Category Archives: Personnel Briefs

Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP announced that Donald T. Kinsella has joined the firm as senior counsel and Robert J. McLaughlin has joined as of counsel.
Kinsella joins Whiteman Osterman & Hanna with more than four decades of experience in complex criminal and civil litigation. He prosecuted and defended several significant high profile federal and state criminal cases in New York. He is a former chief of the Criminal Division of the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York.
McLaughlin will continue to focus his practice on gaming and lottery law, financial transactions and government compliance.
McLaughlin counsels gaming vendors, online gaming providers, state lotteries, and other entities in matters involving compliance with the complex federal and state regulation governing the gaming industry.
As bond counsel, he has represented the state Dormitory Authority, the state Environmental Facilities Corp., where he was the former general counsel, and the state Energy Resource and Development Authority/New York Green Bank. He has also represented numerous industrial development agencies and municipalities in the state.

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The Arrow Family of Companies recently announced the appointments of senior vice president Christine Snow to director of customer experience and senior vice president Marc Yrsha to director of relationship banking for Glens Falls National Bank and Trust Co. and Saratoga National Bank and Trust Co.
In her new role, Snow will oversee the customer experience unit, which includes the call center, and deposit, loan and branch operations. Together these teams care for our customers and ensure a positive and unified customer experience across many different business lines.
Snow joined the company in 2016 and most recently served as senior vice president of branch administration, overseeing all branch and call center functions.
In his new role, Yrsha will oversee the retail banking unit which includes frontline sales teams for retail, consumer, business and municipal banking, as well as small business and home equity lending. Together these teams will continue to focus on the customer and growing relationships in all our communities.

The Towne Law Firm PC announced the addition of recently retired state Appellate Division Justice Eugene Devine and attorney Jessica A. Rounds to its team.
Eugene, an Albany native, has been in private practice for more than 30 years, with a focus in the fields of pension/health insurance, labor, commercial, banking, real estate, and criminal law. He was elected justice of the New York Supreme Court in 2006. In 2014, he was appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court, Third Department.
Before taking the bench, he was the Albany County public defender overseeing a staff of 35 attorneys and was also the chief attorney for the Albany County Department of Social Services.
Rounds is an associate attorney in the firm’s Albany office, focusing in the areas of civil litigation, commercial litigation, professional malpractice, personal injury, and general negligence.

Morgan Stanley has named Rhonda Viapiano as branch manager of its Albany branch office.
The Albany branch is part of three locations in the capital region for which she has oversight, including the Latham, and Saratoga Springs branch offices.
Viapiano has spent her entire 35 year career in financial services, performing a variety of roles in capital markets, sales, operations and field management.
Outside her role as branch manager, she is co-chair of Morgan Stanley’s National Diversity and Inclusion Council. In September 2018, Viapiano was named among the Top 10 branch managers by On Wall Street. In 2019, she was named a Morgan Stanley MAKER, a class of trailblazing women of accomplishment nominated by their peers. She has also spearheaded several educational forums in support of women business owners.

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Saratoga Hospital’s Saratoga Community Health Center has added a fifth primary care provider, Dr. Sophia Conroy, to help keep pace with increased demand for these services.
She joins Drs. Renee Rodriguez-Goodemote and Alexander Cardiel, family nurse practitioner Claudina Ashelman and physician assistant Kelly McAree on the primary care team.

Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Blake Realtors announced that Mary Ellen Boese has joined the staff as a licensed real estate agent.
Boese has lived and worked in Saratoga Springs for more than 20 years.
She received her masters in business administration degree from Sage graduate school.
Boese is an active outdoor enthusiast. She resides in Saratoga Springs with her daughter and son.

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Seeley Office Systems has hired Ashtin Givens as a business development specialist.
Givens brings with her nearly six years of experience in business development and client management. She has worked in many different industries and has helped support organizations both big and small.
She holds a B.S. in human development and family relations from SUNY Plattsburgh.
In her roles prior to joining Seeley Office Systems, Givens was responsible for cultivating new business relationships in the greater Capital Region.

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Elliot Edwards has been named vice president of retail banking at Ballston Spa National Bank (BSNB).
Edwards will oversee customer service and sales initiatives for the retail banking department and manage retail deposit activities in support of the bank’s overall goals and strategic initiatives.

Geoffrey S. Mullen has been hired as a partner at Teal, Becker & Chiaramonte (TBC).
Mullen comes to TBC with 25 years of experience working in public accounting.
He has extensive experience in real estate partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, private equity portfolio companies; technology companies; state and local taxation and tax credits; flow-through companies; consolidated corporate tax filings; international tax planning; and real estate transaction planning.

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The Towne Law Firm announced a major expansion of its professional team and its geographic reach to accommodate increasing client needs in multiple jurisdictions throughout the Northeast.
The firm now has 24 attorneys based in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., including new offices in Glens Falls; Arlington, Mass.; and Sparta, N.J.

The Saratoga Automobile Museum announced that Abby Ingraham was hired as the new director of development.
Ingraham’s background and diverse experience in account management and building partnerships is anticipated to strengthen and expand current museum fundraising and sponsorships. In addition, Ingraham will be responsible for overseeing the museum’s growing membership base.
Ingraham, a Capital Region native, attended The College of Saint Rose and holds a B.A. in public communications. She has worked for nonprofit associations over the past decade.
Her most recent position was with the Northeastern Retail Lumber Association in East Greenbush as director of associate memberships and partnerships. Prior to her role with the Northeastern Retail Lumber Association, Ingraham was a senior account executive for ISSA – The Worldwide Cleaning Industry Association in Albany and Chicago.

DeAngelus Goralczyk, PLLC (DG Law) announced that Rebecca Borden has joined the firm.
Borden brings over two decades of experience in practicing law, with a concentration in the areas of commercial and residential real estate, banking and corporate law, and title insurance clearance and curative matters.
Borden received a Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, from Skidmore College in 1995. She earned a Juris Doctorate from Northeastern University School of Law in 1998.
Her work history includes handling all aspects of loss mitigation foreclosure alternatives on both commercial and residential properties, including handling title claims and title curative work. Additional areas of practice include zoning and land use, condominium law and formations, and business and banking law and commercial transactions.

Harris-Pero Legal Counsel, PLLC, of Saratoga Springs, recently named Jessica R. Botelho, Esq. as a partner at the firm, now Harris-Pero & Botelho, PLLC.

Botelho joined the firm last May after gaining significant experience in the areas of estate planning, trust and estate settlements, and elder law at firms in Glens Falls and Albany.

She graduated from Albany Law School in 2014, after receiving a B.A. in psychology from the University at Albany. Her practice focuses in the areas of estate planning, trust and estate settlements, and elder law.

Morgan Stanley announced that Kathleen Grasmeder, managing director, portfolio management director, financial advisor in the firm’s Glens Falls and Oneonta Wealth Management offices, has been named to Forbes Magazine’s list of Top Women Wealth Advisors for 2020, listed on forbes.com.
The “Top Women Wealth Advisors” is a select group of individuals who have a minimum of seven years of industry experience. The ranking, developed by Forbes’ partner SHOOK Research, is based on an algorithm of qualitative and quantitative data, rating thousands of wealth advisors and weighing factors like revenue trends, AUM, compliance records, industry experience and best practices learned through telephone and in-person interviews.

Kathleen Occhiogrosso, SPHR, SHRM-SCP has joined Saratoga Human Resources Solutions, Inc. as a senior human resources consultant.

Occhiogrosso will be responsible for working with business clients to address and solve their HR challenges.

Occhiogrosso brings over 30 years of HR leadership experience to her new role. She is experienced in all facets of HR including employee engagement, HR department operations and performance metrics, labor relations, compensation, recruiting, compliance, and benefits. 

She has served as vice president of HR/CHRO for the Seton Health System, now part of St. Peters Health Partners; vice president of HR/CHRO for St. Mary’s Healthcare in Amsterdam and director of human resources for Logistics One in Saratoga Springs.