NEW FACES

• Brad Francis was hired as a consultant for Opus Consulting Group, a financial management consulting firm in Portland. He previously worked for a Fortune 500 company in Boston and most recently served as the lead mentor of an embedded training team in Afghanistan.

• Gail Atkins joined Dirigo Management Co. as a property manager. Atkins has an extensive background in real estate development and project management as well as paralegal, administrative and brokerage experience.

• Benjamin Piper was hired as an associate at Preti Flaherty. Piper will practice litigation from the firm’s Portland office. He previously served as a law clerk to Judge John A. Woodcock at U.S. District Court for the District of Maine.

• Jeffrey Joyce has joined the intellectual property and business law practice at Perkins Olson, P.A. Joyce graduated from the University of Maine School of Law. There, he was an editor on the Ocean and Coastal Law Journal and completed clerkships with the school’s Intellectual Property Clinic, the Maine Attorney General’s Office and York County District Attorney’s Office.

• Don Kniseley was named executive director of Thornton Oaks Retirement Community. Kniseley has served as executive director of Tedford Housing since 2002. He has more than 15 years of experience in home health care and assisted living.

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• Katrina Venhuizen of Portland and Meghan Rounds of Portland joined Portland Water District as environmental educators. Venhuizen has a degree in conservation biology and environmental studies with more than six years of experience coaching children. Rounds worked in a small K-8 school in Dummerston, Vt.

• Vishal Verma of North Yarmouth was hired at Burns &McDonnell as a project controls manager. Verma will serve in a leadership role on the Maine Power Reliability Program. Verma has more than 10 years of experience, most recently working for Allied Companies in Washington, D.C, as a project controls engineer.

• Lisa Grant joined Tilson Technology Management as a project coordinator for its wireless and telecommunications group.

• W. Edward Crockett joined Oakhurst Dairy as its retail sales director. Crockett has more than 20 years of consumer product sales and management experience in the food and beverage industry. He was previously a category manager at Hannaford in Scarborough.

• Belinda Thomas joined The Brand Co. as a creative director. Thomas has operated her own design company, Intelligent Design, for the past five years.

PROMOTIONS

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• Matthew Arnold was promoted at U.S. Cellular to service manager for New England. Arnold has been with U.S. Cellular for more than seven years. He was previously an operations analyst for the New England market and wireless consultant at the company’s Bangor retail store.

• Carlene Kurowski and Tim Adams were promoted to executives at Olympia Sports.

Kurowski was named merchandise manager. She joined Olympia Sports in 1992.

Adams was named general merchandise manager. He joined the company in 1995.

• Christy Hillman, director of Client Services at Career Management Associates, will lead the company’s new practice area, Contract Staffing Solution. Hillman is one of only 400 dually Certified Placement Consultants and Certified Temporary Specialists in the United States.

AWARDS

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• Maine Medical Center has been awarded accreditation by the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs. The award recognizes MMC’s commitment to ensure the protections for research participants and promote research of the highest quality.

• Portland physicians Drs. B. Cairbre and Eithne McCann received the national Palestra Award for leadership in disability sport. Since the early 1960s, the McCanns have organized sports events on a regional, national and international level. They are also strong advocates for disabled athletes in the United States and abroad, and provided support for the U.S. Olympic teams and numerous other emerging national athletic teams in the Americas, Asia and the Middle East.

• Vision Rehabilitation Services at the Iris Network in Portland recently received a team award from the Northeast Association for the Education and Rehabilitation for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Vision Rehabilitation Services provides individualized services to people who are visually impaired or blind.

• Leighton Philbrick, a dentist from North Yarmouth, was recognized by The Academy of General Dentistry with its 2011 Mastership award. Dr. Philbrick completed 1,100 hours of continuing dental education. He currently practices dentistry in Portland.

• Edward J. Bilsky, a professor at the University of New England, was named Research Mentor of the Year by the American Osteopathic Foundation. Bilsky received $5,000 along with the recognition. He is a tenured professor of pharmacology in the College of Osteopathic Medicine and the Associate Provost for Research and Scholarship at UNE.

• Michael Dubyak, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Wright Express in South Portland, received the Robert R. Masterton Award for Leadership in Economic Development from the Portland Regional Chamber.

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“Mr. Dubyak has spent almost 20 years building the company and driving the strategic plans, infrastructure and operating philosophies that guide the company’s success and contribute to the region’s economic growth,” Godfrey Wood, president of the Portland Regional Chamber, said in a news release.

• Lewiston City Clerk Kathleen Montejo was recently presented the Ethelyn Stuart Marthia Memorial Award by the Maine Town and City Clerks’ Association. Montejo has served as city clerk and registrar of voters for the city of Lewiston since 1999.

• Kathryn Hopkins, University of Maine Extension educator in the Somerset Extension office in Skowhegan, was recognized with the distinguished service award from the National Association of County Agriculture Agents. Hopkins’ work involves maple producers of Maine. In 2003, she established the International Maple Grading School, where more than 150 producers have been certified.

• Carol & Bob Leone, founders of Teens To Trails, received The L.L.Bean Outdoor Heroes Award along with $5,000. L.L. Bean’s program was developed to recognize people who have dedicated their time to help conserve, educate and honor the outdoors.

• Sixty-six lawyers from Pierce Atwood LLP were recently selected by their peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2012.

According to this nationwide ranking, Pierce Atwood ranks first among Maine law firms for total number of listed lawyers in the state.

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The firm is also ranked No. 1 in several practice areas, including commercial litigation, energy law, environmental law, banking and finance law, and labor and employment law. 

• The Maine Volunteer Lawyers Project presented Barbara Cardone of Bangor and Martha Novy-Broderick of Lincoln with the 2011 Louis Vafiades Award. Cardone and Novy-Broderick were recognized for their volunteer efforts with the Penobscot Bar Association Clinic.

• The Home Care & Hospice Alliance of Maine held its annual membership meeting last month and honored the following members with special recognition awards:

Paula Mahony of Words@ Work in Portland received the media award.

Carol Tardif of Home Care for Maine in Farmingdale and Bill Anderson of VNA Home Health & Hospice of South Portland received Caregiver of the Year awards.

The distinguished-service award was presented to Shellie Nichols of HealthReach HomeCare & Hospice in Waterville.

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Elaine Brady, retiring executive director of Southern Maine Medical Center Visiting Nurses of Kennebunk, received the Ruby Slipper Award for her contributions to home care and hospice over the past 30 years.

BOARD APPOINTMENTS

• Michael Brigham of Kennebunk, president and chief executive officer of ImmuCell Corp., joined the board of directors for United Way of York County. Brigham has served as the company’s president and chief executive officer since 2000. He joined the company as director of finance and administration in 1989. 

• Esther M. Pappas of Yarmouth, chief financial officer of Pende Associates Inc., was named vice chairman of the board of trustees for Bath Savings Institution. Pappas was the first woman elected to the board of Bath Savings Institution in 1998. She was elected to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Ronald A. Pendleton.

• Sharon A. Millett, president of Coldwell Banker Millett Realty in Auburn, was recently appointed to the Realtor University Board of Regents.

• Doreen Bell, director of business systems at Tilson Technology Management, was appointed to chair the communications committee of the Maine Chapter of the Construction Financial Management Association.

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GENERAL

• JSI Store Fixtures in Milo announced its recent acquisition of KMP Fixtures of Atlanta, Ga., and Chicago, Ill.

The acquisition will enable JSI to continue as an industry leader in quality and service and provide many new benefits to their customers, including expanded product assortments such as innovative pastry cases, refrigerated orchard bins and wine departments.

Dan Cassier, former president of KMP, will serve on JSI’s management team as the new director of design.


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