Page 41 - BusinessWest January 23, 2023

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE>>
MEGAN LAGOY
UMassFive College Federal Credit Union announced that Megan Lagoy has been pro- moted to assistant vice presi- dent (AVP) of Loan Operations. Lagoy began her career at UMassFive in 2012 as a call-cen- ter representative before taking on other various Contact Center
roles, eventually becoming assistant vice presi- dent of the Contact Center and Interactive Teller Machine department. More recently, she held direct oversight of UMassFive’s flagship Hadley branch in the position of assistant vice president of Retail Ser- vices. Her various roles at the credit union over the past 10 years have prepared her for this transition to assistant vice president of Loan Operations.
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Girls Inc. of the Valley recently welcomed five new
members to its board of directors: Nikai Fondon, George Keady, Alaina Macaulay, Cheri Mills, and Ciara Speller. These new members join the current board of directors to support strategic planning to map out the future of the organization. Fondon has worked at Marketing Doctor Inc. since January as
a marketing specialist and previously worked at the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts (CFWM) as a donor-engagement coordinator and scholarship program associate for four years. She currently serves as a board member for the Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield (YPS). She has been a panelist for the 2020 Girls and Rac- ism Virtual Town Hall and has worked with Girls Inc. teens on creative writing and marketing projects. She was recognized as a Dream Maker at Spirit
of Girls 2022. Keady has worked at UBS Financial Services/Wealth Management in Springfield for 39 years and, upon retirement this year, was a manag- ing director. He has served as a board member for CFWM and Saint Michael’s College, and was a chair- person for Glenmeadow Retirement Community and Bay Path University. He has been a long-time champion for girls and friend of Girls Inc. Macaulay
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is the senior director for Inclusion and Strategic Engagement at UMass Amherst. She worked previ- ously at UMass Amherst Isenberg School of Man- agement for three years as the executive director
of Diversity and Inclusion and, before that, at Elms College as the director of Diversity and Inclusion for two years. She has been involved with Girls
Inc. through support of the 2020 Girls and Racism Virtual Town Hall. She currently serves as a board member for YPS and Chester Theatre Co. Mills has worked at PeoplesBank for eight years as a Business Banking manager and is currently the assistant vice president. She has been involved with Girls Inc. as a volunteer through the finance committee this past year. She also served on the corporate and commu- nity impact committee and helped secure sponsor- ship commitments for Spirit of Girls 2022. Speller has worked at WWLP as an evening anchor for five years. She has been involved with Girls Inc. for the past couple of years, including as the moderator
for the 2020 Girls and Racism Virtual Town Hall and host for Spirit of Girls 2021. She and WWLP did the news broadcast live for Spirit of Girls 2022 on loca- tion at the Big E, where she was also a recipient of a Girls Inc. Dream Maker award. She also serves as a board member for the nonprofit I Found Light Against All Odds.
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New England Public Media
show’s digital producer and will join Belmonte on air. Belmonte plans to bring some of his regular guests and popular segments to the live, daily pro- gram, along with new segments and opportunity for regular audience call-ins. The show will be available as a podcast and on YouTube. Belmonte will also have a presence at NEPM events and other station initiatives.
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After a yearlong national search, the board of direc-
tors at Jewish Family Service of Western Massa- chusetts (JFSWM) announced the hiring of a new CEO, Rabbi James Greene, who brings more than two decades of expertise in the Jewish nonprofit world from the interdenominational space of Jewish community centers (JCCs) and independent camps. JFS’s current CEO, Maxine Stein, whose vision and leadership was responsible for the agency’s unprec- edented growth and expansion during her tenure, will retire at the end of January 2023. After 20 years of professional communal work, Greene sees the need for bringing core Jewish values to the work
of building a stronger community and is excited
by the challenge of empowering people to build better lives and growing organizational capacity to meet the needs of this unique moment at JFS. He spent nine years in the JCC movement, first as the program director at the Addison-Penzak JCC, and more recently as the assistant executive director for the Springfield JCC. In early 2020, he stepped into Jewish camping full-time as the executive director at Camp Laurelwood, where he successfully guided the agency through the pandemic, grew fundraising and grant revenue, took new programs from vision to successful execution in partnership with com- munity agencies around the state, and oversaw the creation of a strategic vision to guide the organiza- tion into the future. Greene has a bachelor’s degree in Holocaust and Judaic studies from Florida Atlan- tic University, and a master’s degree in Hebrew let- ters rabbinic ordination from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.
“Now, our three kids are always on the job sites with us.”
those longtime subs, she knew it would be fun for her, too.
“My father really had such a great process. Even
if you didn’t like my dad, you definitely respected him because he was an astute businessman, and he was just on top of it. All his subs respected him, and that transferred to me nicely. He taught me a lot, so I know what to expect from everyone, and it was very fluid.”
It’s just another way Bercume Builders has been
a generational success story — one that occupies Nicole’s earliest memories, when she’d visit Ron at job sites. “And now, our three kids are always on the job sites with us.”
Because it’s never too early to introduce them to the family business. BW
MONTE BELMONTE
>>
es of land; at one point, Ron settled a notable case with Tofino Associates of Hadley over a roadway issue in the Amherst Hills development near the Belcher- town line.
Bass was recently recognized by Lawyers of Dis- tinction as one of the top 10% civil-litigation attorneys in Massachusetts. Meanwhile, over the past couple years, Nicole was transitioning away from the prac- tice into her new role leading Bercume Builders.
“My father did teach me everything; once we had our kids and moved back here, that’s when he taught me everything.”
Ron typically built large homes with “classy, simple interiors, not a lot of clutter,” Nicole said, noting that homes in the new development start at 3,000 square feet, and typically feature open floor plans, high-end appliances, and maple flooring — and each was built in just four months. After her third house on Colony, she said she’s on the cusp of buying more land to develop a subdivision like the Shattuck/Sapphire project.
Woman’s Work
At a time when it’s still uncommon for a woman to lead a building firm (see related story on page 25), Bercume doesn’t particularly care if people question her abilities, noting that the subs who worked with her father for, in some cases, decades know what she can do — and they know she’s committed to her father’s values.
“My dad’s greatest skill was that he had good taste; he picked out all the plans himself. People always say you know when a home is a Bercume home because they’re attractive and clean and classy-looking,” she said. “Construction defects were never an issue for him because, the second there was a problem, my dad, who could never sit still, would take care of it.
“He always did higher-end homes for whatever the era was,” she continued. “He liked big homes; the big- ger he could build, the more fun it was for him.”
And when she got her Massachusetts construction license and reaffirmed her working relationships with
has hired local radio personal- ity Monte Belmonte as host and executive producer of a new radio show and podcast celebrating life in Western Mass. Belmonte comes to New Eng- land Public Media (NEPM) from 93.9 the River/WRSI, where he’s “Mornings with Monte” since
hosted the popular
2006. The new show and podcast will launch later this winter. Belmonte will be joined by Kaliis Smith, who also comes to NEPM from the River, where she hosted weekday evenings and was a regular guest on “Mornings with Monte.” Smith will be the
Bercume
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