Newsworthy people and performances

New hires

Clyde Bergemann Auburn, the air-gas handling division of Clyde Bergemann Power Group Americas, recently hired Don Bernier, Craig Gaudet and Colin Howe. Bernier, most recently the executive vice president of Navus Automation in South Portland, was hired as a project manager.

Gaudet, who has 10 years of experience in manufacturing engineering and project management, and Howe, previously with Westinghouse Electric Co. in Newington, N.H., were hired as design engineers.

Northeast Bank in Lewiston recently hired Glenn Hood as mortgage sales manager. Hood, who will lead the bank's mortgage efforts in the greater Camden area, joins the bank from Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.

Alexander & Schmidt, a loss control services provider in Yarmouth, recently hired Scott Patterson as technical services manager. Patterson previously held managerial and leadership roles in home office, regional and field operations at Liberty Mutual Insurance Co.

Dream Local Digital, an interactive media, marketing, SEO and social media marketing agency in Rockland, recently hired Jennifer Shone as a business development strategist. Shone joins the firm with experience in print, television and digital media.

Project>Login, a collaboration with the University of Maine System to double the number of computer science, computer engineer and information technology graduates in four years, recently hired Jay Collier as program director. Collier provides more than 25 years of experience leading programs in K-12, higher education and public media organizations.

CEI Capital Management LLC, an investor of New Market Tax Credits in Portland, recently hired Jackie Estes as loan servicing and cash manager. Estes most recently worked at The First N.A.

Grant's Bakery in Lewiston recently hired Kari Grant-Gagnon to lead the bakery's sales and marketing efforts. Grant-Gagnon was previously in the marketing department at Martin's Point Health Care.

Robotics Institute of Maine, housed and administered at the Manufacturers Association of Maine in Westbrook, recently hired Jamee Luce as director. Luce previously taught math and computer science at Messalonskee High School in Oakland.

Pine Tree Society, a Scarborough nonprofit that provides statewide service programs to people with disabilities, recently hired Noel Sullivan as executive director. Sullivan has 25 years of experience in clinical and administrative leadership roles.

Presumpscot Regional Land Trust recently hired Stefan Jackson as executive director. Jackson, most recently the Saco River project director with The Nature Conservancy of Maine, has nearly 20 years of experience in the field of conservation.

Maine Veterans' Home in Scarborough recently hired Ryan Francis as activities supervisor. Francis, a certified therapeutic recreation specialist, was previously at Sedgewood Commons in Falmouth.

Fluid Imaging Technologies Inc., a particle analysis instrumentation company in Yarmouth, recently hired Abel Plaud, Kevin Grogan, Shane Kirk and Mike Leathem. Plaud, previously with the National Park Service in Acadia, was hired as laboratory and technical customer support technician; Grogan, previously with Westinghouse Electric in Newington, N.H., was hired as production manager; Kirk, previously with Delorme in Yarmouth, was hired as senior software engineer; and Leathem, previously with Ceramco Inc. in Conway, N.H., was hired as senior product engineer.

Harriman, an architecture and engineering firm based in Auburn, recently hired Sharon Ames, Michael Morrissette, Benjamin Ouellette, Kelley Perreault and Cathy Streifel. Ames was hired as a senior architect; Morrissette was hired as a designer in the firm's mechanical engineering studio; Ouellette was hired as a designer in the firm's electrical engineering studio; Perreault was hired as an accountant; and Streifel was hired as a lead project administrative assistant.

Promotions

Saco & Biddeford Savings Institution recently promoted Michael Jean and Stephanie Paquet to assistant vice president and Amy Dugal-Smith, Matt Grenier, William Hoyle and Lisa Upton to officer. Jean was a commercial lending officer; Paquet was a deposit support manager; Dugal-Smith was a network support specialist; Grenier and Hoyle were customer relationship officers; and Upton was a business operations specialist.

Murray, Plumb & Murray, a law firm in Portland, recently made Kelly McDonald a partner. McDonald litigates cases in both state and federal court, including commercial, real estate, construction disputes, land use, bankruptcy (creditor's rights) and products liability litigation.

David Hamilton was recently elected a vice president of Clark Insurance by the agency's board of directors. Hamilton is a stockholder in the agency and leads the employee benefits group.

Hollywood Casino Hotel & Raceway in Bangor recently promoted John Gibboni to director of finance. Gibboni previously was in a strategic marketing position at Penn National Gaming's corporate headquarters in Wyomissing, Pa.

Camden National Bank recently named Lisa Gallant retail banking officer and market manager of Orono and Old Town. Gallant has been with Camden National Bank since 2011, previously serving as branch manager in Bucksport.

Casco Bay EyeCare LLC in Portland recently named Timothy Kearins a partner. Kearins, the vice president of the Maine Optometric Association and a member of the American Optometric Association, specializes in pediatric and binocular vision.

Bath Savings Institution recently promoted Barbara Tuttle to assistant vice president and manager at the Yarmouth branch. Tuttle, who has 15 years in banking, was most recently an assistant branch manager in Freeport.

Appointments

Pen Bay Healthcare in Rockland announced that Virginia Vaitones recently became president of the Association of Community Cancer Centers. Vaitones is a certified oncology social worker in the Cancer Care Center at the Pen Bay Medical Center in Rockport.

PORTopera in Portland recently added Elizabeth Astor, April Ylvisaker and George Hissong to its board. Astor, a retired elementary school teacher, is the managing partner at Baxter Place LLC in Portland; Ylvisaker is a senior financial adviser with the Honan Group at Merrill Lynch in Portland; and Hissong is part of the Hissong Group of Southern Maine and Seacoast New Hampshire, which works in construction products and material transport, real estate sales and property management, financial services and consulting, and hospitality and convenience.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality recently appointed Nananda Col, research professor of medicine in the College of Osteopathic Medicine and the Center for Excellence in the Neurosciences at the University of New England, to its technical expert panel for a new project titled, Educating the Educators – Dissemination of Patient-Centered Outcomes Research to Health Educators.

The Policy Committee of the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System recently elected David Marshall and David Tripp to its board. Marshall, a Portland city councilor, was elected chairperson while Tripp, a Saco city councilor, was elected vice chairperson.

The Homeless Animal Rescue Team, a volunteer cat shelter and adoption center in Cumberland, recently appointed Gretchen Sigler and Andrea Morin as board members.

Machias Savings Bank recently announced the election of Brent Hartley as director of the Machias Bancorp MHC and its subsidiaries. Hartley is the vice president and CFO of Sargent Corp., an earthworks company in Stillwater which specializes in commercial, industrial and institutional site preparations.

John Nelson, vice president and CFO at Wright-Pierce in Topsham, was recently appointed by the American Council of Engineering Companies to serve as the 2013-2014 chairman of the Tax and Regulatory Affairs Committee. The role of the committee is to undertake legislative and regulatory advocacy work in the areas of tax, finance, employment policy and other regulatory areas on behalf of member firms.

DennyMike Sherman was recently elected to the board of the directors of the National BBQ Association. Sherman, the founder of DennyMike's Sauces & Seasonings in Westbrook, will serve as vice president of the New England region for the next three years.

Day One, an agency preventing and treating adolescent substance abuse in South Portland, recently added Jill Frame, Marc McDonald and Robert Small to its board of directors. Frame is a school counselor at Yarmouth High School; McDonald is a business intelligence team leader in informatics at Martin's Point Health Care; and Small is vice president, commercial lending at TD Bank.

Accolades

Sean Norton, an attorney at Pine Tree Legal Assistance in Augusta, was recently named by the American Bar Association Section of Taxation as a 2013 John S. Nolan Fellow. The distinction is awarded to young lawyers who are actively involved in the tax sector and have shown leadership qualities.

Saint Joseph's College in Standish was recently named to the 2013 President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll after it reported that 800 students engaged in service both in and out of the classroom over the course of the year, 390 of which engaged in at least 20 hours of service learning per semester, with a total of 12,856 service hours provided. This honor is the highest a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement.

Bayside Anchor, a proposed multi-family housing development in Portland's Bayside neighborhood, was recently selected as one of four finalists in a national competition aimed at finding innovative ways to lower the cost of housing. The development is a collaboration among several construction and housing firms, including Portland Housing Authority, Avesta Housing, Wright-Ryan Construction, Kaplan Thompson Architects, John Anton Consulting and the Maine Affordable Housing Coalition. Deutsche Bank and Enterprise will award up to $250,000 in program related investment to one of the four finalists.

The University of New England's Harold Alfond Forum was recently been named a Top Notable Project for 2012 by the Maine Real Estate & Development Association. The selection was based on the forum's economic impact, environmental sustainability, energy efficiency, social impact and job creation.

Ducktrap River of Maine in Belfast recently earned Safe Quality Food Level 3 Certification, the highest standard available to seafood processing companies. The certification, which shows compliance with food safety standards and includes a verified program for ensuring consistent product quality, is recognized globally by retailers and foodservice providers industry-wide that require a credible food safety management system.

Summer Feet Cycling, a bike tour company in Portland, was recently named one of Outside Magazine's 50 Great Family Adventures for its Discover Acadia Family Bike Tour. The tour is designed for families with children between the ages of 6 and 16 and features cycling, hiking, sailing and kayaking.

The Passive House Institute U.S. recently endorsed the InView Passive House building monitoring technology from PowerWise, an energy and system monitoring company in Blue Hill. Buildings using the service use 80% less energy than traditional construction.

The Maine Environmental Education Association recently announced the winners of its annual environmental education awards. This year's winners included: L.L.Bean, Freeport, business of year; The Juniper Hill School for Place-Based Education, Alna, school of the year; The Vital Signs Program of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Portland, environmental education program award; Coleen O'Connell, director and founder of the Master of Science Program in Ecological Teaching and Learning at Lesley University, 2013 Eberhard Thiele educator of the year; and Jim Chandler, director Auburn Land Lab and consulting science teacher for the Auburn School Department, lifetime achievement award.

Marc Gup, an associate broker with Keller Williams Realty in Portland, was recently named the No. 1 producing individual agent in the company. Gup was recognized as a platinum circle level producer with $12 million in sales in 2012.

Ducks Unlimited in Dixfield was recently recognized as a President's Elite among the nonprofit's volunteer chapters throughout the nation. The list is reserved for the chapters that raise $100,000 or more for habitat conservation work.

The American College of Bankruptcy recently inducted Jay Geller of the Law Office of Jay S. Geller in Portland as a fellow of the college. Geller was one of 39 nominees who were honored and recognized for their professional contributions to the fields of bankruptcy and insolvency.

Karen Talbot, an award-winning conservation artist and scientific illustrator in Rockford, was recently honored as the artist of the year at the 33rd Annual State of Maine Sportsman's Show held at the Augusta Civic Center.