MountainOne Elects New Board Members

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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — MountainOne Chair Daniel Bosley announced the election of two new Trustees to the board of MountainOne Financial, MHC. 
 
Antony Haynes and Karen Zink were elected to fill vacant positions on the Board of Trustees, and were also simultaneously elected as Directors of MountainOne Financial, Inc. and MountainOne Bank.
 
"The entire Board looks forward to working with Antony and Karen," Bosley said. "Their excellent reputations and deep histories of professional service and community engagement will be extremely beneficial to MountainOne."
 
MountainOne President & CEO Robert Fraser noted, "I am thrilled to welcome Antony and Karen to the MountainOne family. I look forward to their strategic oversight and contributions to the future of MountainOne."
 
 Since 2015 Antony Haynes has been Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives and Assistant Professor of Law; Director of Cybersecurity and Privacy Law at Albany Law School. In this role, Mr. Haynes has been responsible for developing the law school's cyber-security curriculum and its on-line academic program. He is also an experienced litigator focusing on intellectual property, securities, and criminal defense.
 
Mr.  Haynes grew up in the West Palm Beach, Fla. area and graduated from the United States Air Force Academy with a degree in Computer Science. He subsequently earned a Master of Science Degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In addition to graduating from the USAF Academy, Mr. Haynes taught courses there in programming, developed the Academy's Information Assurance curriculum and created the intercollegiate Cyber Defense Exercise. He also earned his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.
 
Mr. Haynes and his wife, Leticia S.E. Haynes, live in Williamstown with their children.
 
Karen Zink has been an active member of the MountainOne Berkshire Community Advisory Committee since 2019. Ms. Zink spent 37 years with Berkshire Gas, most recently as President & COO from 2004 until her retirement in December 2018. In this role she effectively led the organization through numerous  changes, including three mergers, a 17-year performance based rate plan, 100 percent achievement of exceptional service quality results, a 13-month labor dispute, a complex moratorium of the Company's so-called Eastern Division, and much more. Prior to her retirement, she led Berkshire Gas to reach a Settlement Agreement with the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office, resulting in a new multi-year rate plan that created value for the customers and the Company.  Ms. Zink holds an MBA from Western New England University and graduated with a degree in Finance from Central Connecticut State University. She is active in the community and has previously been a board member of 1Berkshire and the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council.  Karen is currently the board chair of Berkshire Film & Media Collaborative and is a board member of Berkshire Business & Professional Women, where she also serves as Co-Chair of its Mentoring Committee. She lives in Pittsfield with her husband, Rich, and has two grown children.

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BCC Sees $1M in Federal Funds for Trades Academy

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

U.S. Rep. Richard Neal secured $995,000 to begin design and construction of the academy. The congressman had earlier attended the Norman Rockwell Museum business breakfast, which celebrated Laurie Norton Moffatt's 49 years leading the institution.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Berkshire Community College was awarded nearly $1 million in federal funds to support a Trades Academy. 

On Thursday, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal visited the college to highlight the $995,000 he secured through congressionally directed spending. Executive Director of Workforce and Community Education Linda Clairmont said BCC can be a destination for adults who want to learn a skilled trade. 

"I want to join up with the amazing work that Taconic and McCann (vocational high schools) are doing to prepare people for these really specific skills, helping people become confident professionals with a direct path to high-wage, high-demand jobs," she explained. 

"And we're also addressing the labor shortage that exists in this county, around the state, and around the country, in the skilled trades." 

The federal funding will support a feasibility study of an existing vacant building on campus, as well as the evaluation and abatement of any hazardous materials at the location, because it was once a power plant. 

BCC will dip its toe into the skilled trades with its first HVAC training program, for which it received $1.2 million from the state in support. The $995,000 in federal funds will go toward creating the academy in a building located on the main campus, and the HVAC heat pump training program will be funded by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. 

The $1 million in federal monies will get the college to construction documents, maybe fund some construction, and help identify the necessary equipment and other learning space needs for a skilled trade, Clairmont reported. 

The funding is part of more than $14 million in congressionally directed spending secured by the congressman to support economic development, workforce training, and community infrastructure across the Berkshires.

Neal said there are about 6.5 million jobs in the United States that go unanswered every day.

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