The firm of MacLean Meehan & Rice, LLC announced today the addition of Matt McMahon. As an associate at the firm, Matt will be involved with government and public relations efforts across a variety of clients and issues.

“Matt brings with him great experience working with businesses operating in Vermont and extensive knowledge of the challenges they face,” said firm president, Andrew MacLean. “We are excited to welcome Matt to MMR and look forward to his immediate contributions.”

Fred Ferguson, President and CEO of Waterotor Energy Technologies, Inc., announced the appointment of Dr. Michael Palmer as Executive Vice President of the company. Dr. Palmer will head the newly established Vermont office in Middlebury. “Dr. Palmer’s background in law, sustainable economic development, strategic planning, and risk management make him well-suited to help the company move through its next phases,” Mr. Ferguson said. Dr. Palmer, who worked part-time in the Federal Office of Science and Technology while in law school, made technology the focus of his Ph.D.

The Bank of Bennington is pleased to announce the promotion of David Bardin to Senior Vice President of Lending. Bardin will oversee the commercial and residential loan departments while continuing to lend and develop commercial account relationships for the bank.

Jim Brown, President and CEO of The Bank of Bennington said, “Dave’s banking experience and local knowledge are a great asset to the Bank. I look forward to him taking a much larger role in directing the Bank’s growth and culture.”

Wendy Conway, M.D. has joined Southwestern Vermont Medical Center’s Obstetrics and Gynecology department and the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Putnam Physicians group. She currently serves as a Major in the United States Air Force and staff OB/Gyn physician at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Landstuhl’s obstetrics and gynecology department is the largest military overseas OB/GYN department in the world.

Claire Wallace, broker and owner of Wallace Realty in Bristol, Vermont, has been selected to serve as a National Director on the Vermont Realtors® (VR) Board of Directors. In her role, Wallace will represent Vermont Realtors® at the National Association of Realtors®, the nation’s largest trade association with more than 1.2 million members.

The ribbon is cut at the Rutland Region Chamber of Commerce Ribbon Cutting at the new downtown Rutland ticket office of Cape Air which is located at 118 West St., Suite 104 in Rutland (next to Small Dog Electronics). The downtown office is open 6 days per week for information and ticket purchases and also acts as a call center for reservations on Cape Air. Cape Air, A JetBlue partner operates three daily round trip flights from Rutland Southern Vermont Regional Airport to Boston Logan Airport with connections throughout the world.

Maxwell Health ("Maxwell"), a web- and mobile-based platform that dramatically simplifies employee benefits management, today announced Bob Gaydos has been named VP, Strategic Partnerships. Gaydos is a nationally-recognized expert in the field of employee benefits management, and brings to Maxwell years of industry experience, from successfully founding and growing companies in the space to helping shape health insurance policy. In his role at Maxwell, Gaydos will focus on building new strategic partnerships and deepening existing ones.

Local Motion, a member-supported walk-bike advocacy organization, announced that, after a national search, it has appointed Emily Boedecker as its new Executive Director. Ms. Boedecker comes to Local Motion from the Vermont Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, where she served for over nine years as Director of Communications, Director of Philanthropy and Marketing, Deputy State Director, and Acting State Director. Ms. Boedecker assumes her role at the helm of Local Motion on March 3, 2014.

Sally Wellman will be retiring this month, after more than 34 years of service with the Wells River Savings Bank. Starting out as a teller, in 1979, Sally has held positions in almost every facet of the bank, spending 8 years as the Manager of the bank’s Bradford branch, and most recently in the Mortgage & Consumer Loan department.

Attorney Robert B. Luce of the northern New England law firm Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC has been elected chair of the board of the Brain Injury Association of Vermont, an organization helping to create a better future for Vermonters with brain injury and their families through prevention, education, advocacy and support.