Current News

by Jenn Wood “There’s nothing like 40+ degrees and raining to say Happy Holidays in New England!” Sadly, it has been a recurring family greeting of late. As someone who loves the outdoors in all seasons with a special affinity (some say obsession) to snow and skiing, this weather makes me cringe, and honestly, fight back tears of sorrow.

by Wendell G Davis, New England Regional Administrator, US Small Business Administration Transition and change are often accompanied with hope and opportunity. Here at the US Small Business Administration we just had a big transition and change. Recently Jovita Carranza was named the 26th Administrator. This is Administrator Carranza’s second tenure at the SBA. She served as Deputy Administrator from 2006-2009. Although she is new to the position, she already knows the ins and outs of how to help American entrepreneurs achieve their dreams of small business ownership. She was nominated to lead the SBA while serving as the 44th Treasurer of the United States.

Vermont Business Magazine As Dealer.com strives to achieve Cox Enterprise’s company-wide “Zero Waste to Landfill” by 2024 goal, the company proudly celebrates a best-in-class recognition on an internal ranking system analysis of waste diversion. Measured at 82% by Cox Conserves, the company’s sustainability division, Dealer.com’s diversion rate is an exemplary model representing the Burlington business community among Vermont’s own sustainability goals. In fact, Dealer.com’s latest diversion rate milestones already far exceed the statewide goal of increasing diversion rates to 50% by 2024.

Vermont Business Magazine Green Mountain Conservation Camp (GMCC) offers hands-on learning experiences about fish, wildlife, ecology, botany, forestry, hunter firearm safety, outdoor first aid, and so much more. GMCC offers opportunities for hiking, canoeing, fishing, archery, .22 rifle and shotgun shooting, orienteering, and other fun activities. Campers have a unique opportunity to meet Vermont State Game Wardens, foresters, fisheries and wildlife biologists, and others who work in the outdoors.

Vermont Business Magazine GlobalFoundries and the University of Vermont today announced they have created a partnership program which offers Vermont-based GF employees the opportunity to further their education at UVM in undergraduate, graduate and graduate certificate programs at discounted tuition rates coupled with GF’s tuition reimbursement program. For UVM, partnering with one of the largest private manufacturing employers in the state enables the university to further its land grant mission of helping Vermont address its workforce development challenges. It also creates a new pipeline of students to the university and brings experienced professionals into UVM classrooms and labs, broadening and enriching the learning environment for current students.

​Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Law School’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Center is offering free help with tax return preparation and electronic filing help to qualified Vermonters from now through April 8 at the South Royalton campus. Available from 5 to 7 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays, the VITA Center’s IRS-certified volunteers offer help to taxpayers who generally make $56,000 or less, persons with disabilities, and limited English-speaking taxpayers who need assistance in preparing their own tax returns. Walk-ins are welcome.

Vermont Business Magazine Seven Days, Vermont’s free, independent newsweekly, won 14 first-place awards in this year’s New England Better Newspaper Competition — including for general excellence and top honors in business, crime and courts, education, health, human interest, religion, science and sports-feature reporting. Eva Sollberger received first place in all four video categories. The paper also won seven second-place and one third-place awards — 22 total.

The contest is organized by the New England Newspaper & Press Association; winners were announced at NENPA’s annual convention last weekend in Boston.

NENPA members submitted more than 3,000 entries in five contest divisions. Seven Days — which circulates 36,000 print copies every Wednesday — competed against numerous other large New England weeklies.

Here’s what judges had to say about Seven Days’ 14 first-place awards:

by Jill Olson, Executive Director, VNAs of Vermont Recently, I was honored to sit on a panel with other health care leaders to discuss early successes with Vermont’s all-payer model. Dr Joshua Sharfstein, a national health care reform expert currently teaching and practicing at Johns Hopkins University, moderated the panel and put Vermont’s experience in a national context.

Vermont Business Magazine Ledyard National Bank recently donated $1,000 to The Family Place in Norwich to support their upcoming Force for the Future Luncheon on March 31, 2020. The Family Place, a private, non-profit organization and one of 15 legislatively-designated Parent Child Centers in Vermont, delivers comprehensive programs designed to strengthen positive relationships, teach essential skills and promote enduring healthy growth for families with young children in the Upper Valley and surrounding communities. As such, they play a vital role in the community’s social safety net.

Their work involves a whole-family approach to helping children thrive, working with children and caregivers together, promoting positive parenting strategies and ensuring that children have the kinds of experiences that support their physical development, their social functioning, their ability to learn, and their long-term health.

by Lynn Barrett Vermont — especially Southern Vermont — has everything people are looking for. They just don’t know it exists, and they don’t even really know where it is. How can we get the region to become top of mind? Visitors spend $2.5 billion in our state every year. Yet state spending has fallen 6 percent over the last five years, she reports, with only $2 million for destination marketing. Perhaps to fill some of this void, groups in both Bennington and Brattleboro have convinced their respective town governments to fund their own marketing campaigns to entice more visitors.

Vermont Business Magazine Norwich University’s College of Graduate and Continuing Studies (CGCS) officials announced today the new online Bachelor of Science in Business Administration program, which is designed to provide students with the communication, leadership, and problem-solving skills needed as a high-level manager. The program is set to begin in May 2020.

“This program follows Norwich’s tradition of providing students with rigorous and relevant programs needed to develop skills that keep them competitive in the field,” CGCS Vice President and Dean Bill Clements said.

Vermont Business Magazine Key Private Bank, the wealth management division of KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY), was awarded for the best "Private Banking Client Service" and Key Family Wealth, the multi-family office division of Key Private Bank, was named "Best Outsourced CIO" at the Private Asset Management (PAM) Awards in New York City.

For more than two decades, the PAM Awards have recognized high performing firms and wealth advisors operating within the private asset management industry. An independent panel of industry experts evaluates both qualitative and quantitative performance indicators to select the winners.