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As advocate and board president of Environment Rhode Island, Matt Auten’s priority is Rhode Island’s air, water and open space.
One student at a time” is the motto of Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center. For Nancy Diaz Bain, The Met School’s co-director, it’s also the focus of a career that has grown along with the school.
Throughout her career, Rachel Barber has been guided by the words of author, entrepreneur and venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki, who urged listeners to “challenge the known and embrace the unknown.”
Kipp L. Bradford, as co-founder of three consumer or medical startups, including Bionica, is well-established as an engineer, product designer and entrepreneur.
Hard work, dedication and humility” are core values Kenneth Burnett says have guided him since childhood on a lifelong pursuit of excellence.
He’s been to the depths of the seas in a nuclear-powered submarine and climbed to the top management rungs of one of the world’s largest property insurance companies. Through all his varied work experience, Cumberland’s John Busavage has been driven to succeed.
Born in Japan and raised on military bases, Christine Bush became a top achiever at an early age. She graduated in the top 5 percent of her high school class before going on to Mount Holyoke College, from which she graduated cum laude in 1991.
Growing up on the East Side of Providence, Olneyville seemed a confusing maze of imposing buildings to Ethan Colaiace, as “foreign to me as the moon.”
Zachary G. Darrow, managing partner of the Providence and Boston business law firm DarrowEverett, has been most inspired by his late father, Guy Darrow.
Adriana I. Dawson is the only child of immigrant parents who settled in Rhode Island in the early 1970s from Colombia and went to work in textile mills, where Dawson spent several summers working alongside her mother. Today, Dawson is more likely to be the expert to whom textile-makers turn for advice.
There aren’t many people who can combine the grace and agility of a ballet dancer with the intellectual stamina needed to be a successful doctor.
Patrice Dudley-Aviles is director of human resources at Amgen’s Rhode Island facility, but the job title poorly reflects the scope of her responsibilities.
Erik Dyson has overseen the construction of structures both big and small. The Mattapoisett resident started his career with Habitat For Humanity International leading the development of more than 100 new homes in El Salvador. He also led the launch of the nonprofit’s operations in Costa Rica.
How many plumbers can say they also hold a law degree? At least one in Rhode island. That would be Anthony Gemma, president of Gem Plumbing & Heating Service Inc. in Lincoln, a business his father, Larry, started in 1949.
Where does Dr. Sumita Gokhale find the time? Gokhale is a pathologist with University Pathology LLC, a fast-growing group practice out of Roger Williams Medical Center in Providence. She also holds a faculty position at Boston University and has co-authored 17 papers in peer-reviewed journals. And, oh yeah, she is board certified in anatomic and clinical pathology and also in cytopathology.
Joe Hearn is a matchmaker – he finds people who want that wreck or that old rust bucket on wheels no one else wants.
Carissa Hill had not planned to pursue a career in the nonprofit sector a decade ago, when she first joined the United Way of Rhode Island as a temporary fundraiser. But she has stayed because of the fulfillment she finds in working for an organization devoted to improving the lives of others.
Jessica Hill is a busy woman. She is the senior interior designer and project manager at Ed Wojcik Architect in Providence, heading the firm’s interior design division. At the same time, she is the owner and principal of Studio Hill, an interior design firm she founded in January 2006.
Kerri Quinn Jaffe began her career kicking up her heels as a member of the Rockettes, the famously long-legged chorus line of women who dance at Manhattan’s Radio City Music Hall. Jaffe spent a decade with the Rockettes, first as a dancer traveling the country and abroad, and then as one of the Rockettes’ director. In the latter position, Jaffe supervised and directed the cast of the legendary “Radio City Christmas Spectacular,” as well as numerous other special events. She also oversaw the Rockettes’ television and corporate performances, created proposals for Radio City’s senior executives, and hired, managed and evaluated the theater’s hundreds of employees.
As the vice president of business development for Rumford-based New England Construction, Brendan C. Kane has helped triple the company’s annual revenue from $20 million to $60 million in just three years. Kane is responsible for day-to-day oversight of the company’s sales, marketing and branding.
Age has never been a hindrance to Charlie Kroll. While still a student at Brown University in 1999, he founded Keynote Media. The boutique Web-development firm focused on helping clients nationwide leverage Web-based technology as a tool for sales and growth. Its clients included Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, Time Magazine and Brown.
At 25, Rajiv Kumar is young enough to embrace the opportunity in risk, yet old enough to put grand plans for societal change into action.
With the scope of services it offers, one might think that the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Newport boasts a staff the size of a large company. But in reality, the center – which offers after-school programs, a preschool and meals to needy Aquidneck Island families – employs fewer than 20 workers. And that’s largely a testament to the vast responsibilities its leader, Amanda Frye Leinhos, takes on.
When Elizabeth Lewis moved to Rhode Island in 2002 with her husband, Lanny, and 2-year-old daughter, Ella Grace, it was for a career opportunity for him and “the adventure of the unknown,” she says.
When asked to describe the most influential person in his career, Lee Lewis said “there are over 9,000.” That’s a lot of inspiration from a lot of people, but when you are the president and chief staff officer with more than 9,000 students at Junior Achievement of Rhode Island (JARI), the number of inspiring individuals makes perfect sense.
A significant understanding of statistical analysis and technical platforms has facilitated Connie Loveland’s move from the gaming and leisure industry to the banking sector.
Daniel W. Majcher may have more influence on state government than people who have been around Rhode Island politics for longer than his 35 years.
It’s the American dream to work your way to the top. For Frank Marini, the mail room of a tour operations company was the first rung on a ladder he has been climbing for 14 years.
A Wisconsin native, Spencer C. McCombe found his way to Rhode Island during the early 1990s, when he enrolled in a five-year Bachelor of Architecture program at Roger Williams University, also earning his National Council of Architectural Registration Boards certificate.
Sonia M. Millsom began her career in health care far away from the Ocean State. About 3,480 miles away, actually.
While co-founding BatchBlue Software in Barrington in 2006, Pamela M. O’Hara wrote the company’s business plan, recruited a technical team – many of whom were culled from Amazon.com staff – and recruited local, national and international product testers.
During her 15-year career at MetLife Auto & Home in Warwick, Erin Plaziak has learned that working for a large corporation has its benefits, including a path up the ladder through diverse positions, ranging from company representative to communications editor to marketing researcher.
Patrick Quinn joined Tofias PC three years ago, and has played a key role in the growth of the firm’s Rhode Island branch, which has more than doubled its revenue and size since his arrival.
Kenneth W. Robinson never got to meet him, but he says the late Robert F. Kennedy is responsible for starting him on a successful career path.
During her early years practicing law, there was one person to whom Amy B. Spagnole, a partner at Hinckley Allen & Snyder, always could go to discuss difficult problems: her grandmother, an Italian immigrant who was never able to attend school or college.
Mattie Simmons was the owner of a small independent pharmacy in Laurel, Md., when she gave Papatya Tankut, then 16, her first pharmacy job.
When the state’s economic development leaders talk about attracting workers in the innovation economy to Rhode Island, they are talking about Allan Tear.
Jack Templin is well known in the Rhode Island information technology community as the co-founder of the Providence Geeks and RI Nexus. But the path he has taken to get there is worth reviewing.
Judith Ventura knows the value of hard work. After completing her undergraduate degree in management at Bryant University, Ventura (as she is known professionally, her married name is Ventura Enright) went to work and attended Bryant part time to add a concentration in accounting. Not that she was just marking time in her job for Structure (a division of The Limited) in Cranston – she climbed to store manager in three years and was eventually named one of the company’s 50 best store managers in the country.
Eric Weiner’s resume is simple yet revealing. He went to Johnson & Wales University and graduated in 1993. And he is still the CEO of the company he founded while a student at JWU, All Occasion Transportation.
