pandemic by waiving some member cost shares, offering flexibility in payment grace periods, providing premium credits and advancing payments to various providers to help them remain solvent, Anthem said.

COPLEY EQUITY ACQUIRES PERKINS BIOMEDICAL

Copley Equity Partners, a private equity firm headquartered in Boston, has completed a full buyout of Perkins Biomedical Services of Concord, NH. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Shane Perkins, owner of Perkins Biomedical, said the company will use the Copley investment to boost its strategy to grow its laboratory equipment service business and will serve as Copley’s platform investment in the industry as it pursues a larger investment strategy. Copley’s Peter Trovato and Andrew Miller will participate on the Perkins board of directors, he said.

GRANITE RECOVERY CENTERS ACQUIRED BY NATIONAL PROVIDER

Granite Recovery Centers, with locations in Derry, Salem, Canterbury and Effingham, has been acquired by national healthcare provider BayMark Health Service.

Texas-based BayMark, which operates medication-assisted treatment facilities in Hudson, Newington and Somersworth, has 300 treatment facilities in 35 states and three Canadian provinces.

BayMark’s continuum of care includes medication-assisted treatment, withdrawal management, counseling and other support therapies in outpatient, in patient and residential settings.

Like other residential facilities, Granite Recovery Centers offers treatment for a variety of addictions including not only opioids but also alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamine, prescription drugs and other substances.

MAINE-BASED BULL MOOSE SOLD TO EMPLOYEES

Bull Moose, the Mainebased record store chain with three outlets in New Hampshire, has become an employee-owned company through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP.

Company founder and CEO Brett Wickard said the change took place at the start of the new year and was announced to Bull Moose’s roughly 145 employees at a company-wide meeting Monday. Wickard will stay on as interim CEO and chair of the board during the transition.

Wickard will remain CEO and the chair of the company’s board of directors. An ESOP committee will be formed to represent employee interests.

Eligible employees will be granted stock ownership by Bull Moose’s ESOP Trust, which owns 100 percent of Bull Moose after buying out Wickard. Employee owners will be represented by an ESOP committee, to whom the board will report.

The three New Hampshire Bull Moose stores are in Portsmouth, Keene and Salem. Last spring, the company faced a widespread backlash after about 20 employees at the Salem store were fired over protesting the company’s decision to lift a mask mandate for customers. In September, the Salem employees unionized through United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1445.

SOMERSWORTH IT FIRM NESSIT ACQUIRES NEOSCOPE

Information technology security firm Nessit LLC of Somersworth has acquired another longstanding IT security firm, Neoscope LLC of Portsmouth.

The acquisition creates one of the largest IT service providers in the region, said Geoffrey Ness, CEO of Nessit.

“We acquired Neoscope because we believe a larger, combined organization will allow us to enhance our offerings and provide a wider array of services and scalability to better serve all our new and existing clients,” he said.