E-Newsletter
An Electronic Publication of the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce
Inside this edition, you’ll discover the latest Chamber initiatives and success stories from across our region. From economic development projects and upcoming networking events to policy updates and workforce training opportunities, we’re keeping you connected to what matters most for your business and North Central Massachusetts.
The North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce is here to help – with trusted resources, a strong business network, and a support system to keep your business and the region moving forward

Roy M. Nascimento, president & CEO of the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce has been designated as a Certified Chamber Executive (CCE) by ACCE, the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives.
ACCE is an Alexandria, Va.-based membership association that represents nearly 10,000 professionals who work for and with more than 1,300 chambers of commerce around the world.
“The CCE program assesses and tests the applicant’s knowledge of core chamber management areas —management, planning and development, membership and communication, and operations,” says Bob Quick, CCE, president and CEO of Commerce Lexington Inc. and CCE commission chairman. “Chamber professionals who are designated CCEs have rightfully earned this outstanding recognition through hard work, countless hours of dedication to their field, and leadership of their chamber to achieve the chamber’s goals. We are proud to have this year’s class join a long tradition of professional excellence.”
Nascimento is one of 11 chamber professionals to earn the Certified Chamber Executive designation in 2018. The 11 leaders represent chambers of commerce in eight states, including Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Since the first CCE designation was conferred more than 40 years ago, about 500 professionals have become certified. CCE is recognized by many as the highest, and most elite, professional designation in the chamber of commerce profession. It’s the only globally-recognized certification program exclusive to the chamber of commerce industry.
Roy M. Nascimento, CCE, IOM has been president & CEO of the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce since January 2015. In this role, he oversees all aspects of the operations of the Chamber and its affiliate organizations, including its finances, economic development, tourism, public policy efforts, member engagement, and sales and communications. The Chamber is a membership-based, volunteer-led organization focused on advancing North Central Massachusetts.
Under his leadership, the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce has been recognized among the top chambers of commerce in the country for its impact and operations. Among its many honors, the Chamber was a 2017 runner up for the prestigious National Chamber of the Year award, the first chamber in Massachusetts and New England to have ever been recognized as a finalist. The Chamber also achieved 4-star accreditation in 2018, an honor achieved by only 204 of the 7,022 chambers in the country.
“I am honored to receive this industry designation that marks a major career highlight for me,” said Roy M. Nascimento, president and CEO of the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce. “I am so thankful to our members and professional staff for their support and encouragement. This designation only motivates me to redouble our efforts to make a positive difference in the lives of our members, their employees and the communities in North Central Massachusetts.”
“We are very proud of Roy in achieving this professional designation,” said Stephen J. Mullaney, president of S.J. Mullaney Engineering, Inc. and Chair of the Board of the North Central Chamber of Commerce. “This designation is a positive reflection of our Chamber’s commitment to excellence, professional development and leadership for the benefit of our members and the North Central Massachusetts region.”
Certified Chamber Executives were recognized on stage July 18 at the 2018 ACCE Annual Convention in Des Moines, Iowa.

Mullaney, a Leominster native, is a registered professional civil engineer, licensed in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. He founded his company, S.J. Mullaney Engineering, Inc. in Leominster in 2004 and joined the Chamber in 2005. He has nearly thirty years of experience in site design and land entitlement for development projects and facility expansions. He has appeared before more than 70 land use boards in over 25 cities and towns.
In addition to this involvement with the Chamber, Mullaney is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and its Boston section. He also belongs to the Institute of Transportation Engineers and the Massachusetts Aggregate and Asphalt Pavement Association, where he has instructed on the EPA Stormwater Program. Mr. Mullaney has also testified as an expert witness in traffic matters before the Massachusetts Land Court.
Mullaney is very active in the community, having served in the past on the City of Leominster’s Airport Study Committee, as well as serving as Leominster’s liaison to the Fort Devens redevelopment agencies and serving on the Police Station Siting Committee. He has also provided pro-bono services to area communities in developing and updating land use regulations, particularly Lancaster and Ayer and has helped to facilitate inter-municipal dialogues for utility service extensions to accommodate economic expansion.
He attended St. Leo School in Leominster and was the 1986 valedictorian and male All-Bernardian at St. Bernard’s Central Catholic High School in Fitchburg. He is a 1991 summa cum laude graduate of Northeastern University in Boston.
Mr. Mullaney involvement with the Chamber spans back to the 1990s when he was active through his previous employer David E. Ross Associates, Inc. in Ayer. He was elected to the Chamber’s Board of Directors in 2011 and has held several leadership positions including Vice Chair and Treasurer. He has also served on the Chamber’s Government Affairs and Nominating Committees. As the Chair of the Chamber’s Board of Directors, Mr. Mullaney will work with the Board, Chamber staff, and membership to champion the Chamber in its mission to serve the region’s business community.
“Steve has proven himself to be a tireless champion for the Chamber and North Central Massachusetts,” noted Roy Nascimento, Chamber president & CEO. “We look forward to continuing to work with him to advance the interests of our members and to advance the economy of the region.”
He succeeds Mark Freeman, president SteelFab, Inc., who now moves to the position of Immediate Past Chair of the Board of Directors.
“It is an honor and privilege to have been elected Chair of the Chamber, an organization that plays an important role in supporting businesses of all sizes in North Central Massachusetts,” expressed Mr. Mullaney, “I am excited to continue Mark’s efforts and work to ensure the Chamber remains a strong resource for the local business community.”
In the same election, Deborah Weymouth, president of HealthAlliance Hospital, Inc. was elected Vice-Chair and director Steve Rocheleau, president of Rocheleau Tool & Die was elected to the position of Treasurer. Board members elected for a three-year term were Neil Abramson, CFO of ECI Stores; Will Aubuchon, president & CEO of W.E. Aubuchon Company; Matthew Fournier, president of Elite Construction & Design; and Rachel Lopez, president of Resource Management, Inc.
Continuing current terms on the Board of Directors are Wayne Canty, Heat Trace Products; David Duval, Protective Services; Steve Duvarney, Duvarney Jewelers; Mark Freeman, SteelFab, Inc.; Ken Gurge, Law Offices of Kenneth W. Gurge; James Vander Hooven, Mount Wachusett Community College; Dr. Richard Lapidus, Fitchburg State University; Anne Leader, Vision Payroll; Christopher McCarthy, Fidelity Bank; Anthony Mercadante, Mercadante & Mercadante, CPA; and Henry Tessman, Great Wolf Lodge.
Here in North Central Massachusetts, local businesses are the lifeblood of our economy. These companies make quality products, provide good jobs, and pay above average wages. In so many ways, we want to support them, because they support our communities.
Yet even as we celebrate all that our business community contributes to the region, we can see a cloud on the horizon. Energy costs are rising quickly at a time when we are already among the five most expensive states to do business in.
Why does New England pay such high energy costs? In part, it’s supply and demand – we have a lot of the latter and too little of the former. Most of our electricity is generated by natural gas-powered facilities, which are cleaner than the oil and coal plants that have closed in recent years. Those retirements are actually the single most significant reason we’ve been able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 63% since 1990, even as our electricity usage has gone up. But every year we pay an additional $1 billion because we lack access to enough natural gas – particularly when temperatures drop in the winter.
This past winter, we saw the consequence of inaction. The region’s independent, non-profit grid operator, ISO-New England, had already reported that the looming retirements of older power plants meant the state could soon face rolling blackouts. When temperatures dropped to historic lows the day after Christmas, we turned to burning oil for as much as a third of our electricity and it almost happened. We were just two to three days away from running out of oil as well.
To say that this all has severe economic implications would be a massive understatement. A recent report published by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that, absent upgraded energy infrastructure, New England would lose almost 23,000 jobs and $2 billion in state GDP, including a loss of 8,700 jobs and $792 million in state GDP in Massachusetts alone, over a four-year period.
There’s also something fundamentally wrong about a state as forward-looking and proud of its environmental heritage as Massachusetts still using oil and coal to fill its energy gap. In fact, according to a recent study by the Mass Coalition for Sustainable Energy, we used so much oil in just 13 days during the December/January cold snap—2 million barrels in all—it was as if we added 6.4 million cars to the road or shut down 75% of solar panels in the Commonwealth.
That’s unacceptable. As we move boldly to a renewable energy future, building the wind, solar and hydropower infrastructure we need to power our economy, we should be doing everything in our power to utilize the cleanest possible alternatives.
We’ve already seen some companies leave the state due to the high cost of energy. North Central Massachusetts’ communities are already doing everything they can to attract and keep businesses. They simply can’t stand by as reliability concerns, costs and threats to our environment increase.
The time has come to act. Our families, businesses and communities depend on it.
Dine at 110 Grill and support a great cause! On Massachusetts Restaurant Day, all proceeds from our Braintree and Leominster locations will be donated to No Kid Hungry and will go towards ending childhood hunger. We will be offering special prix fixe lunch menus and dinner menus. Make your reservations today!
www.110grill.com/otevent/massachusetts-restaurant-day-support-no-kid-hungry
The North Central Career Center has partnered with the MA Dept. of Revenue’s Child Support Enforcement (CSE) Division to offer a free informational workshop about the responsibilities of employers related to child support. The workshop will be held on March 28, 2018, 1:00pm-3:00pm at the North Central Career Center, 100 Erdman Way, Leominster, MA
The Massachusetts CSE Division has consistently relied on a partnership with the employer community in assisting children to obtain the financial support to which they are entitled. More than 75% of all money collected on behalf of America’s children is collected by employers through income withholding. When employers report newly hired employees, that information helps to prevent erroneous benefits payments and public assistance fraud.
This free workshop, presented by CSE staff, will give you the opportunity to learn and ask questions about your responsibilities as an employer. To register for this free event, please rsvp by March 19thst to
Michael Hewitt, President of Hometown Bank Community Foundation announced a contribution of $6,000 in support of Day Kimball Healthcare’s (DKH) 2018 Junior Volunteer Program at Day Kimball Hospital in Putnam, CT.
The sponsorship funds will support Day Kimball’s highly-competitive Junior Volunteer Program, available to just 60 area high school students for seven weeks during the summer months. Junior volunteers have the opportunity to gain valuable insight into a possible future career in healthcare while also providing valuable service to the community. Junior volunteers contributed 3,790 hours of volunteer service across 11 departments at Day Kimball Hospital last summer.
”This is a great opportunity to support Day Kimball and a program that will have ongoing impact on our community by instilling the value of volunteerism in the students. Volunteering in the communities we live and work is a cornerstone of our culture and mission and we are pleased to support the sharing of this value with the future leaders of our communities,” said bankHometown President and CEO Michael D. Hewitt.
“We are extremely grateful for this opportunity and excited to be partnering with bankHometown in support of one of the hospital’s most valuable and long-standing community service programs,” said DKH Director of Development Kristen Willis. “It has become increasingly challenging to provide adequate resources for important programs such as this while fulfilling our primary duty and responsibility to provide high quality acute, clinical, and emergent care to our patients. Having bankHometown’s support for this program will help us to continue to enrich lives while preparing the future workforce and citizens of northeast Connecticut.”
“Being a hospital volunteer adds a whole new dimension to a student’s life, allowing them to gain valuable experience while helping to serve their communities,” said Janet Johnson, DKH Volunteer Services Coordinator, who has been heading up the Junior Volunteer Program for the past 15 years. “We’re so grateful to bankHometown and the Hometown Bank Community Foundation for supporting our Junior Volunteer Program. The impact that volunteer service has, not only on the continued success of the hospital but on the lives of our young volunteers, is immeasurable.”
bankHometown is headquartered in Oxford, Massachusetts and has $730 million in assets. bankHometown has served its communities since 1889 and operates thirteen full service offices; eight in central Massachusetts and five located in northeastern Connecticut.
When the workday ends and the lights go down, Custom Cleaning Service of Peabody, Inc. gets to work. “We operate as our clients’ silent partner after business hours,” says Adam Paicos, of Templeton, who now serves as Director of Operations and oversees the company’s expansion into North Central MA. “We are not often seen, but we ensure facilities are clean, secure, and ready for business each day while serving as the eyes and ears for our clients when they are not on site.”
Discover local business stories through our Inside North Central Massachusetts Podcast series. Listen as Chamber members share their journeys, insights, and contributions to our thriving regional business community.
Looking for your next opportunity? Explore current job openings from employers across North Central Massachusetts on our Jobs Board. Whether you’re starting a new career or making a change, you’ll find a variety of local positions available to help you take the next step.
CapEx Facility Services & Construction · Leominster, MA
TaraVista Behavioral Health Center · Harvard, MA
DRS Power Technology, Inc. · Fitchburg, MA
AIS · Leominster, MA