UTILITIES
Eversource employees across Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire will take part in its 28th annual Source to Sea Cleanup, in partnership with the Connecticut River Conservancy as a lead sponsor of the initiative, where volunteers target trashridden sites along the 410-mile watershed region and remove as much waste as they can. This year, Eversource employees in New Hampshire will be volunteering in Claremont with the local police and fire departments for a cleanup event at Monadnock Park’s Bobby Woodman Trail.
NONPROFITS
Girls Inc. of New Hampshire recently welcomed seven new board members to its board of directors: Lisa Cramb, Montagne Powers; Dan Hickey, Comcast; Kirsten Koch, Business & Industry Association of NH; Jamie Marcial, ServiceNow; Jeff Moynihan, Clark Insurance; Rebecca Thomas, Triangle Credit Union; and Valerie Whitman, EyeWatch LIVE. WITH PIC Granite VNA has promoted Rachel Tracy, MS, RN, to senior director of hospice. Tracy previously served as the agency’s hospice director of clinical operations, and has 17 years of experience in advanced nursing leadership and management, including roles at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Meritus Health in Hagerstown, Md., and Valley Health Winchester Medical Center and Blue Ridge Hospice, both in Winchester, Va.
Evernorth Rural Ventures — a nonprofit organization serving low- and moderate-income people of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont with affordable housing and community investments — has closed on $14.3 million in a New Markets Tax Credit allocation to create a larger, state-of-the-art facility for Square One, an early childhood education and care provider in Springfield, Mass. The new facility will create 80 additional child care slots, including a 24-hour care program, and will house administrative, finance and home-visit teams, and will generate 16 full-time positions.
ENGINEERING
Nobis Group, a 100% employee-owned consulting firm offering engineering and environmental solutions, has appointed Janet Riel, vice president of finance, to the company’s board of directors.
Charles “Eric” Teale has joined the H.L. Turner Group as senior consulting engineer. He has over 35 years of experience as an expert in subsoil investigations, foundation design, slope stability analysis, ground improvement methods, hydrogeologic investigations, environmental site assessments, remedial designs for soil and groundwater projects, dewatering methods, building underpinning and environmental remediation.
Several associates at Hoyle Tanner celebrated recent promotions.
William Davidson has been promoted to principal engineer, leading civil/site design and construction services; Nils Gonzalez, principal engineer leading aviation projects; Kelly LaVigne, project manager for the Ground Transportation Division; Ryan McMullen, senior project engineer for the bridge team; Bridget Elsemore, project engineer for civil engineering projects; Emily Belisle, project engineer for land development and environmental projects; Nahal Namazi, senior accountant; Kevin Preston, senior CADD designer; Amy DeCola, Joshua Howard, Samantha Lewis, Lily Mott and Zachary Roussel, staff engineers; Amy Chase, senior marketing coordinator; and Jeffrey Burnap, senior construction technician for the Ground Transportation Division.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Meredith Village Savings Bank (MVSB) recently welcomed Ariana Roy to the bank as business development officer based out of the Moultonborough office. Prior to joining MVSB, Roy served as branch and business development manager in Concord for Merrimack County Savings Bank. She has served in a variety of roles in the industry the past 10 years, including banker, supervisor and financial services representative.
Joseph Guyton, owner of Portsmouth-based firm The Guyton Group, has earned the designation of Five Star Wealth Manager — his seventh time winning the award. To earn the Five Star Wealth Manager award, wealth managers must satisfy criteria associated with providing quality services to their clients, factoring in assets under management and client retention rate as well as a regulatory and compliance review.
Meredith Village Savings Bank (MVSB) has appointed Cara Burzynski, president of AeroDynamics, and Justin Van Etten, executive board chair of Stewart’s Ambulance Service, to its board of directors. Burzynski and Van Etten both previously served as corporators for NH Mutual Bancorp, the share services organization supporting MVSB.
Merrimack County Savings Bank has opened its ninth branch at 262 Maple St. in Henniker, featuring a 24-hour ATM, drive-up banking and a night-drop for business customers. The new branch team consists of Hillary Madore, branch services manager; Tyler Cardos, branch services supervisor; and Michelle Olivier, regional vice president for The Merrimack’s Western Region locations.
Gary Dionne, a financial advisor with Lamb, Petersen & Mann Advisory Group, a private wealth advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services, has been named a recipient of the 2024 Five Star Wealth Manager award by Five Star Professional. To receive the designation, a wealth manager must meet 10 objective eligibility and evaluation criteria associated with providing quality services to clients including client retention rates, client assets administered, firm review, and favorable regulatory and complaint history.
Merrimack Valley Credit Union (MVCU) will officially change its name to BrightBridge Credit Union, taking effect in 2025, pending member and regulatory approval. Its new name is the first phase of the credit union’s rebranding process, but the credit union says there will be no changes to members’ banking experience, and all current services and benefits will remain in place. MVCU currently serves more than 115,000 members and 1,100 employer groups in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island and operates 19 retail branches.
CONSTRUCTION
Jennifer Gagne has joined Sullivan Construction, LLC, as project manager. She was most recently the director of project management, where she led construction management and contract negotiation efforts for four years. Additionally, she is certified in quality control by the U.S. Army Corps Engineers and has completed the OSHA 30-Hour Construction certification from ClickSafety.
TECHNOLOGY
The NH Tech Alliance has named Jonathan Strimling, CEO of CleanFiber, as the recipient of its 2024 Entrepreneur of the Year Award, given to the brightest, most innovative individuals in New Hampshire’s tech industry. Based in NH for 24 years, Strimling has started and/or turned around three businesses in New Hampshire, including CleanFiber, SharpSpring, and WoodPellets.com, driving rapid growth for all three ventures. Strimling received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Northeastern University, and earned dual master’s degrees in engineering and management from MIT and the Sloan School of Management.
HEALTH CARE
Blair Demers has joined the Foundation for Seacoast Health as their new CEO, replacing Deb Grabowski, the Foundation’s longtime CEO, who is retiring. She currently serves as principal of BLD Impact, a philanthropic consulting firm, and previously spent six years as the executive director of Education for All Children.
Lamprey Health Care recently welcomed three new members to its board of directors: John Prieto, a serial entrepreneur, licensed real estate broker and appraiser; Erika Farrell Taylor, an ANCC-certified geriatric nurse practitioner and clinical advisor; and Mark Whitney, most recently the vice president for strategy, community relations and advancement for Exeter Health Resources.
LNA Health Careers (LNAHC) has partnered with Golden View Health Care Center, a nursing and assisted living facility in Meredith, to provide on-site licensed nursing assistant (LNA) training using the LNAHC curriculum. Spearheaded by nursing home administrator Rosemary Simino and April Vertone, the program will offer free LNA training to its employees to foster professional growth and excellence within the skilled nursing industry.
BUSINESS SERVICES
The Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce named Chris Brown, president of New Hampshire Distributors, LLC, and founder of the 1883 Black Ice Hockey Association, as its 2024 Outstanding Citizen of the Year.
His dedication to his community shows in Brown’s legacy for continuing his family business, as well as his continued leadership of the hockey association that helps serve local students and area hockey enthusiasts, and draw visitors to the Concord region.
Merchants Fleet has appointed Jeff Nieman as the company’s new senior VP and chief operations officer (COO). He was most recently the senior vice president of product operations and field technology at Hertz, and also served as Hertz’s division vice president and head of operations for Canada and the U.S. Central Region, where he managed operations across 16 states, leading a team of 2,000 employees.
LAW
Attorney Holly Salois has joined the law firm of McLane Middleton in the Manchester office. She is an associate in the firm’s Tax and Corporate Departments, where she assists clients with tax disputes and transactional matters. Previously, Salois worked as a law clerk for Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald at the New Hampshire Supreme Court.
Hilary Holmes Rheaume, shareholder in Bernstein Shur’s Manchester office, has been named as the new director of pro bono and community service. Rheaume has represented victims of domestic and sexual violence in the federal and state courts, and served on nonprofit boards such as the NH Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence and New Hampshire Legal Assistance.
ENVIRONMENT
The Cheshire County Conservation District (CCCD) has named Laura White as its 2024 Educator of the Year for her efforts to steward a conservation ethic and awareness through her personal and professional work. A fifth-grade educator with the Chesterfield School, White has integrated outdoor education in every classroom she’s taught in, building school gardens, integrating environmental topics into her curriculum and seeking grants to build outdoor classroom spaces to facilitate hands-on learning for students.
REAL ESTATE
Century 21 Circa 72 is once again under the leadership of Steve DeStefano, who has repurchased the agency to restore its mission to fostering personal relationships and supporting the New Hampshire community. This decision follows a period of external ownership by North East, and DeStefano will now refocus the brand on its community principles.
Karen Walsh with Badger Peabody & Smith Realty has been awarded the Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR) designation by the Real Estate Buyer’s Agent Council of the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Walsh joins more than 27,000 real estate professionals in North America who have earned the ABR designation, who were required to complete a course in buyer representation in addition to submitting documentation verifying professional experience.
Torrington Properties — a commercial real estate development, investment and property management company with an office in Portsmouth —has hired Jordan Recine as the company’s new general manager for its commercial real estate portfolio. Recine was previously an assistant vice president and general manager for Hobbs Brook Real Estate, and also an assistant property manager at Barkan Management Company.
HOSPITALITY
Joe Faro, owner of Tuscan Brands and developer of Salem’s Tuscan Village, was one of three recipients to receive a Greater Lowell Good Scout Award, which recognizes individuals who have made a significant contribution to his/her community and has given of themselves to the benefit of others. Other recipients were Massachusetts-based business leaders, former Middlesex County District Attorney Gerard “Gerry” Leone Jr. and David T. Daly, the founder of Pridestar Trinity EMS.
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
Nathan Fink, Senior Director of Advancement New Hampshire Children’s Trust
Education: University of New Hampshire (MFA), University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (BA)
Career history: A parent of two, Nathan hosts and produces “New Hampshire Family NOW,” a podcast on parenting in NH for NH Children’s Trust. He was a former visiting assistant professor at DePaul University, and a former grant writer for the Mental Health Center of Greater Manchester.
Business lesson: Success is a function of curiosity, a commitment to learning, and deeply valuing those around you.
Biggest challenge: We can get lost in the workflows and outputs. Placing family at the center of decision-making can ground your perspective.
Most excited about: Investing in families means thinking upstream about opportunities to create strength and resilience before challenges occur.
What keeps you up at night? Our impulse to wait until challenges arise comes at the expense of our children, caregivers and communities. Challenge represents a small fraction of what lay beneath the surface, and by the time we see it, we’re already late.
Fun fact: Humor is how I process 99% of what happens to me in life. Except when I was attacked by a bull shark. That remaining 1% I reserved for panic.
Favorite story: “The Night in Question” by Tobias Wolff.
Industry advice: Everyone you meet is part of positive and lasting impact. Be as present as possible in your conversations. Valuing others is the only superpower you’ll ever need.
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