Current News

by Brandon Arcari, Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont announced Monday a finalist candidate to replace Tom Sullivan as its president. Sullivan, who plans to step down in Summer of 2019, is likely to be replaced by Suresh Garimella, who currently serves as Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships at Purdue University. He is also a PhD in mechanical engineering.

Garimella is the only finalist for the position.

Dr Suresh Garimella, Purdue University photo.

Garimella will be at UVM February 13-15, for a series of meetings and open-forum interactions with constituency groups across the university, according to a memo sent to the UVM community by UVM Board Chair David Daigle.

Vermont Business Magazine University of Vermont president Tom Sullivan will be the 2019 annual honoree of the Vermont Council of World Affairs. Sullivan will be honored at the organization’s 2019 annual dinner on June 13. According to the organization, Sullivan is being recognized for his academic work, including his many published scholarly articles, a number of which address international themes; his years of service at UVM; and his commitment to supporting international education and cultural exchange. 

“The Vermont Council of World Affairs serves a vital role in engaging our state with the today’s most pressing international themes and issues,” Sullivan said. “I’m honored to be recognized by this important group.” 

UVM president Tom Sullivan. (Photo: Sally McCay)

Vermont Business Magazine The Essex, Vermont's Culinary Resort & Spa, was recently named to the US News & World Report's "Best Hotels List" for 2019. The Essex is part of Benchmark, a global hospitality company, which had 22 of its luxury hotels and resorts recognized US News. The exclusive hotels spanned leading destinations in 15 states and the Caribbean and are part of the company’s Benchmark Resorts & Hotels and Gemstone Collection brands.

The honors included three Silver Badge winners that placed in the Top 30 percent of all ranked luxury hotels within a destination. They include Villas of Grand Cypress in Orlando, which placed 13th in the Orlando-Walt Disney World market. Benchmark’s newest hotel, La Cantera Resort & Spa in San Antonio, placed 7th in San Antonio. In the Caribbean, Santa Barbara Beach & Golf Resort placed 2nd on Curacao.

Vermont Business Magazine The Burlington International Airport (BTV) has announced new United Airlines service to Denver International Airport (DEN) beginning in June 2019. The new service complements United’s service between Burlington and its hubs in Chicago (ORD), New York/Newark (EWR) and Washington Dulles (IAD). This is the second recent announcement of new, direct service to Denver. Frontier announced in mid-January that it will begin three-days-a-week BTV service starting in May.  

Vermont Business Magazine In a press conference Thursday, Governor Phil Scott announced his administrations plan to further attack the opioid crisis. Those plans include greater access to suboxone to deter overdoses and more assistance for those in prison. At the press conference, Scott, Secretary of Human Services Al Gobeille, Public Safety Commissioner Thomas Anderson, Health Commissioner Mark Levine and Director of Drug Prevention Jolinda LaClair marked the release of the Opioid Coordination Council’s 2019 report, Building Bridges. This is the second annual report from the Council to the Governor, making policy and strategic recommendations to strengthen the state’s approach to addressing the opioid crisis.

Vermont Business Magazine New England’s annual capacity auction for power system resources concluded Monday with sufficient resources to meet peak demand in 2022-2023, and preliminary results indicate the clearing price was the lowest in six years. The auction is run by ISO New England Inc to procure the resources that will be needed to meet consumer demand for electricity in three years.

The auction was the first run under the Competitive Auctions with Sponsored Policy Resources (CASPR) rules, which include a secondary substitution auction where resources interested in retiring can trade their capacity supply obligation to new state-sponsored resources that didn’t clear in the primary auction.

Vermont Business Magazine In a historic breakthrough for clean, distributed energy, San Francisco-based Sunrun Inc (Nasdaq:RUN), the nation’s leading home solar, battery storage and energy services company, this week won a bid to deliver home solar and batteries as a source of energy capacity to ISO New England, the grid operator for one of the largest electricity markets in the United States. Vermont is one of 22 states in which Sunrun operates.

Last week, the Intervale Center, a Burlington-based food and farming non-profit, launched the final phase of a capital campaign to invest $1 million into the buildings and trails of the Intervale.

Vermont Business Magazine Airbnb announced today that hosts in Vermont’s ski communities are expected to welcome approximately 123,600 guest arrivals during the 2019 ski season, with local hosts expected to earn a total of approximately $22.3 million in supplemental income.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott today announced he’s appointed 103 Vermonters to State boards and commissions during the months of December and January. These appointments include commissioners to the influential District Environmental Commissions.

Boards and commissions serve an important and often significant role in state government, giving Vermonters numerous opportunities to serve their state and communities. The governor’s office is currently soliciting applications to fill vacancies and upcoming term expirations. All those interested in serving on a board or commission should visit the Governor’s website at http://governor.vermont.gov/boards-commissions to apply.

Appointments made by the Governor since December 1 are listed below:

Animal Cruelty Investigation Advisory Board

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott visited SunCommon on Tuesday in Waterbury and shared his thoughts on energy independence and how Vermont achieves that goal during a visit with 120 employees of the solar-energy company. Governor Scott told the crowd, which included solar installers, customer support and managers, “Energy independence, from my perspective, is the goal. That’s where we want to be. Now I believe the climate is changing. I believe we should be doing everything we can to wean ourselves off of carbon emitting fuels.”

Vermont Business Magazine US Senators Steve Daines (R-Mont) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) Wednesday introduced legislation to ensure that health insurance companies are held accountable for pricing drugs.  Their bill, the Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act amends McCarran-Ferguson, which exempted insurance companies from federal antitrust laws.

“For far too long, health insurance companies have gotten away with taking advantage of consumers and charging them outrageous prices for their health care,” Daines said. “It’s time we look into these companies practices by demanding transparency in order to hold them accountable.”