Program Manager, Human Resources Unlimited, Pyramid Project

Christin Deremian says that people living with physical and mental disabilities often have a difficult time finding advocates to help with their various needs.
“Everyone has a different need for our services,” she said, explaining her role at the Pyramid Project, a division of Human Resources Unlimited in Springfield, “from getting up and walking around to working on their reading, writing, or socializing skills.”
For the past nine years, Deremian has been affiliated with HRU, striving to be one of those advocates she says the area lacks.
“I’m working to empower folks here,” she said, “because many people don’t know their rights, or even that they’re able to vote. We need to offer them the dignity of risk. Just because they’re disabled doesn’t mean they can’t go out and make their own choices.”
Deremian said Pyramid and HRU are proponents of the so-called ‘clubhouse model’ in a number of their programs, which means “focusing on people’s abilities, rather than their disabilities. We strive to make people feel wanted, needed, and appreciated — because that’s how everyone should feel.”
At Pyramid, she works with 70 members and 300 staff, and her colleagues credit her with taking the clubhouse to a new level.
By focusing more on what people can do than what they can’t, she has created programs that offer music, pet, swim, and massage therapies; armchair travel, culinary, and book clubs; a woodworking unit, and a member-produced newsletter. But her advocacy doesn’t stop at the office door.
Deremian, an accomplished equestrian — she was the youngest caption of the Central Mass. national show-jumping team — is also an active member of the Springfield Public School System’s Read-Aloud program, and supporter of the Molly Bish Foundation. Bish was a family friend, Deremian said, and she is proud to support efforts to raise awareness of missing and exploited children, “to ensure that this doesn’t happen to anyone else’s family.”
“My father always said to me, ‘if you’re going to do something, do it well, or don’t do it at all,’” she added. “If it’s going to be worth my time, then it has to be something that I can take pride in.”
— Dan Chase

Executive Director, Rockridge Retirement Community

Beth Vettori didn’t always plan to work in senior living. But her perspective changed while on vacation.
“My graduation gift from my parents was a trip to Switzerland with my grandmother, on a tour bus with other retirees,” she said. “Everyone was in their upper 60s, 70s, and 80s, and we toured Switzerland, Italy, and France. I bonded with the seniors without realizing it.”
After college, she went to work for Orchard Valley at Wilbraham and started up its Harbor program, an assisted-living neighborhood for elders with various types of memory impairment. “It was very challenging and a great experience to put that together,” she said. “It’s a great, caring atmosphere.”
She was later hired by Rockridge Retirement Community in Northampton and was promoted to executive director at age 27. At the time, the community had an operating deficit of nearly $1 million, but she led a restructuring effort to bring it to profitability within two years.
“My task is running the campus, so I oversee all the operations,” she said, noting that she especially enjoys the contact with both employees and residents. “It’s challenging, but it’s exciting. There are some great, great people who live here and work here with me.”
For her work at Rockridge — including opening its 42-unit assisted-living community and its memory-support neighborhood before being named executive director — Vettori earned the Emerging Leader Award from MassAging in 2010.
“While the [restructuring] task was difficult, especially for a young, new executive director,” said Paul Hollings, chairman of the MassAging board, “Beth pulled it off with grace and dignity and made everyone feel positive about the changes.”
In her spare time, she stays active with several nonprofits, including Steph’s Wild Ride, an organization launched five years ago to assist children with cancer; it was named after Vettori’s cousin, who died of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at age 21. “I want to help other local families by providing children with funds and gift cards, things that can really help them out,” she said.
It’s just one more way Vettori is helping to improve lives — both young and old.
— Joseph Bednar

Manager, Stop & Shop

Joan Maylor used a picture of her parents in her 40 Under Forty portrait because, she said, “they truly represent who I am today.”
She recalled something her father always told her. “Once a task is begun, never leave it until it is done. Be the labor great or small, do it well or not at all.”
Well, Maylor certainly has lived up to that. She started her career with Stop & Shop as a bagger 21 years ago, “then worked every single department throughout the stores, through three levels of management, to the position I’m in now as store manager.”
When she started out in her entry-level position, she didn’t see supermarket work as a long-term career. But, she said, as she continued to grow and mature, she saw the many opportunities that can come to someone who sets her mind on a goal and works hard to achieve it.
Maylor is active in her church and, through her faith, committed to being a role model for younger generations. “I see that the young people these days can have trouble with focus or have a lack of purpose,” she said, “and I believe that, if I can show them how I grew up and became who I am, they can see possibilities.
“I’m hoping, through my position as store manager, that I can reach out to the community and get them interested in working in my field,” she told BusinessWest, “so they can see that there’s more to grocery stores than just stocking shelves.”
There were people at every stage of her career at Stop & Shop who would act as mentors, “teaching me what I didn’t know, but also what I needed to move on to the next step,” she said. “I still talk about all of them, and they have each given me a piece of who I am today.”
For Maylor, that’s what is most important, for her nieces and nephews and all the youths she works with: to help them understand, she said, “and to get the word out that you can make it.”
— Dan Chase

Program Director, Center for Human Development

Sean Hemingway is striving for balance. He directs the Center for Human Development’s Assessment and Juvenile Justice Support programs at the DYS Westfield Youth Service Center, and has been raising three children with his wife while climbing CHD’s ladder of success and working actively in the community. “It’s a struggle not to be all things to everyone,” he said.
When Hemingway was in college, he was hired as a part-time maintenance man at CHD’s Assessment Program. The job gave birth to his career, and he became passionate about working to improve the lives of young people. He wrote a paper titled A Janitor’s Journey Through the Justice System before graduating from UMass with a degree in mental-health studies and at-risk youth.
Hemingway spent his early years at CHD working with young males, but soon rose to the position of assistant program director of CHD’s Terri Thomas Girls Program. He said it was a “monumental life-learning experience, as they were in a [detention] system developed and designed for boys,” adding that their situation really hit home after his daughter was born.
Fifteen years later, he now directs the program for teenage boys and has come full circle.
“These teens have had very challenging, abusive, and neglectful lives,” he said. “Our ultimate goal is to give them tools so they can make better choices. I am working to enact positive change in the young men so when they are released, they don’t reoffend in the same neighborhood situations.”
This juvenile-justice expert and certified instructor in non-violent intervention gives frequent lectures and belongs to several professional groups. To be successful in many arenas involves balance, and Hemingway directs his 53 staff members to do their best for the young people they serve as well as for themselves. “I am passionate about this work, but we need a work/life balance so we don’t burn out,” he said. “It’s a team effort.”
And one that requires stability — for both the staff and the teens they serve — on and off the most difficult playing fields of life.
— Kathleen Mitchell

Assistant Vice President and Branch Manager, PeoplesBank

Lauren Tabin never intended to work in banking. But she’s glad she tried it.
“I came to Peoples in 1996 as a teller, and I honestly came just because I needed benefits; I was managing a candy store prior to that,” she said.
But she took advantage of the organization’s extensive management training program and quickly moved up the ranks; she was promoted several times on the way to her current role as branch manager and assistant vice president, not only running the operations of her office, but overseeing business development and community relations in the Holyoke market.
“I didn’t think this was going to be this much fun,” Tabin said of her accidental career. “I think the reason I’m enjoying myself is because of the great variety of tasks that I’m responsible for.”
She has always enjoyed the mentoring aspect of her job, and that ethos extends into the community, where she teaches young people about financial literacy. “I wish I had that as a kid,” she said. “A lot of families in Holyoke have very limited resources, and I feel the same way about the younger generation just coming into the work world. I want to mentor them and give them the tools to be successful like I was.”
Tabin’s civic involvement extends to her work with Providence Ministries for the Needy, the Holyoke Community Charter School, Girls Inc., and the Holyoke Boys and Girls Club, among others.
“I like to be a motivation to people, to share my story with them and give them hope in hard times,” she said. “I had a child when I was very young and overcame lots of obstacles, and I share my story — that there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I always see potential in everyone.”
It’s especially meaningful for Tabin to be doing this work in Holyoke.
“This is where I was born and raised, and this is where I’m raising my family,” she said. “I want to make a difference in the community where I live, and help make Holyoke a better place. I don’t want to be on the sidelines.”
— Joseph Bednar

Vice President of Commercial Banking, People’s United Bank

Jaimye Hebert has been involved in the theater, in one capacity or another, since she was 7. Together, these experiences have played a big role in helping her become the person — and commercial-banking professional — she is today.
“Theater is … well, theater is where I met my husband,” she started. “Theater is where I developed my ability to speak in front of people. It’s where I learned to have no fear of meeting people. I never would have had the success in my career that I’ve enjoyed if I hadn’t been involved in the theater and been able to push myself in uncomfortable situations, performing in front of hundreds of people. That can’t be taught, and the value of those lessons defies monetary value.”
Hebert’s theatrical résumé includes everything from acting — she counts her performances as Sr. Mary Leo in Nunsense and Nunsense II as perhaps her personal favorites — to stagehand to lighting crew member. She’s been a long-time board member with the Victory Players, and has done extensive work with the Exit 7 Players.
Meanwhile, her professional résumé has ‘summer teller’ as the first line, with other ladder stops, including credit analyst, senior credit analyst, credit officer, portfolio manager, and assistant vice president, before reaching her current position as vice president of Commercial Banking.
She draws a number of parallels between both spheres of her life, with the common denominator being creativity. “I’m a fine-arts minor,” she said. “I’ll be as creative as I need to be to get a deal done, because that’s the way my brain works. I thrive on creativity, which is why I love this job; people don’t equate creativity and commercial lending, but they really are one and the same.”
When not working or performing, Hebert is involved in everything from American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, to the Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield, to youth soccer in Monson, where she coaches the Blueberry Sharks.
All this takes time, and she credits her husband, Jonathon, and her children, Tristan, Sienna, and Paige, with playing strong supporting roles in helping her get it all done.
— George O’Brien

President, left-click Corp.

Kelly Albrecht is a problem solver.
It’s a skill he learned while majoring in philosophy at UMass, never dreaming he would open a computer-repair business that has grown from a tiny ad he put in the Yellow Pages to a million-dollar business with three locations in Amherst and Northampton.
In fact, Albrecht majored in philosophy because he didn’t want to take “a lot of boring entry-level courses,” and didn’t plan on a career in computer science. But he was already knowledgeable in the field because his brothers started programming at a young age. “The documentation of how computers work was easy for me to understand, and I found it interesting,” he said. “But I realized that wasn’t the case for everyone.”
Albrecht was attracted to the logic in philosophy, but when he became frustrated by philosophical problems, he turned to solving computer problems, an effort he found more gratifying. “In philosophy, you troubleshoot an issue where there is conflict and contradiction between what you see in reality and what you think to be true,” he said. “But you can never solve anything. The difference between philosophy and a technical problem is that the technical problem can be solved.”
Today, his background plays a role in the way he manages his company. In short, it helps him work well with people and understand the complexity inherent in teamwork. “The company has tripled in size in the last year,” he said, adding that he opened a second location in Northampton a year ago, and in November rented a third space for a Web-development team.
Albrecht is also the lead organizer for the Western Mass. Drupal Group, which held its first learning camp this year, attended by more than 200 participants.
He said he named his company left-click because the left button on the computer mouse is the one used to execute a course of action. “The right click is more exploratory, but a left click gets the job done,” said the father of three. Which is exactly what he and his team members do every day.
— Kathleen Mitchell

Value Based Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, ITT Power Solutions

Lisa Totz had her 40 Under Forty portrait taken on her bicycle while wearing a business suit. Such imagery, conveying both dedication and physical prowess, would seem appropriate for someone who competes in triathlons and has the words ‘black belt’ included in her job title.
But she laughed when explaining what’s behind the words printed on her business card. “Basically a black belt is someone who is a change agent,” she said, “someone working to improve things around the company.”
And what a change she has made.
For 35 years, ITT had been a paper-based company, with all of its data analysis recorded in print. “That process is so wasteful, though,” she said, “because, first, someone has to analyze all that data, and second, it’s on reams and reams of paper.”
So, as a test engineer, Totz took her data-collections role and transformed it into ‘architect’ for an interfaced, electronic test-data collection system. It’s a technical approach to solving the inefficiency created by all that paper, and, using simple terms, she said it “changes how ITT Power Solutions functions.”
And with one look at what Totz does in her free time, it’s easy to see that efficiency is key to making time for all of her pursuits. Over the years, she’s volunteered time, energy, and imagination to such groups and causes as the Jimmy Fund, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Griffin’s Friends, ITT Watermark, the company’s corporate philanthropy program (which she’s served as site ambassador), and the Wave Triathlon, which she founded in 2009 to benefit the Westfield YMCA Wave Swim Team.
It was for her efforts with the triathlon, which has growing steadily in terms of participation and funds raised, that she received the Westfield YMCA’s Spirit Award, which she counts among the accomplishments of which she is most proud.
A five-time Ironman triathlete, Totz noted that “youths don’t have a lot of good role models these days.” But, through the work she’s done on the job and within the community, she has certainly become one.
— Dan Chase

President and Chief Marketing Officer, LogicTrail, LLC

Alexander Simon’s passion for people and open-minded collaboration are the driving forces that have led this entrepreneur to success. The father of two has worked on many award-winning marketing campaigns, but accolades are not what propel him to work long hours and give his time to a host of civic organizations.
“I’m a people person and have a passion for collaboration that is reflected in my career and my civic responsibilities, and it’s also something I try to instill in my children,” Simon said. “It’s a constant learning; I’m motivated by inviting others to share in cultivating better ideas. I really try to build that with our clients, and it’s wildly satisfying to see a big idea reach the light of day with everyone on board. It’s my nature to try and push the envelope, but only when it’s for the right reasons.”
Simon said he believes strongly in teamwork. He takes pride in getting to know his clients well and says the “intimate” relationships he forms come after listening closely to the way they talk about their world, which helps him create campaigns that break through the clutter.
Simon is a founding member of the Sounding Board for Professional Development, a board member of the Ad Club of Western Mass., a youth coach for the Northampton Recreation Department, and a Look Park Board Development Committee member, and has been engaged in political action committees in Northampton.
“I’m still young and looking for the right opportunity, but I definitely have a passion for working at the civic level,” he said. “We have a responsibility to give back to our cities and towns.”
He founded his company in 2009 and has a small but highly experienced and dedicated staff. “We want to stay youthful, agile, and able to work with different-sized clients and industries, and that means staying small,” he said. “This is my calling, what I’m supposed to be doing. I started my agency to do things in a different way and to enjoy the process. And so far, we’ve been very fortunate to work with some stellar clients.”
— Kathleen Mitchell

Certified Public Accountant, Gomes, DaCruz, and Tracy, P.C.

During the work day, Mark Germain said he mostly specializes in small businesses, “from start-ups to companies with $50 million in sales.”
He said his office helps these companies with all of their accounting and management needs because “a lot of entrepreneurs can run their business, but maybe they need some help with the financial side of things.”
And it was through that dedication to his clients that he found a calling outside the office.
Since 2007, he has been a member of the Assoc. for Community Living (ACL), a Springfield-based organization whose mission is to “create opportunities, build relationships, and improve lives for children and adults with developmental disabilities and for others who will benefit from our services.”
The ACL was started more than 50 years ago by five young mothers of children with developmental disabilities who felt strongly that their families had the right to grow up with dignity in their own home communities. Germain has been the assistant treasurer since 2008, the chair of the Buildings and Property Committee, and a member of the Finance, Audit, Investment, and Executive committees.
He said the ACL “helps people who have struggled to help these youths get to where they are.
“The organization is the link between the family and the state, and we can help them with services,” he continued, “so these children feel more a part of the community than they have been able to. It’s a good bridge for the kids and their families.”
Germain said that involvement in community affairs is something that has always been important to him, even when growing up. “My mentors early in my career always encouraged that, saying it was the right thing to do.”
With two young children of his own, he said he hopes to instill his interest in community to the next generation of Germains. “Spending time with my family is important,” he said, joking, “I’d like to slow down a little.”
Like any successful accountant, of course, he knows the value of the important things.
— Dan Chase

Executive Director, Greater Springfield Habitat for Humanity

The plot of Jennifer Schimmel’s life has taken some unexpected twists.
“I actually had a degree in fine and performing arts, and I always envisioned I’d spend most of my life on stage,” she said. But when she took a job with Lenox-based Shakespeare and Co. in a fund-raising capacity, she found she had a knack for raising money.
That took her to similar positions at Hartford Seminary, an interfaith graduate school, and then the Hartford Area Habitat for Humanity, two faith-based organizations whose missions spoke to her own values.
She eventually accepted the position of executive director at the Greater Springfield Habitat, where she has used her fund-raising and event-planning background to oversee a 113% increase in unrestricted donations to support the mission of providing home-ownership opportunities to low-income families, as well as a 127% jump in special-event support and a 30% increase in volunteer participation.
Those are impressive results, but Schimmel insists she’s the one who is inspired.
“I love getting to know the families, knowing that our families work hard for what they achieve,” she said. “The motto at Habitat is ‘a hand up, not a handout,’ and I love being here; we’re cheerleaders, a support system, educators — but the families do it all for themselves. We guide them, but they really take control of the process.”
Schimmel is committed to supporting Habitat’s efforts internationally as well. She’s certified with the organization’s Global Village Program and will lead a group of 11 people to Guatemala this fall to work with a family in need of affordable shelter — her second such trip. “It’s a life-changing experience,” she said.
Overall, Schimmel simply wants to make a difference, and she was frank with board members of Greater Springfield Habitat when she interviewed for the job.
“I said, ‘if I’m not right for the position, that’s OK — I’d rather go and be a waitress and pay my bills that way and spend my free time devoted to community service if that’s the right thing to do,’” she said. “This job is not about making a paycheck; it’s about making a difference.”
— Joseph Bednar

Assistant Vice President and Secondary Market Officer, PeoplesBank

Kristen Pueschel was talking about her first appearance in the Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day Road Race, but the words she chose to describe her successful completion of the 6.2-mile run would apply to just about everything she does at her job and in her life.
“It’s been a personal goal of mine to do it for years,” she said. “I don’t like being a spectator; I like to get out and do things, so I said to myself, ‘go do it, and do the best you can.’”
She certainly takes this attitude in her position as assistant vice president and secondary market officer at PeoplesBank, where she wears many hats, including that of founding member and current chairman of the Environmental Committee, and also in her extensive work within the community. This includes everything from service on the board of Girls Inc. in Holyoke to membership in Kiwanis International, to participation in the bank’s financial-literacy program in local schools.
And you could say it applies to her personal life as well: she’s engaged to PeoplesBank colleague Xiaolei Hua, with the wedding planned for November.
All this adds up to a complicated balancing act and an extreme exercise in time management, but Pueschel is more than coping — she’s excelling. At PeoplesBank, she started as an intern in the Commercial Loan Department and, later, while overseeing the department, was responsible for new-product development, rolling out a loan-origination software to the bank’s branch network and assisting in the launch of an online home-equity application for consumers. She has been a key contributor to the bank’s strategic plan and a valuable player in its Mortgage Think Tank initiative, which resulted in the revamping of the consumer-lending department.
With the Environmental Committee, she has taken charge of developing earth-friendly policies and procedures at the bank, and played a lead role in the creation of the LEED-certified branch in Springfield.
All this, plus her community work, is packed into each work week. “The weekends — they’re for family,” she said, meaning both hers and Xiaolei’s.
That doesn’t leave much time for spectating, which suits her just fine.
— George O’Brien

Creative Director, DIF Design

Peter Ellis grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia, where, he said, people were ‘going green’ long before that phrase came into vogue in this country.
“Green came naturally to me — stores didn’t have plastic bags; you had to bring your own bags,” he said of an attitude that prevails in Eastern Europe. “We bought local, fresh produce; nothing was shipped across the country. Green was imbedded in me by default, I guess.”
This background, coupled with his desire to help Springfield catch up with Northampton, Boston, and New York in matters involving earth-friendliness, inspired Ellis, founder and creative director of DIF Design, to create something called the  GreenSeal program for businesses in the City of Homes. Creation in conjunction with the city, it recognizes ventures that are making strides in this realm and fosters a greener, more sustainable community.
The program is one of several factors that helped Ellis — who came to the U.S. to study at a seminary, but ultimately decided to take a much different career path — attain the top score among 40 Under Forty nominees. The growth of DIF Design, and the quantity and quality of his work, especially in Web design, was obviously another factor.
The company, which started mostly as a consulting venture in the broad realm of digital imaging, now boasts a number of clients across several sectors, and with each one, DIF works to identify which message needs to be sent, to whom, and how.
“When someone comes to us for help with their Web site, we strategize with them on how to build that site and reach a certain demographic so that it’s not just out there and looks good. It also functions as a piece of their marketing, rather than as just a brochure online.”
In addition to his family — his wife, Meaghan, and two daughters, Avery, 4, and Emery, 2 — Ellis devotes free time to a woodworking hobby (he builds furniture) … and getting tattooed. Indeed, he said most of his chest and arms are covered with images, something most of his clients would never know, and by design.
“Image is everything,” he said. “That’s what I preach.”
— George O’Brien