After being without a permanent chief executive for more than a year, glassmaker Simon Pearce has tapped Jay Benson as the new CEO, effective immediately.
Benson, 50, a graduate of both Dartmouth College and Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, joined Simon Pearce in 2016, where he most recently had been the Windsor-based company’s chief financial officer.
“An enormous part of the progress we’re experiencing is thanks to Jay Benson’s leadership,” company founder Simon Pearce said in a news release, crediting Benson with helping to steer the handmade glass and pottery maker to its “most successful year” in the company’s 47-year history.
The board’s decision to elevate Benson to the CEO role is “the most important way we can assure the future success of the company,” Pearce said.
Pearce had been acting CEO of the company since former CEO Clay Adams left to become chief executive at Mascoma Bank more than a year ago. Pearce, as founder, will “remain actively involved” in the company, according to the news release.
Prior to joining Simon Pearce, Benson, a Norwich resident, was senior vice president and CFO at Swiftpage, a Denver digital marketing solutions company. Benson previously held positions with Lebanon companies Geographic Data Technology and its successor company, Tele Atlas, as well as Tom Tom.
Two financial advisers in Wells Fargo Advisors’ Hanover office have been recognized — one of them for the fourth time — by Barron’s magazine as among the country’s top 1,200 financial advisers.
Brian Doyle and Stephen Loughman ranked number 3 and number 5, respectively, out of six financial advisers in New Hampshire selected by Barron’s. It was Doyle’s fourth consecutive year on the list and Loughman’s first. Both have been with Wells Fargo’s Hanover office about 14 years.
Barron’s called the list of 1,200 financial advisers “standouts” in all 50 states and said it was compiled by weighing 102 data points from each advisor and included such factors as assets under management and revenue, regulatory records, charitable work and work experience.
Doyle manages a total of $670 in client assets with an average account valued of $4 million while Loughman manages a total of $455 million in clients assets with an average account values of $3 million, according to Barron’s.
In addition, Doyle and Loughman each were recently named Premiere Advisors within the Wells Fargo Advisors Network for 2017, an in-house award recognizing the wealth management firm’s top performers.
There were more than 311,000 financial advisers in the U.S. as of the end of 2016, according to Cerulli Associates, the most recent year for which the Boston research firm reported data.
Claremont Savings Bank has named Dennis Driscoll, a veteran Upper Valley banker, as vice president of commercial lending.
Driscoll, of Grantham, comes to Claremont Savings Bank from Lake Sunapee Bank, where he most recently had been a vice president and, prior to that, at Mascoma Bank, where he had been a loan officer.
Driscoll’s “extensive experience working with businesses in the Upper Valley, including many in Claremont, make him a valuable addition to our commercial banking team,” said James Lynch, senior vice president of commercial banking at Claremont Savings Bank.
A graduate of Hobart and William Colleges in Geneva, N.Y., and the Massachusetts Bankers Association School of Commercial Lending, Driscoll is a past board chair for the Upper Valley Housing Coalition and currently is vice chairman of the Hartford VT Business Revolving Loan Fund.
The Sunday Valley News recognizes the achievements of members of the local business community in the Business & Money section. Submissions may be sent by email to: biznotes@vnews.com (high-resolution photographs may be attached in .jpg format), or by mail to: People in Business, c/o Sunday Valley News, P.O. Box 877, White River Junction, Vt. 05001. (Photographs cannot be returned unless accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope.) All items are subject to editing for clarity or space.