CONTENT S

6 SHIF TING SCHEDULE In an effort to appeal to wider applicant pool, business tries a four-day week.

12 HOMEST YLE BUSINE SSE S

Three Claremont residents share what led them to leap into going it on their own.

18 THE FUTURE HAS ARRIVED

Ar tificial intelligence, like ChatGPT, is changing the way we do business.

21 SHORT ON SPACE

Commercial, industrial real estate markets stay steady in Upper Valley

: GROWING HOME BUSINE S SE S

One-year-old bonsai trees fill a table at Brandon Bes serer ’s home in Claremont .

COVER PHOTOGRAPH: Working on a job site for Houseseal Construction in Woodstock, Vt. Connor Gilding enjoys the four-day workweek the company is trying. PHOTOGRAPHS BY VALLEY NEWS / JENNIFER HAUCK AND ALEX DRIEHAUS (REPORT FOR AMERICA)

Upper Valley Business Notes

New employees and promotions

Jim Gardner, has joined ReArch Company, a development, construction and property managementbusiness thathas officesin Lebanonand South Burlington,Vt., asa seniorestimator. Gardner, who has worked in the field for 40 years, will helplead ReArch’sestimating departmentand work with field teams.

Tim Allenhas joined Ledyard NationalBank in Hanover as a senior financial advisor within the Ledyard FinancialAdvisors division.Allen previouslyworked atN.H. TrustFinancial Advisorsand Bar Harbor Wealth Management.

SusanRenaud, aseniorfinancial advisorat Ledyard Financial Advisors, has been named strategy andbusiness transitionplanning director atthe Hanover-basedbusiness.JeffTrombly, asenior portfolio manager, hasbeen named Medicare insurancespecialist. Bothemployees willcombine their new positions with their current roles.

J. VioletGannon, has beenhired asthe founding directorof institutional advancementat the Greenway Institute,a WhiteRiver Junction-based nonprofit educational organization focused on sustainable andequitable engineeringand entrepreneurship. Gannonpreviously servedas executivedirectorof theManchesterCommunityLibrary in Vermont.

DuBois & King, an employee-owned ESOP consulting, planning and engineering company, has electedMelissaStephenand GuyRouelletoserve on its board of directors.

New businesses

Granite StatePacking hasreopened theold North Country Smokehouse facility on 471 Sullivan St., inClaremont, as acooperative fee-for-service meatprocessor, ownedjointly byboth theemployees and the customers.

The Works Café, aKeene-based fast casual chain,hasopeneda locationatDartmouthHitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon.

Damian Petry Gutter Solutions, in New London, has beenpurchased by AhoSeamless Gutters, whichhasoffices inManchester,Nashuaand Leominster, Mass.

Awards

Chrisand CortneyKeene,whoown KeenePerspectives in Hartford, which provides early intervention services for children with autism and other neurodiverse profiles, were selectedas the 2023 VermontSmall BusinessPersons ofthe Yearby the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Colleen O’Neill,of Cornish,whoownsLangwoodTree FarminCornishand Plainfield,has been named New Hampshire’s Outstanding Tree

Farmer of the Year for 2023 by the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association.

Leo Maslan, of Cornish, is the recipient of the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association’s Kendall Norcott Award, which honors members for their service and dedication to the organization.

Grants

TheUpperValley BusinessAllianceawarded fourUpper Valleybusinessownersa SmallBusiness Grant for Underrepresented Entrepreneurs, sponsoredby HyperthermAssociates andDartmouth College’sTuck School ofBusiness. The winners included:Chantal Holmes, theowner of theLebanon-based EYEGAZER,whichfocuses oneyelashextensions, tintingandbrowwaxing and lamination; MariaRosario L. BarsolaCanaveral, the owner ofCanaveral Candles, a West Lebanon-based coconutsoy candles business; AnnaAdachi-Mejia, the ownerof Norwichbased AdachiLabs, LLC,which providesbusinessand professionalcoaching consultation;and Raven Lovelock, the ownerof Enfield-based Curated Experiences by Raven Lovelock, which provides experiencecurating andtravel planningfor BIPOC individuals.

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