FINANCIAL SERVICES
Ledyard National Bank has welcomed U.S. Army veteran Kimberly Lebron to the firm as executive vice president and chief lending officer. She has over 30 years of experience in the industry, most recently at Thomaston Savings Bank.
Jason Bolduc has joined the Bank of New Hampshire as a financial consultant on the bank’s wealth management team. Before a 20-year-plus career in the industry, he received a bachelor’s degree in marketing management and entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises from Syracuse University. In addition, the bank has promoted Melissa Williams to assistant vice president, Dover banking office manager. Williams, who started her banking career in 1999, initially joined the bank in 2005 as a bank services representative at the Dover office, working up through the ranks where she was promoted from banking office manager in 2022.
Randy Sivigny has been promoted to director of commercial banking at St. Mary’s Bank, where he will oversee the credit union’s commercial and small business lending programs and cash management services as a member of the strategic leadership team.
ADVERTISING AND MARKETING
EVR Advertising has partnered with Advanced FRP Systems — an industrial manufacturing company headquartered in Massachusetts, specializing in repairs for tanks, pipes, coatings and infrastructure — to collaborate on developing marketing strategies that align with the organization’s goals of establishing a strong presence in the oil and gas and water and wastewater industries.
HEALTHCARE
Granite VNA, a nonprofit home health care and hospice agency, has named Julie Stone the vice president of strategy, continuing her 20-year career in the industry working with organizations that provide services for older adults and those with disabilities.
Concord Hospital has been awarded a $5,500 Arts in Health Grant by the NH State Council on the Arts, which will be used to provide live therapeutic music by certified music practitioners to support the mental health of hospital patients. The grant is made possible by appropriations from the governor and state Legislature, as well as a National Endowment for the Arts grant to the NH State Council on the Arts.
David Dagenais, Wentworth-Douglass Hospital’s senior director of plant operations, was recently awarded the Crystal Eagle Leadership Award, a lifetime achievement award, by the American Society for Healthcare Engineering. Dagenais has worked at the hospital for more than 30 years.
This year’s recipient of Friends Forever International’s 2023 Eileen D. Foley Award is Dr. Robert Hickey. Hickey is being honored for his tenure as chief resident at Brown University School of Medicine, four years in the U.S. Air Force Medical Corps and his work in allergy/immunology at Allergy Associates of NH, as well as his commitment and dedication to public service.
The Prostate Cancer Support Group of New Hampshire, composed of men and women in the state with prostate cancer or know someone with it, has been formed. Meetings will be held monthly via Zoom on the second Wednesday of each month, starting Sept. 13 at 6 p.m., featuring educational content and peer-to-peer support. The program will also include two medical specialists who will speak on current trends in prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment. Find the Zoom link on the group’s Facebook page or by emailing braiterman@outlook.com.
Catholic Medical Center and the New England Heart & Vascular Institute recently announced that Dr. Patricia Furey — CMC’s chief of vascular surgery, medical staff president, and the chair of the medical executive committee — is one of three recipients of the 2023 Excellence in Community Practice Award from the Society for Vascular Surgery. She was recognized for her leadership, work in the field and reflection of the profession’s highest standards.
Dartmouth Health’s HOBSCOTCH Institute for Cognitive Health and Well-Being was selected for a $1,875,000, five-year federal grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that will help improve the lives of people living with epilepsy. The institute will collaborate with the Northern New England CO-OP Practice and Community-Based Research Network to streamline the referral process to the program, with a goal of improving access and better supporting people with epilepsy in rural and underserved communities.
LAW
Attorney Samantha Heuring has joined the Personal Injury Practice Group at Shaheen & Gordon as well as its YDC Victim Compensation Group. Heuring, who will be based in the firm’s Dover office, previously worked with more than a dozen victims of physical and sexual assault at the Youth Development Center through the state’s YDC Settlement Fund. Her work was key in attaining the first maximum settlement of $1.5 million through the fund. She subsequently obtained a $1.48 million settlement and a second $1.5 million settlement through the fund.
BUSINESS AND CONSUMER SERVICES
HW Staffing Solutions, a Taunton, Mass.-based commercial staffing agency with two offices in New Hampshire, acquired Top Prospect Group, a professional and information technology staffing firm headquartered in White Plains, N.Y. The company said the acquisition will allow it to expand its offerings to clients and provide them with more comprehensive staffing services.
The Lawfully Yours Wedding Chapel has been opened in Nashua by Lisa Law, a justice of the peace with over 35 years of event planning experience. The chapel offers a venue for micro weddings, elopements and vow renewals for up to 12 guests. The chapel, which offers indoor and outdoor ceremony vignettes, offers all-inclusive wedding packages that include personalized ceremonies, a first dance, cake, and toast.
CONSTRUCTION
Manchester-based Metro Walls has been recognized as a 2023 Top 50 Contractor by Walls and Ceilings Magazine. It’s the sixth year that the company has earned a spot on the magazine’s list.
The Friends Program has contracted with New England Custom Remodeling to complete renovation of its Emergency Housing Family Shelter located in Concord. With support from SMP Architecture, construction began in August. In order to complete the renovation, the Friends Program says it needs to raise an additional $100,000. To learn more, visit friendsprogram.org.
REAL ESTATE
Elm Grove Companies, Manchester, has announced three new hires: Matt Woods, as asset manager and owner’s representative; Dean Petruzzi, director of affordable housing; and Michael DiGiammarino, owner’s representative. Woods previously spent 17 years in the hospitality industry, including leadership positions in operations, asset management and construction. Petruzzi has over 30 years of property management experience, both in market rate and affordable housing. DiGiammarino spent the last four years in the Marine Corps serving in leadership positions in operations, logistics and administration.
Keystone Management Company, a Concord-based investor with properties in New Hampshire, Maine and North Carolina, has added to its holdings with the $15 million purchase of the High Ridge Village Apartment complex in Sanford, N.C. Keystone, whose headquarters are on Fisherville Road in Concord, owns and manages 12 apartment complexes in New Hampshire, nine in Maine and, with the Sanford acquisition, 18 in North Carolina.
NONPROFITS
The M&T Charitable Foundation, the philanthropic arm of M&T Bank, has the second phase of its Amplify Fund, which provides support to nonprofit initiatives in legacy People’s United communities that benefit low- and moderate-income communities and underrepresented populations. The request for proposals seeks nonprofit collaboratives focused on advancing equity using a racial equity and social justice lens in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, southern Maine, Long Island, and New York’s Westchester County. Special consideration will be given to initiatives that are providing access and opportunities to enable upward mobility, close the racial wealth gap, and address economic barriers and other opportunity gaps for marginalized and underrepresented populations. RFPs are due by 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 6, and can be submitted via mtb.versaic.com with the passcode AF-AEC.
CMF Kids, Crotched Mountain Foundation’s partnership initiative that supports New Hampshire communities serving children with disabilities from disadvantaged circumstances, has unveiled a new round of three-year investments totaling $1 million. Through the initiative, CMF Kids will have new partnerships with four school districts: Nashua, Manchester, Warren and Newport. In addition, CMF Kids is partnering with a variety of community programs that offer services such as: music therapy, accessible recreation, and sports and adaptive aquatics.
The NH Center for Justice & Equity has added Catherine Kabala and Jason Bonilla to its board of directors. Kabala is a student assistance program counselor at Manchester Central High School. Bonilla is co-founder of the organization NH Millennials of Color and a member of the Manchester Board of School Committee.
GOVERNMENT
The NH Insurance Department recently received accreditation from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Financial Regulation Standards and Accreditation Committee.
The action took place at NAIC’s summer national meeting. The NAIC accreditation program signifies that state insurance departments meet rigorous standards of solvency regulation and provide effective oversight of multi-state insurers.
The NH Liquor Commission’s Division of Enforcement was recently recognized by the Commission of Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, joining 18 other New Hampshire law enforcement agencies in achieving the standard. To receive the accreditation, agencies must perform a self-assessment that reviews policies, practices and processes against internationally accepted public safety standards, followed by an assessment by independent assessors with significant public safety experience.
BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS
The Belknap Economic Development Council will begin allocating over $100,000 to support small business development in the Lakes Region. Working with the NH Small Business Development Center, Belknap EDC will be able to directly support businesses with accessing technical assistance, business plan development, direct grants, financing and other resources. A qualifying business must be classified as a for-profit entity with five or fewer employees, be in current operation or in startup mode, be located within Belknap County and meet specific income requirements.
Rachel Xavier of Center Harbor, a Realtor with Keller Williams Lakes & Mountains Realty in Meredith, has been selected as the NH Association of Realtors 2023 Good Neighbor Award recipient for her volunteer efforts with the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction. As a result, NHAR has donated $5,000 in Xavier’s name to the Children’s Auction, whose mission is to financially support and empower Lakes Region area children in need. Since its inception in 1982, the organization has donated more than $8 million to area nonprofits.
MEDIA
NH Public Radio has been honored with two 2023 national Edward R. Murrow Awards. NHPR received an award in the investigative reporting category for Lauren Chooljian and the Document team’s story revolving around sexual misconduct allegations against a prominent NH man, and another award in the news documentary category for the Outside/In podcast episode, “After the Avalanche,” which documented a Mt. Washington rescue that went awry.
Parable Magazine, a publication of the Diocese of Manchester, the Roman Catholic Church in New Hampshire, was recently recognized with nine national 2023 Catholic Media Awards during the Catholic Media Conference in Baltimore, Md. The magazine earned four first-place awards, including Best Regular Column for Bishop Peter A. Libasci’s “Bishop’s Message” column; Best Feature Article in Diocesan Magazines and Best Reporting of Social Justice Issues Rights and Responsibilities, for Paul McAvoy’s” story about people raising their grandchildren because of their children’s struggles with addiction; and Best Regular Column-Family Life, for Simcha Fisher’s “Marriage and Family Life” column. The magazine also earned three second-place awards as well as an honorable mention as Magazine of the Year.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
UScellular recently announced the addition of Brandi McCune as director of sales and operations for its New England Region. McCune joined the company in 2000 as a retail wireless consultant in Summersville, W. Va., before holding multiple leadership roles in the company, most recently as director of retail sales and operations for the company in Nebraska.
Salem Chamber welcomes new executive director
Cindi Woodbury has been announced as the new executive director of the Greater Salem Chamber of Commerce.
Woodbury has worked as the chamber’s membership and engagement director for the past three years, in that time growing membership to over 500. Over the past few months, she has been serving as interim executive director.
She is involved in various community initiatives, and has received the Volunteer of the Year Award from NH Partners in Education, the John P. Ganley Award, and the Hidden Jewel Award.
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