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Engineering, architecture and environmental consulting company GHD has hired Thom Neff as a project manager in its Middletown office. Neff brings more than 30 years’ experience in heavy civil projects, both in the U.S. and overseas, including risk assessment work on Seattle’s Alaska Way viaduct project and tunnel projects in Providence, Boston and New York City. A significant portion of his career has been spent in tunnelling, water and wastewater, and environmental works. He has worked in the public and private sectors, and held a number of academic positions related to civil and environmental design and construction. He developed the ‘STEPS Approach’ to project and program management, an integrated project risk management and control system.
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Christopher Barnes, who has spent the past two years as a senior legislative advisor for the Democratic Caucus in Washington, D.C., has joined The Pert Group as senior vice president of client development. Barnes was one of the founding members and owners of Pulsar Research & Consulting, a company The Pert Group acquired in 2009. Barnes worked with Democratic leaders on the economic recovery package, healthcare reform and Wall Street reform. Barnes has led groundbreaking projects on a wide array of policy topics; his work has covered everything from consumer confidence and housing to energy and government budgets. He has also worked with a number of top companies to help them foster growth and solve critical business issues. Barnes received his master’s degree from the University of Connecticut. Before serving as managing partner of Pulsar, he helped launch the Department of Public Policy research unit at the University of Connecticut and taught in the university’s masters in survey research program. The Pert Group is a research-based consulting firm headquartered in Bloomfield with offices in Kansas City and Pittsburgh.
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Wright-Pierce, the infrastructure engineering firm with offices in Middletown, has named Laurie Perkins as senior project manager in the wastewater practice group. She has more than 15 years of experience in the engineering, planning, design and construction oversight of wastewater and storm water collection systems. Perkins has worked as a municipal collections system engineering specialist for the City of Indianapolis and for national engineering companies in Baltimore and Fort Wayne. Founded in 1947, Wright-Pierce is employee-owned and has a staff of approximately 175 engineers and support professionals located in eight offices throughout New England including Middletown.
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Veronica Marrero has been promoted to vice president of enrollment management for the Post University’s accelerated degree program. Hired in 2005, Marrero has played a key role in the University’s ability to meet the growing demand for online higher education. She joined the Waterbury university in 2005 as its first admissions counselor in the newly reorganized online accelerated degree program division. She was promoted to director of ADP enrollment management in 2007. During that 5.5-year period, the university’s online accelerated degree program has grown to more than 5,000 students. The university also has 800 on-campus students. In her new role, Marrero will have responsibility for ADP admissions and enrollment management center support, as well as regional site enrollment and the university’s Partners in Education Program. Marrero, who is a young cancer survivor, is an advocate for other cancer warriors and works with the American Cancer Society and the Cancer Schmancer Movement.
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Paula Fischer has joined Shuttle Meadow Country Club in Kensington as director of membership. She has an extensive background in private club membership, having served nine years as director of marketing for the PGA Tour’s Tournament Players Club at River Highlands in Cromwell. Shuttle Meadow, founded in 1917 and designed by two-time British open champion Willie Park, Jr., was chosen to host The New England Women’s Golf Association Championship this July.
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WTNH News 8 has added meteorologist Erica Grow to its weekend evening newscasts. Grow comes to News 8 from WPVI, Philadelphia’s ABC station. She has also worked at television stations in Harrisburg, Pa., and Midland, Texas.
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Stewart National Title Services has named Michael Desmond as vice president, national business development. Desmond will be based in Boston and be responsible for expanding Stewart’s national commercial business and increasing the company’s market share in the Northeast region. Desmond has 35 years of experience in commercial real estate, including serving as vice president of sales for the national commercial services division of a major national title insurance underwriter. Stewart National Title Services, a division of Stewart Title Guaranty Co., provides a single point of contact for U.S. and multi-national customers that require special expertise in closing and underwriting for commercial transactions.
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Jarod M. Carey has been named a small business relationship manager and assistant vice president of TD Bank in Southington. He will oversee small business lending and business development at 10 TD Bank stores in Southington, New Britain, Wolcott, Bristol and Plainville in central Connecticut. He has 10 years of experience in financial services. He has been a financial specialist at Wachovia Bank in Wolcott and as a personal banker at JP Morgan Chase in Fairfield.
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John Sweeney has been named administrator for Masonicare at Newtown, Masonicare’s long-term care, in- and out-patient rehabilitation and assisted living campus on Toddy Hill Road in Newtown. Sweeney will be responsible for managing the daily operations of the 154-bed skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility. He succeeds Thomas Gutner, who has assumed a similar role at Masonicare Health Center in Wallingford. Sweeney served as administrator at Apple Healthcare/Apple Rehab in Watertown for 13 years.
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