Current News

Vermont Business Magazine ISO New England has announced the retirement of Peter Brandien, vice president of System Operations and Market Administration. Stephen George will succeed Brandien on Nov. 11. During his 20-year career with ISO New England, Brandien has led the ISO’s efforts to ensure the reliable and efficient day-to-day operation of the region’s power system. In recent years, he has taken on the additional responsibility of ensuring the fair administration of the region’s wholesale electricity markets. George has held several positions of increasing responsibility since joining the ISO in 2004 as a system operator. Most recently, he has served as director, Operational Performance, Training, and Integration, where he has been responsible for the department’s strategic planning initiatives, project integration, operational analysis, operator training, human performance improvement, and procedure administration.

Vermont Business Magazine For over three decades, the Shires’ Holiday Inn Tours have invited visitors to step into the holiday spirit in the heart of Vermont. This beloved tradition, coordinated by the Manchester Business Association and The Shires of Southwestern Vermont Destination Marketing Organization, returns this year on Saturday, December 7, and/or Saturday, December 14. Join us for self-guided tours of the region’s finest inns, hotels, and bed-and-breakfasts from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. each day. Patrons must have tickets to participate. With over a dozen participating properties, from historic hotels to quaint B&Bs, you'll discover the warmth and charm of Vermont’s holiday season. Each location offers a unique atmosphere, festive decorations, and delightful treats, along with a taste of local beverages, making this event a memorable experience for all ages.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Agency of Transportation (AOT) received 118 new names for its big orange plow trucks through this year’s Name a Plow program for Vermont schools. The Agency also received 77 entries in the contest for schools to name the new plow truck that has a second plow spanning 21 feet and will be used to clear Interstate 89. That truck is now named “The Vermonster” thanks to the winning entry from Townshend Elementary School. Employees in AOT’s nine Maintenance Districts were invited to vote, and The Vermonster was the clear winner with 83 votes received out of a total of 281 votes cast throughout the state.

Vermont Business Magazine In anticipation of the 2024 Killington World Cup, the Killington World Cup Foundation (KWCF) will be honoring four worthy recipients with grants which will allow each organization to increase access to winter sports for youth and individuals in the Northeast, creating more lifelong winter sports participants. This year’s grantees reflect KWCF’s dedication to promoting ski racing and supporting athletes at the highest level. 

Vermont Business Magazine U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont), a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, celebrated the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) recent launch of the Organic Dairy Product Promotion (ODPP) program, which will invest $15 million in expanding access to organic dairy products to K-12 schools, colleges and universities, and other community-based programs for youth. USDA announced the program at Miller Farm in Vernon, Vt., which previously received USDA funding from the NE-DBIC to provide organic milk directly from the farm to a dozen local schools. 

Vermont Business Magazine New Chapter, a Brattleboro, Vermont-based vitamin and supplement company, has announced its first Upcycled Certified products, including its entire Wholemega Wild Alaskan Salmon Fish Oil line. The Upcycled Certified mark identifies products that have full nutritional value but would have otherwise been discarded for various reasons. Using these surplus foods to create new, high-quality items reduces food waste and promotes sustainable practices, both of which are core to the New Chapter brand. New Chapter has long been on the cutting edge of sustainable certifications having obtained Organic Certification on multivitamins in 2005 and enrolling products in the Non-GMO Project Verification program in 2010. 

Vermont Business Magazine After several years growing their real estate business throughout Northern New England, the Biondolillo family has sold their offices in Maine and NH in order to consolidate their Central Vermont locations. BCK Real Estate President, John Biondolillo said, "As exciting and rewarding as it’s been to acquire offices and expand along the Maine and New Hampshire coasts, we’ve always been a family brokerage and it was the right time to return to our roots. Our home office in Barre has always been our anchor, it’s where we built our home, raised our family and started our business."

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Secretary of State supports a district-wide revote to assure that every voter in the Bennington-1 House District has a chance to vote. The district-wide revote should occur because of an error in Pownal’s checklist, which placed about 40 voters in the wrong legislative district. The outcome of the Bennington-1 House race could have been impacted by this error because Democrat Jonathan Cooper’s margin of victory was only 25 votes over Republican Bruce Busa.

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont (UVM) Grossman School of Business (GSB) again ranks at the top of the Corporate Knights 2024 Better World MBA ranking, jumping from 5th in the world in 2023 to 2nd globally, and climbing to #1 in the United States. This makes the seventh consecutive year that GSB’s Sustainable Innovation MBA (SI-MBA) secured a top 10 position in Better World MBA rankings. It also marks the return to the top spot domestically again since it was #1 in 2019. Among U.S. universities, the Grossman School of Business’s SI-MBA program has always remained third or above in the Corporate Knights rankings. SI-MBA is an accelerated one-year program that focuses on equipping graduates with the knowledge and the toolkit to manage and transform businesses by embedding sustainability in their operations.

Vermont Business Magazine The Southwestern Vermont Chamber of Commerce hosted its second annual "Heart of The Shires Luncheon" at the beautiful Lincoln Hall at Hildene, The Lincoln Family Home, on November 6th, honoring remarkable individuals and organizations that have made significant impacts across the region. The event, featuring keynote speaker Matt Dunne of the Center on Rural Innovation, gathered over 90 attendees, including local leaders, nonprofits, and social sector representatives, to celebrate community service and leadership in Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) will be collaborating with the Vermont Safe Driver Program this holiday season to display a “Red Ribbon Tree” in six DMV locations around the state from November 10 until the end of the year. The Red Ribbon Tree is a reminder never to drive impaired or distracted. Each ribbon on the tree represents a person who lost their life on Vermont’s roads and highways due to an impaired or distracted driver. In Vermont, from 2019 to 2023, 56% of fatal vehicle crashes involved an impaired driver (impaired includes both drugs and alcohol), and 237 children were involved in crashes with impaired drivers. In 2023, there were 42 fatalities involving an impaired driver. Between 2019 and 2023, 10.7% of fatal crashes in Vermont involved a distracted driver.

Vermont Business Magazine Building Bright Futures (BBF) has announced a new round of grant recipients for the Vermont Early Childhood Fund (VECF), totaling $1.9 million for projects focused on Vermont children and families. VECF is now funded by the Vermont Integration Project: Building Integration in Vermont’s Birth–5 Early Childhood Systems (VIP B–5) Preschool Development Grant. Thanks to this federal grant, VECF expanded its funding substantially this year, from $105,000 for projects carried out in 2023 to $3.2 million for grants awarded in December 2023 and May 2024, and $1.9 million for this round of projects. VECF supports creative solutions to improve the well-being of children through age 8, their families, and the Vermont communities where they live. VECF was established in 2021 thanks to a generous grant from a private donor and was able to continue to fund projects in 2022 and 2023 with support from the Sunflower Fund at the VCF.