Alexandra Balise
Director of Corporate Strategy, Balise Auto Group: Age 38
Alex Balise calls it her “happy place.”
This is the fishing camp in Quebec where she, her husband Trevor, and children Connor and Emma spend a week each summer around Connor’s birthday
“The phone doesn’t work … it’s quiet, it’s relaxing, it’s fun — even if you don’t catch anything,” said Balise, director of Corporate Strategy for Balise Auto Group, adding that she has a number of happy places. Others include Benjamin Swan School in Springfield, where she reads to students as a Link to Libraries volunteer and also leads efforts to donate coats to those students, continuing a tradition started by her uncle, Mike; Square One, where she serves as a board member but has also become heavily involved in programs and fundraising, especially for its new headquarters building; and the Big E, where they spend Emma’s birthday.
And then there’s 1441 Main St. in Springfield, Balise’s corporate headquarters. OK, maybe this place isn’t as ‘happy’ as the others, but it’s where she has emerged as a true leader at this 106-year-old family business started by her great-grandfather.
Since she came to Balise in 2015, Alex has taken on several roles and assumed ever-greater amounts of responsibility. She started as an analyst for the company’s then-emerging car wash business and later served as project manager for its new Kia franchise, before becoming director of Marketing.
As director of Corporate Strategy, she has a wide range of duties, including current work to oversee the company’s conversion to a new document management system. She also works on compliance and legal matters — “all the fun things that happen behind the scenes that are important to the business but not glamorous.”
While managing all those responsibilities, she remains very active in the community — with the aforementioned Square One, Benjamin Swan School, and Link to Libraries; the Zoo at Forest Park, where she played a lead role in facilitating the donation of a vehicle, enabling its education team to expand outreach programs; the West Springfield Boys & Girls Club; and the Balise company’s annual holiday giving and back-to-school backpack campaigns.
“Anyone who knows Alex knows of her soft-spoken demeanor,” Square One President and CEO Dawn DiStefano wrote in nominating Balise for this honor. “But behind her gentile smile is a powerhouse of community support and activism.”
A powerhouse indeed, both as a leader at Balise and a force for youth and families within the 413.
—George O’Brien
