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Business Briefs: New topiary garden for BBG; Berkshire Leadership Forum; Pietrantone joins Jacob’s Pillow; BCC interim nursing director; succession planning seminar

A.J. Pietrantone joins Jacob’s Pillow with more than 30 years experience as an executive at a broad range of nonprofits.

Berkshire Botanical Garden receives gift of topiary garden

Stockbridge — Berkshire Botanical Garden has received a gift of a world-class topiary garden, donated by Lucy and Nat Day of Greenwich, Connecticut.

Topiaries donated by Lucy and Nat Day of Greenwich, Connecticut, arrive at Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge. Photo: Robin Parow

The donated garden is considered one of the finest topiary collections in North America and includes 23 large, custom-designed topiaries in nine different vignettes including cavorting frogs; a hunting dog and pheasant; a yew wing chair and boxwood easy chair; and Jumbo the elephant, with his multi-ton root ball, howdah with glass ball finials, and water-spouting trunk.

“The donation of this beautiful, established, collection brings a wonderfully dynamic, sculptural element to the Garden,” said BBG board chairman and topiarist Matt Larkin of Grant Larkin design company in Richmond, “and its relocation nearly 100 miles to Stockbridge is unprecedented. Topiary gardens of this scope are quite rare, and to pick one up and move it is unheard of.”

Moving a topiary garden of this size has required a team effort at both locations. The topiaries are being hand-dug by Dennis Gendron and a crew of 10 from Twin Brooks Gardens in Millbrook, New York. The pieces are being removed with a crane operated by Thad Tomlinson of Berkshire Crane in Lanesborough. Once loaded into trucks, the topiaries are being trucked more than three hours to BBG, off-loaded and temporarily housed on wooden pallets to await their planting within the next week.

–E.E.

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A workshop gets underway at the Board Leadership forum held Oct. 13 at Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Great Barrington. Photo: John Dolan

Berkshire Leadership Forum draws nearly 100 nonprofits

Great Barrington — Leaders from nearly 100 nonprofit organizations in the tri-state area gathered Saturday, Oct. 13, at Bard College at Simon’s Rock for the first-ever Board Leadership Forum. The day-long training and networking opportunity drew more than 180 volunteer board leaders and over 50 executive directors from nonprofits that aim to strengthen communities in Berkshire County as well as northwest Litchfield County in Connecticut, and Columbia and northeast Dutchess counties in New York.

Sponsored by Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, the Northwest Connecticut Community Foundation and the Foundation for Community Health, the forum featured nine workshops by experts on governance, fundraising and change management from around the region. The day began with a keynote address on the topic of nonprofit resilience by Rodney Christopher of Fiscal Management Associates, who highlighted the work of the North East Community Center in Millerton, New York.

Nonprofits of all sizes and budgets were represented at the forum. Workshops focused on a range of current topics in the field, including the business case for diversity; how to close major gifts in partnership with board members; recruiting and engaging effective boards; the use of data and evaluation in planning; and the impact of organizational culture on a nonprofit’s strategic direction.

–E.E.

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Pietrantone joins Jacob’s Pillow as deputy director

A.J. Pietrantone. Photo: Steve Friedman

Becket — Jacob’s Pillow has announced that nonprofit executive A.J. Pietrantone will join the organization as deputy director beginning Monday, Oct. 22.

Pietrantone joins Jacob’s Pillow with more than 30 years experience as an executive at a broad range of nonprofits. Most recently, he served as the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation’s chief operating and financial officer, and provided high-level support to its finance and investment committees, which oversaw a $12 million annual operating and grant-making budget as well as stewardship of $150 million in charitable assets. He has held senior finance and administrative positions with organizations focused on the arts, social services, civil rights and the environment, including national nonprofits Environmental Defense Fund and the Human Rights Campaign.

Based in New York City from 1997 to 2014, Pietrantone served as the executive director of Friends of Hudson River Park and as executive vice president of KidRo Productions. His volunteer efforts include a seven-year term chairing the board of Dance Exchange of Takoma Park, Maryland, from 1995 to 2002. A graduate of the Catholic University of America, Pietrantone earned his Master of Business Administration in finance and investments at George Washington University. He currently resides in Millerton, New York.

–E.E.

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BCC announces Martin as interim director of nursing

Christine Martin. Photo courtesy Berkshire Community College

Pittsfield — Berkshire Community College has announced that Christine Martin has been appointed as its interim director of nursing.

Martin has taught at BCC since 1993, working as a tenured professor in the practical nursing and associate degree nursing programs, an adjunct clinical nursing faculty member, an instructor of the “LPN to RN Mobility” course, a CPR instructor, and an instructor of the Berkshire Health Systems’ life management skills grant program. She also worked at Berkshire Medical Center as a staff nurse in the emergency department from 1998 through to 2017. Martin lives in Pittsfield and earned her degree at Henry Heywood Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in Gardner. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing at the University of Massachusetts.

–E.E.

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Greylock to hold succession planning seminar

Pittsfield — Greylock Federal Credit Union will offer a seminar on succession planning Wednesday, Oct. 24, from 5 to 7 p.m. at its Greylock Insurance Agency location at 5 Cheshire Road.

The seminar is designed to help small business owners and management teams that may face a transition in leadership over the next 10 years, specifically owner/operator retirement. Presenter Michael Vann from the Vann Group in Springfield will help attendees develop exit plans based on their unique needs and business goals.

The seminar is free and open to the public. Those wishing to attend are asked to RSVP by Wednesday, Oct. 17, to (413) 236-4804 or bkruczkowski@greylock.org.

–E.E.

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But Not To Produce.