Berkshire Chamber President Resigning in January

Berkshire Chamber's Michael Supranowicz, right, with Brian Fairbank at the first Buy in the Berkshires event. Supranowicz is leaving the chamber after seven years as president.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Michael Supranowicz is in a position to see plenty of jobs pass over his desk.

But a particular one for Hillcrest Educational Centers, he said, "struck a chord with me."

Enough of a chord that the president and chief executive officer of the Berkshire Chamber of Commerce decided it was time for a change.

Supranowicz will leave the chamber after nearly 15 years at the end of January to work on workforce development for Hillcrest.

"I had no plans and was not seeking employment outside the chamber," he said on Friday afternoon. "What had happened was an opportunity crossed my desk from one of our members who was trying to fill a position."

Supranowicz, 58, said digging into his specialties of workforce development and education was "something I'd like to spend the next five or six years on." Something, he said, he could leave a "Mike Supranowicz mark on."

He informed staff and his board members of his decision Thursday. He will stay on with the organization until the end of January to aid the transition team being put in place to find his replacement and to complete some current chamber efforts.

"I've got an enormous amount of work here to finish up by year's end," said Supranowicz, including presenting a budget, next week's monthly chamber breakfast and North Adams mayoral debate, nominating committees for board members, among others. "One thing I promised my current board is I would leave this place in good shape."

Chamber leaders say finding a replacement won't be easy, both because of the numerous initiatives he's taken on and his complex responsibilities as vice president and chief operating officer of 1Berkshire, the umbrella organization created to coordinate the county's economic development and marketing strategies.

"He bleeds chamber blood," said chamber Chairman Peter Stasiowski. The nitty gritty details of economic development that "can make another person's eyes glaze over ... that's what really gets his motor running."

Stasiowski said he had spoken with 1Berkshire Chairman Reggie Cooper and that the group's leaders will meet next week to determine the next steps in replacing Supranowicz. A transition team will be named to oversee a search committee, and a job description will have to be developed.

They could look for someone with the same experience or it could be a chance to look for someone with a different skill set, he said. "I think by a week from now, we'll have a better description."

Cooper said the next chamber president "will have to be someone who can think bigger than just the chamber ... to really see how the pieces fit together. "

Cutting the ribbon last January with Mayor Daniel Bianchi at the new Berkshire Bank branch.

He began his career with Adams Supermarkets and its successor, D'Amours Big Y. He became involved with the former Adams Chamber of Commerce, eventually becoming its volunteer president, and continued his activity with the group when it merged with the North Adams to become the Northern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce.

Supranowicz becames its executive director in 1998 and then vice president and chief operating officer of the newly merged Berkshire Chamber of Commerce in 2001, and then president in 2005.

It was a tough decision to leave, he said, but much of what he'd done over the past 14 years revolved around workforce development and education — and working with politicians, business and educational leaders, non-profits and the communities.

"It's everything I've been doing for everyone else ... now I will just be doing it for one company."

An important element of Hillcrest is its recognition that medical care, particularly the dental care it's pioneered here in the Berkshires, has in educational development, he said.

"People feel better about their lives, which means they feel better about school, which means they learn better, which means they become more productive students, which means they become less incumbent on remedial work to get into college and we end up with a better work force," said Supranowicz.

"I really thought about the impact I could have as a person on a community of less fortunate people," he said. "This is something I could do. For me to be able to give something back seems the right thing to do."

Sheffield Craftsman Offering Workshops on Windsor Chairs

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
10:30AM / Sunday, March 29, 2026

Andrew Jack uses hand tools in his wood working shop. 

SHEFFIELD, Mass. — A new workshop is bringing woodworking classes and handmade items.

Andrew Jack specializes in Windsor chairs and has been making them for almost 20 years.

He recently opened a workshop at 292 South Main St. as a space for people to see his work and learn how to do it.

"This is sort of the next, or latest iteration of a business that I've kind of been limping along for a little while," he said. "I make Windsor chairs from scratch, and this is an effort to have a little bit more of a public-facing space, where people can see the chairs, talk about options, talking about commissions.

"I also am using it as a space to teach workshops, which for the last 10 years or so I've been trying to do out of my own personal workshop at home."

Jack graduated in 2008 from State University of New York at Purchase, and later met woodworker Curtis Buchanan, who inspired him.

"Right after I finished there, I was feeling a little lost. I wasn't sure how to make the next steps and afford a workspace. And the machine tooling that I was used to using in school." he said, "Right after I graduated, I crossed paths with a guy named Curtis Buchanan, and he was demonstrating making really refined Windsor chairs with not much more than some some flea market tools, and I saw that as a great, low overhead way to keep working with wood."

Jack moved into his workshop last month with help from his wife. He is renting the space from the owners of Magic Flute, who he says have been wonderful to work with.

"My wife actually noticed the 'for rent' sign out by the road, and she made the initial call to just see if we get some more information," he said. "It wasn't on my radar, because it felt like kind of a big leap, and sometimes that's how it's been in my life, where I just need other people to believe in me more than I do to, you know, really pull the trigger."

Jack does commissions and while most of his work is Windsor chairs, he also builds desks and tables, and does spoon carving. 

Windsor chairs are different because of the way their backs are attached into the seat instead of being a continuous leg and back frame.

"A lot of the designs that I make are on the traditional side, but I do some contemporary stuff as well. And so usually the legs are turned on a lathe and they have sort of a fancy baluster look to them, or they could be much more simple," he said. "But the solid seat that separates the undercarriage from the backrest and the arms and stuff is sort of one of the defining characteristics of a Windsor."

He hopes to help people learn the craft and says it's rewarding to see the finished product. In the future, he also hopes to host other instructors and add more designs for the workshop.

"The prime impact for the workshops is to give close instruction to people that are interested in working wood with hand tools or developing a new skill. Or seeing what's possible with proper guidance," Jack said. "Chairs are often considered some of the more difficult or complex woodworking endeavors, and maybe less so Windsor chairs, but there is a lot that goes into them, and being able to kind of demystify that, or guide people through the process is quite rewarding."

People can sign up for classes on his website; some classes are over a couple and others a couple of weekends.

"I offer a three-day class for, a much, much more simple, like perch, kind of stool, where most of the parts are kind of pre-made, and students can focus on the joinery that goes into it and the carving of the seat, again, all with hand tools. And then students will leave with their own chair," he said.

"The longer classes run similarly, although there's quite a bit more labor that goes into those. So I provide all the turned parts, legs and stretchers and posts and things, but students will do all the joinery and all the seat carving the assembly. And they'll split and shave and shape their own spindles, and any of the bent parts that go into the chair."

His gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday 10 a.m to 2 p.m., and Monday and Tuesday by appointment.