FINANCIAL SERVICES
Daniel Osetek has been promoted to senior vice president, commercial lending team leader at Meredith Village Savings Bank. He will be based out of the Moultonborough office.
The Bank of New Hampshire has announced three new promotions within its branches: Jared Price to vice president, controller; Cheri Caruso to executive vice president of chief technology, digital banking and operations officer; and Barbara Laflamme to assistant vice president and office manager of the Campton location. Price first joined the Bank in 2012, where he will now be responsible for administering, directing and managing the accounting and finance functions of the Bank. Caruso will oversee the divisions of information technology, electronic banking, project management, deposit and loan operations and innovation/process improvement. Laflamme is responsible for management of the office’s deposit portfolio, customer relationship management, new business development and community engagement, as well as all daily operations of the office.
Kim Lesnewski was recently promoted to mortgage loan originator for Meredith Village Savings Bank, where she’s worked since 2008. She will be based out of the Bank’s Laconia branch office, where she’ll assist customers throughout the Lakes Region with the application process for mortgages and construction and equity loans.
Chris Mamone has joined Merrimack County Savings Bank as vice president of residential mortgage sales. He is based in Concord.
ARTS
Danielle Festa, former director of the Dover Art Walk, has opened Aplomb, a new creative space on Mechanic Street in the city’s downtown. Aside from exhibiting her own paintings of commissioned or gifted subjects from the Portrait Project, Festa is curating group exhibitions, teaching workshops and offering private lessons and courses in person or via Zoom. For more information, visit aplombgallery.com.
GOVERNMENT
Rene Pelletier has been appointed the new director of the water division at the NH Department of Environmental Services by Governor Chris Sununu and the Executive Council. Pelletier has 48 years of experience with NHDES, working with all waterrelated programs at the Department. He holds a master’s in civil engineering and is a licensed geologist.
BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS
The Greater Dover Chamber of Commerce is accepting nominations for its annual awards: Citizen of the Year, Volunteer of the Year, Educator of the Year, Business of the Year and Nonprofit of the Year. The GDCC also awards a $1,000 scholarship to an area student pursuing higher education. A new award, the Community Arts Champion Award, will honor a business or individual that focuses on creativity as integral to civic engagement, community vitality, and access for everyone, everywhere in the city. To submit a nomination, visit dovernh.org/awards. Deadline is 4 p.m. March 11.
Catapult, the Seacoast’s young professionals network, is relaunching under the leadership of the Chamber Collaborative of Greater Portsmouth in partnership with the Exeter Area Chamber of Commerce, Greater Dover Chamber of Commerce and Hampton Area Chamber of Commerce. Catapult hosts a variety of social, networking and educational events. For more information, visit catapultseacoast.org.
ADVERTISING AND MARKETING
Polaris Direct, a direct marketing services and printing company based in Hooksett, announced that William Goy and Beth Patterson have both joined the team as account managers, and Ren Chase has been hired as an assistant account manager.
Cookson Communications, Manchester, has been approved to provide communications-related services to the U.S. government through a Government Services Administration schedule enabling the firm to access numerous contract opportunities annually through a streamlined process. The formal approval was received in five specific service areas: marketing, advertising, public relations, graphic design, web-based marketing and development for an initial five-year period.
Manchester-based wedü was recently honored with a Silver Award in the Service & Utilities category of the 16th annual w3 Awards for its website redesign for The Colony Group. The awards honor digital excellence.
CONSTRUCTION
DECCO Inc., Nashua, has achieved the Accredited Quality Contractor credential from Associated Builders and Contractors.
ABC’s AQC program provides recognition to construction firms that have documented their commitment to quality, talent management, craft and management education, community relations and safety performance.
North Branch Construction, Concord, has announced the hiring of Shrika Chikurty and Mark Condon. Chikurty joins the firm as a project engineer having recently worked as an assistant project manager for a commercial construction company in California. Condon joins North Branch as a project superintendent. He has over 16 years of experience in commercial construction.
HEALTHCARE
Dr. Jessica Ryan, medical director of the CMC Breast Care Center, has been named New Hampshire state chair of the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (CoC) Cancer Liaison Program. State chairs are volunteer physicians who serve as CoC representatives and provide leadership and support to the CoCaccredited programs and Cancer Liaison physicians in their state.
Cornerstone Visiting Nurse Association, Rochester, has named David Emberley as its new finance director. With over 35 years of experience in finance and accounting, he most recently was chief financial officer and controller of Granite VNA in Concord.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health elected new members to the board of trustees: Nancy M. Dunbar, medical director of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Blood Bank and an associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth; Jarvis A. Green, founder and producing artistic director of JAG Productions; and Sherri C. Oberg, CEO and cofounder of Particles for Humanity, PBC.
TECHNOLOGY
Red River Technology, Claremont, has appointed Warren Kohm as chief financial officer. Kohm has over 25 years of financial leadership experience in the governmental and commercial markets, most recently serving as vice president, corporate controller, and head of financial planning and analysis at Alion Science and Technology.
Meredith Village Savings Bank’s MVSB Fund at the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation has awarded $121,000 in grant funding to 30 nonprofits. This includes $99,000 awarded to 19 local agencies and $22,000 donated to 11 area food pantries. Receiving the grants were: Belknap House, Laconia; Circle Program, Plymouth; Exeter Area Charitable Foundation, Exeter; Gather, Portsmouth; GOT LUNCH!, Ashland and Holderness; GOT LUNCH! Laconia; Kingswood Youth Center, Wolfeboro Falls; Lakes Region Community Developers, Laconia; Lakes Region Food Pantry, Moultonborough; Peabody Place, Franklin; Pemi Youth Center, Plymouth; Raven Gael Blaisdell Foundation at Hall Memorial Library, Northfield; Sandwich Children’s Center, Center Sandwich; Sleep in Heavenly Peace, Inc., Rochester; Speare Memorial Hospital, Plymouth; Step Up Parents, Portsmouth; The Homeless Center for Strafford County, Rochester; White Horse Recovery Center, Center Ossipee; and Winnipesaukee Wellness Center, Moultonborough.
BUSINESS SERVICES
Manchester-based York IE, a strategic growth and investment firm, has launched new advisory services to help companies attract and retain top talent with the hiring of PillPack and Amazon executive Brittany Flanagan as vice president of talent to lead this effort. CEO Kyle York said the new advisory services will include compensation planning and analysis, benefits analysis, training and onboarding, workforce development and career pathing, organizational structure and team architecture, compliant employment practices and employee life cycle process development and implementation.
CONSUMER SERVICES
The Sullivan Country Store will partner with The Local Crowd Monadnock to launch a crowdfunding campaign beginning Feb. 7 to raise funds to reopen the store. The crowdfunding campaign will offer a limited number of rewards to individuals who give at certain financial levels. For example, passes to the Children’s Museum of Cheshire County and a membership to the Historical Society of Cheshire County. Individuals can contribute to the campaign at bit.ly/sullivanstore.
ENGINEERING
Engineering consulting firm the Nobis Group, Concord, has announced the appointment of Chris Adams and Pete Delano to the company’s board of directors. Adams, vice president of operations, joined Nobis in 1999 and has 24 years of design, construction and management-related industry experience. Delano, who joined Nobis in 1995, serves as senior vice president of marketing and sales.
Paige Wilber of the H.L. Turner Group Inc., Concord, has earned her professional engineer license in New Hampshire.
MANUFACTURING
Keene-based early learning furniture manufacturer Whitney Brothers’ biophiliainspired Nature View Serenity Pod for preschool and kindergarten classrooms has received a 2021 Best of Year Honoree award from Interior Design magazine. Multiple pods can form an S-shape, semi-circle, horseshoe or other configuration to create a flexible learning space without compromising visibility for adult supervision. The pod also serves as a functional partition for social distancing.
Bow-based Structures Unlimited Inc., a manufacturer of structural skylights, canopies and building enclosures, has honored Michael Hawkins as its top salesperson for 2021. Hawkins covers upstate New York for Structures Unlimited and its sister company, Kalwall, which in turn has honored Mark Lipman as its Salesperson of the Year for 2021. He is a sales representative for the New York City metro region.
NONPROFITS
The New Hampshire Community Loan Fund’s Board of Directors has added two new members: Ali Sekou of Concord and Sid Prabhakaris of Bedford. Sekou, born and raised in Niger, West Africa, is a manager with Hannaford Supermarket and is also the president of the Islamic Society of Greater Concord. Prabhakaris is vice president of commercial real estate at TD Bank.
Home Health & Hospice Care, a visiting nurse association in Merrimack, has named Barbara Lafrance its new chief clinical officer. Lafrance has been with the nonprofit for over 23 years and was promoted from director of hospice and palliative care.
Lisabritt Solsky and Cathy Kuhn have joined the executive team of Easterseals NH as chief officers. Solsky has 25 years of experience, including working as executive director of Well Sense. Kuhn was previously chief strategy officer at Families in Transition. Easterseals has also promoted Claire Gagnon to chief financial officer, succeeding Elin Treanor, who is retiring from Easterseals after a 41-year career with the agency.
The New Hampshire Senior Leadership Series, a collaboration of AARP NH, Center on Aging and Community Living at UNH and Dartmouth Centers for Health and Aging, is taking applications for the 2022 class. The program is designed for older adults, caregivers and family members who want to advocate for older adults in New Hampshire. Application deadline is Feb. 11. Details and an online application can be found at www.aarp.org/nh.
Cornerstone Visiting Nurse Association has welcomed the newest members to its board of directors: Attorney R. Casey O’Kane of North Hampton and Jill Johnstone of Rochester. O’Kane is principal and owner of the Law Offices of R. Casey O’Kane, and is a member of ElderCounsel, a national organization of elder law practitioners. Johnstone is assistant vice president and training specialist for Marsh McLennan Agency Private Client Services.
Ashwini Saxena has been named the new medical director of The Mental Health Center of Greater Manchester. He had previously worked as a psychiatrist with the Medication Services and Community Support Services Programs of the center.
The Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism has given a $10,000 grant to the Crotched Mountain Foundation in support of CMF Kids, a program where CMF partners with public schools to improve educational outcomes for children with complex disabilities.
REAL ESTATE
New York-based Compass Inc., a publicly held technologyenabled residential real estate brokerage, has expanded into New Hampshire with 15 agents in Portsmouth representing more than $135 million in 2021 sales volume. Founding agents joining Compass in Portsmouth are Scott Rome, Joseph Giordano, Robert Marchewka, Mike Giannone, Kevin Kneeland, Casey Michael Fontaine, Jonathan Levy, Dan Walker,Charlie Strater, Aaron Gass, Terry Boone, Sam Harding, Erick Brunelle, Izaiah Barba, William Reardon, Jake Burhans and Jody Walker of the Brick & Barn Group.
Michael Gagnon and Katherine Raphaelson have joined the Dow Realty Group, Wolfeboro.
Please send items for possible publication in The Latest to EDITOR@NHBR.COM Include a color photo if available.
