The Buzz Online

The Greater Manchester Chamber selected Howard Brodsky, co-founder and chairman of CCA Global Partnersin Manchester, as its next Citizen of the Year. Brodsky will be honored on April 4 at the Chamber’s Citizen of the Year Celebration at the DoubleTree by Hilton Manchester Downtown. After taking over his family’s flooring store after college, Brodsky co-founded the Carpet Cooperative of America, now known as CCA Global Partners, in 1984. CCA Global, now a $14 billion company, is the second largest privately held company in NH and the 14th largest cooperative globally. The childcare business under CCA Global serves over 35,000 children in NH and close to 2 million nationwide.

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Melcher & Prescott Insurance in Laconia hired Sue Spicuzza as Commercial Lines Vice President, Risk Management. Before joining Melcher & Prescott, Spicuzza worked at American International Group for 23 years where she held various roles, some of which included claims manager and pre-injury consultant.

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Devine Millimet, a law firm in Manchester, elected Christopher Swiniarski as a shareholder. He joined Devine Millimet’s real estate practice group in 2021 with over a decade of experience in NH and Massachusetts, and many years as a real estate paralegal before that.

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Bank of America selected Manchester-based Friends of Aine as its 2023 Neighborhood Champion in NH. Friends of Aine will receive a $50,000 grant as well as the opportunity to participate in virtual leadership training delivered by experts in the nonprofit sector. Friends of Aine was founded in 2013 by Christine and David Phillips. The Phillips’ daughter, Aine (Ahn-ya) Marie Phillips, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on August 10, 2010, at eight years old. Friends of Aine provides support for families and children who are grieving the loss of a loved one to ensure that no child grieves alone. The work is peer-to-peer, meaning that often help comes from individuals who have shared experience.

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Home health and hospice agency Granite VNA in Concord hired Monique Lippert, RN, as director of clinical support. In this role, Lippert will provide leadership and oversight to the agency’s paraprofessionals, telemonitoring staff and virtual visit nurse teams. She will also manage the agency’s clinical triage team and operation. Lippert brings 13 years of experience in various home and health care settings, including large inpatient care facilities and rehabilitation centers. Granite VNA President/CEO Beth Slepian, has been named to a Transition Board of Directors that will oversee the consolidation of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) and the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO). The two national organizations have entered an agreement to combine.

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Terrapin Tours, a group travel company based in Woodstock, raised more than $2,500 to support its Student Travel Scholarship Program, which provides travel scholarships to NH high school students. 

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Caryn MacDonald joined civil and environmental engineering firm Fuss & O’Neill in Manchester as a project manager in the firm’s Environment and Facility Services Business Line. She has nearly a decade of environmental consulting and construction project management experience, including assessment and remediation of sites.

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Stewart's Ambulance Service is transitioning to an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), which will enable all employees to become active stakeholders in the company and 100% owners. Stewart's Ambulance Service will be the only healthcare organization in New England to convert to this model. Through the ESOP, 300 Stewart employees will become owners.
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The New England College Athletics department in Hanover is adding Nordic skiing to its varsity athletic offerings. Competition will begin in the 2024–2025 academic year.