FINANCIAL SERVICES
Meredith Village Savings Bank (MVSB) has promoted Traynor Cully to vice president, commercial loan officer, in the bank’s Rochester location. Cully initially joined MVSB in 2022 as a commercial loan officer and was later promoted to the role of assistant vice president, commercial loan officer, in 2023.
Joseph Guyton, owner of the Guyton Group, and his son Andrew Guyton, founder of Forge Financial, were ranked on Forbes’ list of America’s Top Financial Security Professionals in New Hampshire. Joseph Guyton was ranked at No. 1 and Andrew ranked No. 3 on the list. Together, they specialize in financial planning, business exit strategy, retirement income planning, estate planning and wealth accumulation strategies.
Meredith Village Saving Bank (MVSB) has opened its newest banking office at 3 Meeting Place Drive in Exeter. The full-service branch is the bank’s 14th location across the greater Lakes and Seacoast regions of New Hampshire. MVSB’s Exeter office was designed by Warrenstreet Architects, Inc. and construction was managed by Conneston Construction, Inc.
Bar Harbor Bank & Trust has selected Michael Douglass of Grantham as the winner of the bank’s Honor a Frontline Hero Contest, a campaign that gave community members the opportunity to nominate a front-line hero who they feel deserves recognition for their impact in the community. Douglass is an operating room nurse at New London Hospital and a Captain in the U.S. Army Reserve. As the winner of the contest, Douglass received $1,000.
The bank also made a $1,000 donation to Claremont Christian Academy, the nonprofit organization of Douglass’s choice.
EDUCATION
The Community College System of New Hampshire (CCSNH) is freezing tuition for the upcoming academic year at last year’s rate, which has been unchanged since 2018. This makes the 2024-25 academic year the seventh consecutive year with flat in-state tuition of $215 per credit, in a budget recently approved by the CCSNH board of trustees. The tuition freeze applies to 200 certificate and degree programs at all seven community colleges across the state and their affiliated academic centers as well as to on-campus, online and hybrid offerings.
Crotched Mountain Foundation has approved a new round of partnership awards to New Hampshire schools in low-income communities to improve education and opportunities for kids with autism and other disabilities. Awardees are: $190,000 to Berlin to provide an inclusive/accessible developmental preschool playground, as well as upgrades to life skills programs for elementary, middle, and high school students; $150,000 to the White Mountain School District to build/train staff capacity to educate kids with developmental disabilities including autism; $300,000 to Littleton to purchase a van for Special Education to provide vocational training and community experiences, and to support a two-year Special Education teaching residency for the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 school years; and $300,000 to Newport for teacher and administrator special education professional development, including coaching and mentorship for school leadership.
Spaulding Academy & Family Services principal and director of special education, Garrett Lavallee, M.Ed, was recognized at the NH Association of Special Education Administrators conference with the Emerging Leader of Special Education for Private Providers award. Lavallee started at the academy in 1999 as a residential team member and went on to become a paraeducator, special education teacher, special education coordinator and assistant director of special education before earning the title of principal and director of special education in 2022.
NONPROFITS
Stay Work Play New Hampshire, a statewide nonprofit whose mission is to attract and retain more young people in New Hampshire, has recently welcomed Elise McManus to its board of directors. McManus is the housing cooperative coach and trainer at the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund and a 2023 graduate of Stay Work Play’s Rising Stars Leadership Program.
The Capital Region Food Program has been presented with the 19th Annual Pinnacle Nonprofit Business of the Year Award by the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce in recognition of the nonprofit’s contributions to the community and devotion to combating hunger in central New Hampshire.
The board of directors of Camp Bernadette and Camp Fatima, the only Roman Catholic, diocesan-affiliated summer camps in New England, has appointed Andrew Thibault of Manchester as executive director. He will continue to serve as this summer’s resident director during the transition to this role.
The New Hampshire Liquor Commission (NHLC) is looking to raise $250,000 for Best Buddies New Hampshire — which provides individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities with integrated employment, one-to-one friendships and leadership development programs — by raffling off rare bourbons. Some of the raffle items include the recently released Weller Millennium, the complete lineup of Pappy Van Winkle’s Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskeys, the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, a 1995 O.F.C Old-Fashioned Copper Bourbon Whiskey and more. Only 2,500 tickets are available in the raffle, which runs from now through September 27. Tickets can be purchased for $100 each at liquorandwineoutlets.com/buddyup.
Home health care and hospice agency Granite VNA has appointed the Rev. Michael Malanga, D.Min., as its new spiritual care counselor and bereavement coordinator in the Lakes Region. Malanga will offer spiritual counseling to patients on hospice and their families, provide community education on spiritual care and coordinate grief counseling to support agency personnel in managing work-related grief.
The Rotary Club of Concord has given a $25,000 pledge to the Christ the King Parish to build its new food pantry. The new $2.4 million facility will be designed in a grocery store style to serve more than one family at a time. From January to June 2024, the food pantry served 60 families with 1,366 meals.
Amy Mayo, president of the Manchester Area Human Resource Association (MAHRA), has graduated from the Leadership Greater Manchester program. This highly selective program cultivates the region’s most promising leaders, equipping them with the knowledge and connections to drive positive change in the Greater Manchester community.
HEALTH CARE
Wentworth-Douglass Hospital has been named “High Performing” in the treatment of heart failure, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2024-2025 Best Hospitals rankings. This is the highest award a hospital can earn in the publisher’s Common Adult Procedure and Condition Ratings. To calculate the rankings, U.S. News evaluated each hospital’s performance in risk-adjusted mortality rates, preventable complications and level of nursing care. Ranking methodologies measure patient outcomes using data from millions of records provided by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
REAL ESTATE
Sullivan County’s Andrew and Meghan Hanson, authors of “Creating a Life of Abundance: A Couple’s Journey Together in Business, Real Estate, and Short-term Rentals,” have earned three book awards, including the Business: Real Estate category award at the 2024 International Book Awards, a finalist recognition in the Goody Business Book Awards for the entrepreneur category, and the Gold Medal winner in the Real Estate category at the Axiom Business Book Awards.
Maine and New Hampshire commercial real estate firm The Boulos Company has listed the almost 50-acre property at 50 Mansion Drive in Rowley, Mass., for sale. Originally built in 1903, the property features a 44,000-square-foot mansion, known as Sea View Manor, which has most recently been used as a continuing care retirement rehabilitation estate. For more information, contact Andy MacDonald at amacdonald@boulos.com, or Karen Gazzara in the Manchester, NH, office at 603-333-1333.
RETAIL
Simon Property Group’s Merrimack Premium Outlets recently welcomed nine new retailers and dining options opening along with one store renovation in 2024. Blimpie Subs, Great Steak, Kahala Coffee, Sbarro, Solaris, Movado, The Country Store, ASICS, ECCO Clearance Store and Columbia Clearance Store all open in the coming months.
The New Hampshire Liquor Commission (NHLC) has been named one of the top 10 retailers in the country for the fifth year in a row in this year’s Beverage Dynamics Top 100 Retailers Awards, which recognizes leading retailers, such as liquor stores or supermarket chains, that demonstrate innovation, excellent customer service and superior beverage alcohol industry knowledge. NHLC, which operates 65 NH Liquor & Wine Outlet retail locations across New Hampshire and serves more than 12 million customers each year, placed sixth in this year’s awards and was the only control state in the country to be named one of Beverage Dynamics’s top-10 retailers.
LAW
Shaheen & Gordon, P.A., has welcomed attorney Maria T. Hyde to the firm’s litigation and business law groups. Based out of the firm’s Dover office, Hyde will represent individual and business clients in a range of civil and commercial matters in state and federal court. Prior to entering private practice, Hyde worked for the New Hampshire and Missouri State Public Defenders. She is admitted to practice in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Colorado, Missouri and Illinois.
TECHNOLOGY
XMA Corporation — a Manchester-based firm that produces interconnect technologies for passive RF solutions — announced the graduation of Sarah Orans-Spizzirro, people and culture manager, from the Leadership Greater Manchester program. In a press release from the company, XMA shared that Orans-Spizzirro plays a pivotal role in fostering a positive and productive work environment at XMA, and her dedication to employee development and well-being has been instrumental in building a strong and engaged team.
ARTS & CULTURE
Kimball Jenkins, a community cultural center dedicated to providing access to the arts for all, has appointed Martha Lemire as its new executive director. Previously, Lemire served as the executive director of The Florida Ballet in Jacksonville, Fla., from 2015 into 2023. She also served as part of the management team at Prescott Park Arts Festival Portsmouth, NH, and acted as the executive director of Ballet New England Portsmouth.
HOSPITALITY
Following a fourmonth national search to replace retiring President and General Manager Tom Day, the Gunstock Area Commission (GAC) has selected Robert Drake for the position beginning August 5. Drake most recently served as business operations GM for Middlebury Snowbowl in Vermont. Prior to 2022, Drake worked as the assistant GM at Bridger Bowl Ski Area in Bozeman, Montana, and the director of sales, marketing, and lodging services at Red Lodge Mountain Resort in Red Lodge, Montana.
ENGINEERING
Alex Koutroubas has been named executive vice president of the Associated General Contractors of New Hampshire, the position previously held by Gary Abbott, who served since 1985. Most recently, Koutroubas was a senior government relations advisor with Dennehy & Bouley since 2004, and represented NH engineering firms through the American Council of Engineering Companies of New Hampshire.
BUSINESS SERVICES
Nominations are now open for the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce’s 2024 Citizen of the Year award, typically given to an individual who exemplifies outstanding commitment to their community and whose contributions have had a lasting impact over the years. Honorees are those in our community who work tirelessly to create a better environment for everyone, whether through volunteer work, community projects or innovative initiatives that address local needs. All nominations are due by Friday, September 6 at concordnhchamber.com.
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
Ramey Sylvester Director, Corporate Dept., McLane Middleton
Education: University of New Hampshire School of Law (JD), Andrews University (BS)
Career history: Ramey was first a temp contracts administrator/legal counsel for Stonyfield Farm. She served as Assistant General Counsel to AmeriFirst Home Mortgage. Currently, she is a director at McLane Middleton and a member of Service Credit Union’s Supervisory Committee. She sits on the Board of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce and is participating in Leadership New Hampshire.
Ramey was in the Union Leader’s 40 under Forty in 2022. She received the Jack B. Middleton Pro Bono Legal Services Award, and has been recognized as a New England Super Lawyers Rising Star and Best Lawyers in America Ones to Watch.
Most important business lesson: Purposefully choosing to be “last in the room,” professionally or socially, develops key partnerships, enhances your knowledge base, and discerns strategic growth opportunities.
Most excited about: One key to McLane Middleton’s success is our people. I look forward to many years of being part of the McLane community.
Favorite story: My paternal grandmother, born in Grenada, sold everything to immigrate with her children to the U.S. Today, her legacy continues, including raising successful children and establishing the foundation for me to become who I am today.
Industry advice: Invest in yourself, hone your craft, and become an expert in your practice area. Find good mentors and surround yourself with really smart collaborators. Hold your holistic being sacred, building a life of purposeful, meaningful, and balanced work.
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