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Vermont Business Magazine Jeffersonville food entrepreneur Lea Ann Macrery has never lacked for drive. Now, thanks to financing from the Vermont Community Loan Fund, her new business, My Favorite Things Food Truck, is ready to hit the road. Lea Ann grew up in Pretoria, South Africa’s bustling administrative capital. With a South African mother and American father, she was granted dual citizenship at birth. When a year of college didn’t feel like the right fit, she set out at age 18 for New York City’s culinary lights.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott today announced the appointments of Michael Schirling as commissioner of Public Safety, and Lindsay Kurrle as secretary of the Agency of Commerce & Community Development. Both have served in Scott’s cabinet throughout his time in office. Schirling, currently serving as secretary of ACCD, will fill the vacancy left by Thomas D Anderson, who resigned in July. Kurrle will move from the Department of Labor to take the leadership role at ACCD.

Michael Schirling, left, with Governor Scott in 2017.

Vermont Business Magazine 500 Vermonters from over 140 different towns gathered at Vermont Technical College today to hear from 60 different presenters and to continue a statewide conversation about how we can nurture great leaders in our local communities. Vermont Council on Rural Development’s 2^nd Annual Vermont Community Leadership Summit features skills workshops, case studies of success, and facilitated conversations about recruiting and supporting great leaders. As part of the day’s events, VCRD presented its Lifetime Achievement Award and Community Leadership Award.

Vermont Business Magazine While guests visiting Okemo Mountain Resort are mountain biking, golfing, hiking, swimming and exploring the resort’s Adventure Zone, Okemo’s mountain operations team is hard at work preparing for the 2019/2020 ski and snowboard season.

Vermont Business Magazine The Board of Directors of Pure Water for the World, Inc joined PWW founders, staff members, volunteers, donors, supporters, and partners at the ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain in Burlington, to celebrate the organization’s 20^th year of bringing life-changing safe water and sanitation solutions to children and families living in underserved communities across Central America and Haiti. Senator Patrick Leahy and his wife, Marcelle, long-time friends of PWW, also joined in the celebration.

Bob Mohr, PWW Board President, started the evening by welcoming guests and thanking all of the supporters who have helped the organization reach this milestone. “Without you, there is no 20 years of changing lives. This is a celebration of you and Pure Water for the World.”

Vermont Business Magazine For a record sixth time, the State of Vermont has been named Domicile of the Year by Captive Review, a leading London-based trade publication. The award ceremony was held on the eve of the Vermont Captive Insurance Association (VCIA) Annual Conference, North America’s largest captive insurance event. The award is given to the top captive insurance domicile in the world that has “outperformed their competitors and demonstrated the highest levels of excellence in the captive insurance industry.”

by Deb Billado, Chair of VTGOP Yes, you have read that right. And yes, I am still the Chairwoman of the Vermont GOP Committee and no, those are not my words or belief. They belong to the mob of hate-crazed, fear-driven people who have become deranged because he upset their dreams (our nightmare) of electing crooked Hillary Clinton. Who could have imagined the anger, violence and insanity, acted out by many left-wing hatemongers calling even for his assassination because their candidate lost? Space will not allow me to list all the hateful things said and done to this President and his family. We can only speculate on each individual’s reasons for this intense reaction, but you can be sure there are many who are concerned that this principled man can’t be bought.

Vermont Business Magazine was honored with three national journalism awards earlier this summer. The Alliance of Area Business Publishers (AABP) presented a total of 116 Editorial Excellence awards to newspaper and magazine business periodicals in June during its three-day annual Summer Conference in Atlanta. These are the highest journalism awards available to regional business publications.

by Joyce Marcel, Vermont Business Magazine Remember the old Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times”? We live in interesting times. The whole world is shifting — or at the very least, being rapidly “disrupted.” Autonomous cars, buses and trains? Robotics? Sunny day flooding? Overcrowding at the national parks? Rationing visits to the national parks to solve the problem of overcrowding? Data analytics? Data privacy? E-commerce vs dying retail? A “shared” economy that means fewer cars and less money from the gas tax to fix the roads and bridges? Drones? Engineers inspecting old bridges using new drones. Rising sea tides changing the footprint of large cities like Miami and New York. And that's just a start.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott today announced he’s appointed 76 Vermonters to State boards and commissions in July 2019. Boards and commissions serve an important role in state government, giving Vermonters numerous opportunities to serve their state and communities.

Vermont Business Magazine Bomber’s Moon, out September 24, marks New York Times Best Selling Author Archer Mayor’s 30th novel in the highly acclaimed Vermont-based Joe Gunther mystery series. Detective Joe Gunther worked for the Brattleboro, Vermont, police department and is now a Special Agent for the fictional Vermont Bureau of Investigation (VBI). Books about his case-solving prowess have appeared once a year since 1988 and been published in five languages. They routinely gather high praise from such sources as The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and The New Yorker, often appearing on annual ten best lists.

Archer Mayor on his Indian Roadmaster.