The Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center in Randolph Center has elected two new members — Melissa Bounty, assistant director at Central Vermont Economic Development Corporation in Montpelier, and Cristin O’Donnell, director of training and development at Cabot Creamery Cooperative/Agri-Mark in Waitsfield — to two-year terms on its advisory board. Parwinder Grewal, the inaugural president of Vermont State University, was designated as an ex-officio member.
Bounty, a graduate of the former Johnson State College (now Northern Vermont University), has been tapped as the next executive director of the CVEDC, where she has been working with current Executive Director Jamie Stewart in a planned transition since fall 2021. Bounty served as one of two statewide navigators for a large technical assistance program through the Community Navigator Pilot Program.
O’Donnell joined Cabot Creamery Cooperative/Agri-Mark in 2005 and has served in a variety of leadership roles for the company in both operations and human resources. Prior to joining Cabot, she worked at Nike for six years in the Advanced R&D lab in Portland, OR. She also spent three years with VocRehab Vermont conducting planning and evaluation research.
Grewal was named college president of Vermont State on July 1, 2022. The university will welcome its first class in fall 2023. Grewal brings to the job more than 25 years of higher education experience and 10 years of biotechnology research and development experience in industry and government in six US states and five countries. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in plant pathology from Punjab Agricultural University and a Ph.D. in zoology from Imperial College London.
Reelected for additional two-year terms to the board are Ben Clark, CEO at Ann Clark Ltd. (Rutland); Greg Maguire, general counsel and director of business strategy at Liquid Measurement Systems (Georgia); Ken McAvey, Fab 9 vice president and general manager at GlobalFoundries (Essex Junction); and Pat Moulton, executive director of the Vermont State College System's workforce division (Randolph Center and Lyndonville).
Mike Rainville, president of Maple Landmark Woodcraft (Middlebury), was reelected chair of the VMEC Advisory Board for an additional one-year term.