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Gary B. O’Connor has joined the law firm of Pullman & Comley LLC as a partner based in Hartford and Waterbury. His practice focuses on environmental, real estate and development matters. O’Connor serves as co-chair of Connecticut’s Brownfields Working Group and recently served as co-chair of the Environment Committee of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s transition team. He has worked closely with regulators from DEP, EPA, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and local agencies on behalf of his private and public sector clients. He also has successfully negotiated major federal and state grant and loan agreements in connection with large-scale public and private remediation and redevelopment projects. Also, Jean Perry Phillips joins the firm as an associate based in the Hartford office. Her practice focuses on the environmental field where she counsels clients on all aspects of environmental laws and regulations and their impact on real property interests and commercial and industrial businesses and on real estate and commercial transactions. Jean has extensive experience with the identification, negotiation, allocation and documentation of risk in complex commercial and real estate transactions, including brownfields and post brownfields properties. The firm has offices in Bridgeport, Hartford, Stamford, Waterbury and White Plains.
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Anna M. Wasescha, special assistant to the president of the Minnesota State Community and Technical College System, will take over as president of Middlesex Community College in Middletown on July 1. She has experience as provost at that system’s Fergus Falls campus where she was responsible for all academic programs, student life, campus buildings and grounds, community engagement and new program development. And she was associate dean of the College of Education Doctoral Programs of Walden University, directing Walden’s on-line Ed.D. and Ph.D. programs. She holds a B.A. in English Literature, an M.A. in higher education, and a Ph.D. in educational policy and administration from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. She succeeds Wilfredo Nieves who is president of Capital Community College in Hartford.
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Paul Mathews has been named director of marketing and sales at The Birch Group LLC in New Britain. Mathews was president and COO of Hire Aspirations. He was a regular guest of the Mary Jones Talk of Connecticut radio program and has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Readers Digest and numerous trade journals. The Birch Group provides organizational development, team building, leadership training, key employee selection, strategic planning, outplacement and career coaching.
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John Leigh has been named director of operations and compliance and a principal at Northstar Wealth Partners LLC in West Hartford. He had been the director of operations at John Hancock Financial Network in Miami. Before that he was affiliated with The David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University, his alma mater. He also held an executive management role at Reuters early in his career. He is a native of Peru and has taught at Universidad Catolica del Peru there as well as at the Thunderbird School of Global Management.
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DYMAX Corp. has named Mark Pizzuto as the market segment manager for medical. He brings more than 15 years of experience in sales and marketing, including more than 10 years with GE Silicones. He has also received recognition for Small Business of the Year and is Six Sigma certified. In addition to their headquarters in Torrington, DYMAX has locations in Germany, China, Hong Kong, and Korea which serve the assembly needs of the medical, electronic, optical, automotive, appliance, metal finishing, power generation, and industrial markets worldwide.
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Peter Pan Bus Lines has named Jason Randall as its new director of human resources. He will supervise the human resources and benefits administration departments, handling the needs of over 800 employees at its various bases of operation in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Greater New York/New Jersey and Washington, DC locations. Peter Pan is based in Springfield, Mass., with an operations facility in Rocky Hill.
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Jeff Gutsfeld has been appointed vice president of business development at Solidus Inc. in Rocky Hill. He has more than 15 years of experience in the design and construction industry, working for architectural, engineering and construction firms. Solidus provides a collaborative design/build/furnish approach to construction.
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Leonard “Lenny” Genovese of Oxford has joined the Waterbury Regional Chamber as outside membership sales representative. He is the former owner and president of Shred-All LLC in Waterbury. He also has been a real estate sales executive with Bannon Hebert Real Estate Agency in Middlebury, and is a member of St. Mary’s Hospital Foundation Board in Waterbury.
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Tom Foran has been named vice president of group life and disability for Symetra Life Insurance Co. Foran has been director of product and business development in WellPoint’s life and disability division since 2006. Prior to WellPoint, Foran was vice president of underwriting at Integrated Disability Resources Inc., and regional director of large group underwriting and policy administration services at Hartford Life Insurance Co. He will be based in Symetra’s South Windsor office. The company, a subsidiary of Symetra Financial Corp. in Bellevue, Wash., specializes in medical stop-loss coverage,
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Jeff Lendroth has joined Pat Munger Construction Co. Inc. in Branford as a sustainability consultant. During a 31-year at IBM, Lendroth was responsible for leading technical, consulting and sales management teams. As business development manager for the IBM Global Services Infrastructure Division, he managed a portfolio of clients and projects from Maine to Florida. His team built the State of Connecticut’s massive data center along the Connecticut River in East Hartford. He was also a field engineer for large water cooled computer systems. He is a member of the Solar Electric Industries Association and the National American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners.
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