FINANCIAL SERVICES
Angela Salb has been promoted to vice president, commercial lending team Leader at Meredith Village Savings Bank. She will be based in the Portsmouth office, and will offer support to the bank’s newest Exeter branch opening this month. In addition, Danielle Bowles has joined the bank’s new Exeter location at 2 Meeting Place Drive as branch services supervisor.
Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union has selected Larissa Thurston as its new CEO, succeeding Mark Cochran upon his planned retirement at the end of the summer. She brings more than 24 years of financial services experience to her new role, most recently serving as president/CEO of St. Mary’s Credit Union in Marlborough, Mass., along with other positions at St. Mary’s CU and the Bank of New England.
Bangor Savings Bank has elected Michael G. Cato, senior vice president and chief information officer at Bowdoin College, to its board of directors. Cato will also serve as a corporator for the bank, providing connections between the organization and the communities it serves. Additionally, the bank named Matt James as the new vice president, commercial banking senior relationship manager. Previously, he was founder and manager of several real estate investment and management companies.
Ledyard Financial Advisors has hired Scott Coulter, CFP, as chief wealth planning officer, who brings over 20 years of experience in the wealth management and banking industries to the role. Most recently, he served as the head of strategy and distribution for Citizens Wealth Management.
BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS
Outdoor Pride Landscape & Snow Management, a New England-based commercial snow removal and landscape management company, was recently named one of the country’s “Best Places to Work” in the snow and ice industry for the third year in a row by the Snow and Ice Management Association (SIMA). Additionally, John Tassinari, business developer at Outdoor Pride, was also named Sales Professional of the Year by SIMA’s for exceeding sales goals and for his professionalism and dedication to providing high-quality services to his clients.
Salem Family Resources — a family resources provider of support and programs for families, caregivers and early childhood educators to help meet the needs of young children — recently celebrated the opening of its newest location, Cindy’s Place, at 155 Main Street in Salem. The facility offers playgroups, resource and referral services, and features a community meeting room, youth mental health first-aid trainings and three play rooms for infants, toddlers and their caregivers.
HOSPITALITY
Cranmore Mountain Resort announced recent promotions and retirements from its organization. After 20 years at the resort, Glenn Harmon, VP of operations, has retired as of July 1. Properties and facilities manager Mark Gorveatt has also retired after 13 years at the company. In addition, Tricia Garcia has been promoted to director of resort operations; Brantly Ludington was promoted to director of mountain operations; Kelly Hunt, formerly the resort services manager, was promoted to sales and events director; Ben Siwak is now the facilities manager; and Robert Bray was promoted to assistant facilities manager.
EDUCATION
Lisa Marsh Ryerson was named the sixth president of Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), and officially started her two-year term on July 1. Ryerson, who previously served on the SNHU Board of Trustees for six years before taking on the role of university provost in 2022, succeeds Dr. Paul J. LeBlanc who announced his decision to step down late last year following 21 years at the helm of the university.
After a few years serving as president of Manchester Community College (MCC), Brian Bicknell is leaving higher education to become the new chief operating officer for the Boys & Girls Club of Boston. Previously, he was MCC vice president of academic affairs from 2016 to 2019, and before that spent time at Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology in Boston, and held leadership roles at Montserrat College of Art and The Boston Conservatory.
NONPROFITS
The Foundation for Seacoast Health recently awarded $310,000 in grants and support to 21 nonprofit organizations, and $20,000 in scholarships to three students pursuing health-related degrees. Grantees included: Articine, Big Brothers Big Sisters of NH, Cornerstone VNA, Goodwork, Greater Seacoast Community Health, Haven, Hospice Help Foundation, Joan Lovering Health Center, My Breast Cancer Support, NAMI NH, NH Association for the Blind, On Belay, Pinetree Institute, Seacoast Mental Health Center, Seacoast Outright, Seacoast Village Project, Seacoast Women’s Giving Circle, Southern NH AHEC, the Birchtree Center, the Foundation for NH Community Colleges and York Community Services Association. Scholarships were also awarded to Lauren Dube of Greenland, Natalie Singer of Eliot, Maine, and Wilhelmina Bowser of Rye.
The Queen City Rotary Club has welcomed new board chair Natalie Jutras, who takes over from outgoing chair Shilpi Mehtrotra. In addition, the Club also presented awards to board members Jayna Stevens, Andrea Kuhlman, Monica Labonville, Natalie Jutras, Franne Cirillo, and Mayra Montes of the Puritan Back Room.
The Norwin S. and Elizabeth N. Bean Foundation has awarded $178,000 in grants to support six nonprofits that provide services in the areas of human services, education, public benefit and the environment: Families in Transition, Girls Inc. of NH, Manchester Police Athletic League, NH Audubon Society, NH Historical Society and Opportunity Networks, Inc.
Plan NH announced its 2024 Merit Awards of Excellence, honoring outstanding building projects that incorporate good planning, design and development that have a positive impact on surrounding communities. Winning projects were: Brick Market, Portsmouth; Capitol Shopping Center, Concord; Mill Girl Stair Improvements Project, Manchester; Nashua Soup Kitchen & Shelter, Nashua; and The Livery, Sunapee. In addition, Plan NH honored several college students with scholarships and fellowship funds, including: Alexandra Avakova, UNH; Lilly Cassiano, Roger Williams University; Hunter Haht-Acres, Roger Williams University; Suprina Kabadkar, Rochester Institute of Technology; Emily Swift, Keene State College; Mallory Taylor, Suffolk University; Mackenzie Waterman, Stonehill College; Kei Kan, Wentworth Institute of Technology; and Siobhan Day, Belmont University.
Todd Emmons, president and CEO of Spaulding Academy & Family Services, has announced his retirement, effective December 2024. Emmons initially joined the nonprofit in 2017 as chief financial officer, eventually being promoted to his current position in 2020. Under his leadership, Spaulding secured construction bonds for capital improvements, strengthened its finances, grew the team, enhanced technology, and created an organizational culture that unified staff around a shared vision.
Granite VNA has appointed nurse management professional Otillie Dean-Crotty, RN, BSN, as its director of hospice, overseeing the clinical business operations and patient care services of Granite VNA’s community hospice program. Previously, she served as the director of clinical services at Compassus, the director of nursing at The Huntington at Nashua, and as a hospice team lead for Home Health & Hospice Care in Merrimack.
AUTOMOTIVE
Merchants Fleet has hired Brian Sari as regional sales manager for the company’s truck and van rental division, which is expanding to meet its clients throughout the Northeast who continue to struggle with supply chain difficulties. Sari’s experience in managerial roles at Ryder System Inc. has helped him focus on building and strengthening client relationships.
LAW
603 Legal Aid has welcomed two new attorneys, Rebecca McKinnon and Ali Gennaro, to its organization. McKinnon is a graduate of the UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law with experience in private practice and as a solo practitioner, who was most recently the service coordinator at Upper Valley Haven. Gennaro graduated from the Northeastern School of Law and served as a law clerk for the NH Judicial Branch including time spent at the Superior Court in Rockingham County and clerking for Honorable Justice Hantz-Marconi of the NH Supreme Court.
Shaheen & Gordon, P.A., recently welcomed attorney Timothy Mainella to the firm’s Dover office. Mainella will work with clients in the areas of personal injury, civil rights and general litigation. He graduated from the University of New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce School of Law as part of its Daniel Webster Scholar Program.
Michelle Spadaro has joined McLane Middleton as a trust officer, in the firm’s Trust Services Department. She has over 15 years of experience as an estate planning and trust administration paralegal.
McLane Middleton attorney Cameron G. Shilling was named to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly’s 2024 list of Top 20 Go To Cybersecurity/Data Privacy lawyers. Shilling established McLane’s Cybersecurity and Privacy Group 15 years ago, and continues to chair the group today as a nationally recognized thought leader in data privacy and cybersecurity.
HEALTH CARE
Concord Hospital health system has been named one of America’s Best Maternity Hospitals 2024 by Newsweek in partnership with Statista, a global market research and consumer data firm, in recognition of its commitment to care for mothers, newborns and their families.
UTILITIES
Eversource’s Doug Foley has transitioned to the role of president at Massachusetts Electric Operation, with Bob Coates stepping into the role of president for Eversource’s New Hampshire operations. He was most recently the VP of transmission project management and construction with Eversource, and will now lead the NH operations division.
TECHNOLOGY
The NH Tech Alliance has announced the second cohort for the Ascending Leaders in Tech Program presented by Big Network, which is designed for tech professionals to grow their leadership skills: Kendra Bostick, Kikori; Bill Davis, BeachNecessities.com; Phil Kasiecki, BAE Systems, Inc.; Peter T. Lampesis, Jr., Arnion BioCell; Amin Marts, Drag37.io; Taylor McLeod and Kaelyn Sullivan, ARMI; Hannah Meiselman, PRO Therapeutics; Madhura Mitra, Hypertherm Associates; Andrew Osterman, Patients Precise and ARMI; Adam Sharp and Joseph Sullivan, Mikros Technologies; Michael Smith and Heather Vitella, Liberty Mutual.
Unified Office, a communications technology company, has received a 2024 Visionary Spotlight Award in the Best Emerging Technology Breakthroughs 2024 category by ChannelVision Magazine. United Office was awarded the honor for its AI-based TCNIQ sentiment analysis that helps managers identify customer engagement problems, improve employment engagement, reward customer loyalty and gauge employee performance and customer sentiment.
AGRICULTURE
The USDA has announced $55 million in grant funding through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) to support innovative agricultural production systems research, including a project by University of New Hampshire researchers who will investigate ways to adapt cropping systems for increasingly variable weather.
Led by Rich Smith, a professor in the department of natural resources and the environment, and Natalie Lounsbury, a research assistant professor in the department of agriculture, nutrition and food systems, the UNH project will focus on how alternative crop row orientation and spacing strategies affect the amount of light or solar radiation plants can absorb and how these strategies can be combined with innovative cover cropping approaches like interseeding to improve soil moisture dynamics, weed suppression and soil health.
The UNH team will work with researchers at North Carolina State University to leverage a national on-farm dataset from the Precision Sustainable Agriculture Network to identify the effects of row orientation on crop yields, soil moisture and weed suppression across different environmental conditions and under different cover crop management.
NEW HAMPSHIRE 200
Editor’s note: NH Business Review is spotlighting selected 2024 New Hampshire 200 honorees from various industries. See the entire list and book at nhbr.com
Sam Evans-Brown
Executive Director Clean Energy NH
Education: Southern NH Area Health Education Center; Bates College (BA)
Career history: Sam reported for New Hampshire Public Radio starting in 2011, researching and covering state agencies and the legislature. In 2015, he conceived and launched Outside/In, a podcast focused on deep research into energy and environmental topics including accountability and investigative journalism. In 2021, he left to launch Clean Energy NH, a nonprofit seeking to develop and advocate for transformative environmental policy, cultivating statewide energy stakeholder relations.
Business lesson: Maintaining positive culture is simultaneously the most important and the most difficult thing at any organization. Every new staff person you add effects the “company” culture.
Biggest challenge: National forces and international forces often dictate what is happening in New Hampshire’s energy landscape. Responding to the shifting discourse nimbly and skillfully is sometimes much more an art than a science.
Most excited about: Technological tailwinds make the clean energy transition, in my opinion, inevitable. The only question is how fast we get there, and how much environmental and societal harm we can avoid by getting there faster.
Fun fact: I speak Spanish with my kids.
Hobbies/passions: Family; skiing; biking; running; amateur carpentry/home improvement
Checked-off bucket list item: Living abroad.
Industry advice: Be involved politically. No one likes politics, but the truth is that when reasonable people step back, the unreasonable voices become louder.
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