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Nora L. Duncan has been named executive director of The Arc Connecticut, a Hartford-based advocacy organization supporting people with intellectual disabilities and related developmental disabilities. The state organization, through its 23 local chapters provides supports and services to approximately 2,700 individuals and their family members around the state. From 1998 — 2007, she worked for the Connecticut Association of Nonprofits as public policy director and as project director of the CT Nonprofit Human Services Cabinet, a 20-member coalition of nonprofit associations representing nearly 1,000 individual nonprofit organizations around the state. For two and a half years she served as policy and legislative affairs liaison in the office of Governor M. Jodi Rell. She was recognized in 2009 as one of the Hartford Business Journal’s “40 Under Forty” and in 2005 received the National Council of Nonprofit Associations’ award for nonprofit advocacy leadership.
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Kim Royster has joined The Pert Group in Farmington as director of client strategy, focusing on the restaurant, hospitality and foodservice industries. She brings a global perspective, having worked throughout the U.S. and in Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. She had been in The Pulse Group, a market research and strategic planning firm. She has also worked in the real estate and hospitality consulting practices of Coopers & Lybrand, Arthur Andersen & Co. and Laventhol & Horwath.
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Accounting and consulting firms J.H. Cohn LLP has promoted several professionals to senior manager status in its Glastonbury practice. Stacy R. Farber has been named audit senior manager. She serves as a board member and treasurer for Gifts of Love, the chairperson for the CSCPA Employee Benefit Plan Special Interest Group and serves on the Connecticut Society of Certified Public Accountants Advisory Council. Brenden M. Healy has been named tax senior manager. He has served as an adjunct faculty member for various Connecticut schools and colleges. Healy is a member of the Governing Advisory Council of the Connecticut Society of Certified Public Accountants. James T. LaCroix Jr. has been named audit senior manager. He is a trustee and chair of the audit committee for the Easter Seals Capital Region and Eastern Connecticut, board member and chair of the finance committee of VNA Healthcare, Inc., and a member of the business and finance committee of the Connecticut Association for Home Care and Hospice, Inc.
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Edible Arrangements has announced a series of management promotions. Kristy Ferguson has been named chief strategy officer; Steve Thomas has been promoted to chief marketing officer; Matt Bailey has been appointed vice president of operations and Kaitlin Power has been promoted to vice president of e-commerce. Ferguson has held the positions of vice president of marketing, director of marketing and most recently executive vice president, responsible for building the franchise system globally. Thomas joined Edible Arrangements in 2007 as vice president of strategic alliances and moved into the role of vice president of marketing. Bailey has been managing the in-house training program and delivering on-site support to new store locations throughout the United States and Canada. Power joined the company in 2005 as a marketing coordinator and has since assumed the roles of director of web communications and senior director of EAConnect.
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Kevin Belmonte has joined Simsbury Bank as mortgage loan officer serving Avon, Canton, Bristol, Burlington, Farmington, Plainville, Torrington and surrounding communities to obtain the financing they need. Prior to joining Simsbury Bank, he was with Ward Kilduff Mortgage and Gateway Home Loans.
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David Grudberg has joined the Waterbury law firm of Carmody & Torrance LLP as a partner. He has built a reputation in Connecticut and New York for his work in white collar crime and will co-chair the firm’s White Collar Crime and Government Investigations practice. Grudberg also works on complex business litigation matters and has litigated cases on behalf of parties who have suffered serious personal injury, including fatal injuries. He will be based in the firm’s New Haven office but will spend a significant amount of time in the Waterbury office as well.
