The Buzz Online

Artist rendering of Optima Bank & Trust's consolidated retail office location on the first floor of 143 Daniel Street in Portsmouth. Photo: CJ Architects and Tangram 3DS. 

This Week’s Spotlight: Optima Bank & Trust, headquartered in Portsmouth, is leasing space on the ground floor at 143 Daniel Street in Portsmouth. Optima’s corporate headquarters will remain at Two Harbour Place in Portsmouth, but its retail offices will move to Daniel Street. The new location, designed by CJ Architects in Portsmouth, is expected to open in late summer. According to federal bank data, Optima Bank has been NH’s fastest-growing bank since opening in 2008, growing from eight employees  to 70 employees across six locations.

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Eversource, an electric utility with NH headquarters in Manchester, hired Kaitlyn Woods as media relations specialist. Woods previously worked as a reporter for the Londonderry Times and as associate producer in creative services at WMUR-TV9 News in Manchester. She will communicate with media outlets about Eversource operations in NH.
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Granite State Independent Living in Concord received $8,859 from the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation to create and manage a healthy living project for adults with disabilities. The program will include nutrition workshops and gardening within the Crotched Mountain Courtyard Apartments community in Manchester.
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Exeter Hospital’s Center for Cancer Care rehired Panos Fidias as medical director of medical oncology/hematology. Fidias previously worked in this position for over a year before he was hired as a section leader in thoracic oncology at the University of Arizona. He has 20 years of experience in the oncology field.
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Home Health and Hospice Care in Merrimack received $8,500 in annual grant funding from United Way of Greater Nashua. The money will support the Community Hospice House in Merrimack.
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Charles M. Sawyer was promoted to medical director of the emergency department at Memorial Hospital in North Conway. Sawyer was hired as an emergency physician in 2008 and  previously worked at Cottage Hospital in Woodsville.
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Nathan Wechsler & Company PA hired Benjamin Lipton and Brett McConn as associates in its Concord office. Lipton and McConn recently graduated from the University of New Hampshire in Durham.
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Kirsten Silfvenius was hired as executive director of the North Country Chamber of Commerce in Colebrook following the departure of Britni White.
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RE/MAX Insight hired Liz Brown as a realtor in its Salem office. Prior to obtaining her real estate license in 2000, Brown was the owner and director of Sunfilled Beginnings pre-school/daycare for eleven years and Package Plus for six years, both in Plaistow. She most recently worked as a realtor at Fyfe & Associates, also in Plaistow.
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Tinkham Realty, Inc. in Londonderry hired Jerold S. Hersch as an associate broker specializing in commercial real estate sales and leasing. Hersch has practiced real estate since 1979, and is licensed in both NH and Massachusetts.