A roundup of new hires, promotions and achievements from businesses, professional services firms, health care providers and nonprofits around Maine.
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New hires
Maine Realty Advisors hired Ben Spencer as senior vice president. Spencer will work out of the agency’s Central Maine office in Hallowell.
Sargent Electric in Lewiston hired Chad Cote as a project manager.
Pierce Atwood LLP, a law firm in Portland, hired Christopher Mordas as COO. Mordas was CEO of Bernkopf Goodman LLP, a law firm in Boston.
Dentons Bingham Greenebaum, a law firm in Portland, hired Chad Higgins as a partner. Higgins joined the firm’s commercial litigation practice, representing clients in state and federal courts across the U.S. in products liability and mass tort matters, with a focus on environmental litigation.
Bar Harbor Bank & Trust hired Hazel Young as assistant vice president, branch relationship manager in Rockland. Young was previously assistant vice president, assistant branch manager at Bangor Savings Bank.
Sargent Corp., a full-service contractor in Orono, hired Claire Ryder as human resources manager and Jessica Ashe as benefits administrator.
Maine State Credit Union in Augusta hired Elizabeth Jean as senior vice president of mortgage lending. Jean previously operated Gold Star Mortgage in Augusta.
The Maine Community College System in Augusta hired Kristen Miller as president of Southern Maine Community College in South Portland. Miller was most recently the vice president of academic affairs at White Mountains Community College in Berlin, N.H.
Damariscotta Region Chamber of Commerce hired Annie Pathik as interim executive director.
Waterville Creates hired Jackie Ferlito as communications coordinator and Chris Melville as director of marketing and communications. In addition, the organization hired Allison Turlo as theatre technician and Juniper Purinton as technical director at the Waterville Opera House and Raynor Ahlstrin-Muniec as operations coordinator at the Maine Film Center.
Rudman Winchell, a law firm in Bangor, hired Robert Vanderpool as a senior associate attorney in the firm’s corporate practice group. Vanderpool specializes in tax law.
Promotions
Loring Development Authority in Limestone promoted Jon Judkins to interim president and CEO. Judkins is the organization’s director of finance and accounting.
Sebago Technics, an employee-owned creative engineering collective in South Portland, announced several promotions within the company’s survey-geomatics team. Nick Elliston was promoted to director, survey-geomatics services; Jediah Scott to professional land surveyor and project surveyor; Michael Celeste to virtual design and construction field services lead; and Brian Cook and Oscar Keydel to survey-geomatics field team leads.
Katahdin Trust Co. in Houlton promoted Searra Herbert and Michaela King to community banking officers and cash management specialists.
Pierce Atwood LLP, a law firm in Portland, promoted Elizabeth Frazier and Sara Murphy to partners. Frazier focuses her practice on government relations, lobbying, business advocacy and environmental and land use policy while Murphy focuses her practice on complex commercial litigation and class action defense for clients in a wide range of industries, including financial services, health care, energy, insurance and professional services.
Drummond Woodsum, a law firm in Portland, promoted Portland-based attorneys Amanda Lynch, Erick Giles, Chris Hatch and Stacey Caulk to shareholders. Lynch focuses her practice primarily on civil litigation; Giles on a wide array of complex legal issues facing tribes; Hatch on commercial real estate, land use and project development matters; and Caulk on a wide range of complex environmental, conservation and land use matters.
Preti Flaherty, a law firm in Portland, named Bodie Colwell as partner. Colwell is a member of the firm’s creditor’s rights and bankruptcy team and an active member of both the American Bankruptcy Institute and the International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation.
Charter Oak Capital Management, a wealth management firm and fiduciary in Kennebunk, promoted Emma Bean to partner and senior financial advisor.
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Maine promoted Kathryn Caiazzo to regional vice president of sales. Caiazzo most recently led the organization’s national account sales operations and strategy teams.
Appointments
The Maine Association of Realtors in Augusta elected Paul McKee as president for 2024. McKee is a lead buyer specialist of the Hatcher Group with Keller Williams Realty in Portland.
Achievements
The Barron Center, a skilled nursing and rehabilitation services facility in Portland, said it was one of 10 nursing homes in Maine to receive an overall rating of five out of five and a long-term care rating of “High Performing” from U.S. News & World Report in its “2023-24 Best Nursing Homes Ratings.”
WoodworthMaker LLC, a dispute resolution firm in Portland said that Scott Maker was inducted into the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals, an invitation-only association of the country’s top mediators and arbitrators. Maker is a principal at the firm.
Unum Group, a provider of employee benefits in Portland, was ranked as a “Best Places to Work in IT” by Computerworld. The firm also announced that Dora Clements, senior vice president of enterprise transformation, was named “Digital Transformation Leader of the Year” by Information Age and DiversityQ.
Geiger, a promotional products distributor in Lewiston, announced that its U.S. operation received a “Gold Rating” from EcoVadis, placing it among the top 5% of companies assessed globally.