MountainOne Named a 2025 Best Places to Work by Boston Business Journal

11:25AM / Sunday, May 11, 2025Print Story | Email Story

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — MountainOne announced that it has been named a 2025 Best Places to Work by the Boston Business Journal.

The Boston Business Journal's annual ranking showcases the Massachusetts companies that excel in fostering and sustaining exceptional work environments for their employees, according to a press release. The 100 companies honored in 2025 range in size and industry, with winners from various sectors, including financial, technology, retail, and health care.

"At MountainOne, we believe that a strong, supportive workplace culture is the foundation for success – not just for our employees, but for the communities we serve," said Beth Petropulos, Senior Vice President, Senior Human Resources & SAFE Act Officer at MountainOne. "We are honored by this recognition from the Boston Business Journal and will continue to foster an environment where every employee feels valued, empowered, and inspired to grow."

The businesses that met criteria for office location and size participated in employee-engagement surveys distributed by Business Journal partner Quantum Workplace. Employees were asked to rate their work environment, work-life balance, job satisfaction, advancement opportunities, management, compensation, and benefits. Based on the results of those surveys, businesses were assigned a score out of 100 percent and ranked by Quantum, stated a press release.

"The companies that comprise this year's Best Places to Work are among the most diverse in the decades we've been doing this program," said Carolyn Jones, Market President and Publisher of the Boston Business Journal. "Their commitment to teamwork, employee engagement, flexibility and trust are the model to which the region's businesses look for inspiration."

The Best Places to Work celebration will be held on June 12 at The Westin Copley Place. A special publication honoring the Top Places to Work winners will appear in the June 13 weekly edition of the Boston Business Journal.

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North Adams Becomes a Purple Heart Community

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
05:16AM / Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Veterans Service Officer Kurtis Durocher, a Purple Heart recipient, tells his own story of how he was wounded in Iraq.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — City leaders last week held a ceremony marking the city as a Purple Heart Community to honor local military service members wounded or killed in combat.

"This designation is much more than a sign that will stand at the entrances to our city," said Kurtis Durocher, Northern Berkshire veterans service officer at City Hall on Friday. "It is a lasting commitment and a promise to this community. We'll never forget the sacrifices made by those who are wounded or killed while serving our nation. It is a public declaration of the courage and sacrifices of combat wounded. Veterans will always have a place of honor here in North Adams."

As a Purple Heart Community, North Adams will place signs throughout the city acknowledging the designation. The city will also hold a ceremony every Aug. 7 on National Purple Heart Day.

During the inaugural ceremony, Durocher said he was asked by the Military Order of the Purple Heart to find a keynote speaker for the event, preferably a Purple Heart recipient. But he was unable to find someone willing to speak. With the date approaching, he decided to tell his own story.

"I don't like standing up and telling my own personal story ... But I realized, in my position as a VSO, I get so many ... children of veterans who will say, 'I didn't know anything about my father until after he passed because he just didn't talk about it,'" Durocher said. "... I have been that way until I've gotten into this position, and so, now, I try to tell my story as much as I can when it is brought to me."

Durocher served in the Army for 20 years and retired as a master sergeant. On Friday, he recalled a time early in his career while serving in the 82nd Airborne Division deploying to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. On Sept. 12, 2003, his squad was conducting a patrol on Route Irish in Baghdad. He was serving as a gunner on an LMTV when it was struck by a 155-millimeter artillery shell. He said the explosive had been hidden behind a guardrail and detonated using nothing more than a washing machine timer.

"In an instant, everything changed. The blast knocked me unconscious. When I regained consciousness, I instinctively was removing my helmet," he said. "Almost immediately my training took over. We had been taught repeatedly that attacks like this were often followed by a secondary attack or an ambush. I quickly put my helmet back on and began searching for my machine gun."

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