Executive Board of Trustees

BDCC is fortunate to have a dedicated and long-serving Executive Board of Trustees, with members representing a range of industries and professional experience.

Peter D. Van Oot, President 2007-2009

BDCC Vice President and President-Elect Peter Van Oot is a director and manager of the Management Committee of Vermont’s largest law firm, Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC, where Peter’s practice focuses on corporate law, environmental law, and regulatory law in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.

As a trained and experienced environmental lawyer, Peter has negotiated numerous environmental settlements with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the State of Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, and third parties. He has served on the National Commission on Superfund Reform, testifies before legislative committees on regulatory and environmental issues, and lectures widely on environmental law.

In addition to serving on the BDCC Board since 2002, Peter has a long list of community involvement, including being a current member of Governor Jim Douglas's Job Cabinet, the Chittenden Bank Board, the Vermont Law School Environmental Law Center Advisory Board, and the Steering Committee of the YMCA campaign to build a new Y facility in Brattleboro. Previously, he served as a member of Governor Howard Dean's Council of Environmental Advisors, board member and chair of the United Way of Windham County, board member and chair of the Vermont Land Trust, and board and Executive Committee member for World Learning, Inc. He is a past Visiting Professor of Environmental Law at Williams College (1999-2003) and was a legislative aide to U.S. Senator Patrick J. Leahy (1980-1985). Peter earned his J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center and his B.A. from Williams College (cum laude).

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Hugh Barber, Vice President

Since 1998, Brattleboro native Hugh Barber has worked as the business manager at SVE Associates, a professional consulting firm with offices in five central New England towns, including Brattleboro. SVE offers a wide range of professional design services in environmental engineering, civil engineering, transportation engineering, surveying, landscape architecture, structural engineering, and federal, state, and local permitting.

Hugh is also owner and manager of the Manley Apartments, LLC, a downtown High Street commercial block with mixed residential and commercial rentals, including indoor and outdoor parking, in Brattleboro. Prior to joining SVE Associates, Hugh had a 20-year career in financial services, including working at Vermont National Bank, Green Mountain Bank, Bank of Vermont, and a short stint with the Brattleboro Savings & Loan Association. Hugh has served as a member of the BDCC Executive Board since 1982. Hugh’s past and present community involvement also includes serving as a Town Meeting Representative, Town Finance Committe member, Development Review Board member, Lister, Selectboard member, and Selectboard chairman. He currently serves on the Brattleboro Country Club Board of Directors, of which he is also a past president.

Hugh is a graduate of Brattleboro Union High School, Mount Herman School (MA), Middlebury College (VT) with a B.A. in Economics, and Western New England College (MA), School of Law, with a J.D. An avid skier and state and regional tournament golfer, Hugh is married to Joanne and they have two grown sons, Jared and Jonathan.

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John V.P. Meyer, Treasurer

A partner in Pieciak & Company, PC, John V.P. Meyer has been a BDCC Executive Board member since 1982, although his affiliation with BDCC dates back to 1976. He has been serving as treasurer of the corporation for most of those years. The Wilmington (VT) resident is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA).

John holds an M.S. in accounting and an M.B.A. from Northeastern University and a B.S. in mathematics from St. Lawrence University. John is a current member and former president of the Vermont Society of CPAs (VSCPA), a current member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), a former member of the governing board of the AICPA, and a current member of the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts. In addition, John is a member of the Brattleboro Rotary Club, among other community organizations.

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Tammy Richards, Assistant Treasurer

Tammy is an Accredited Valuation Analyst providing business valuation and financial consulting services. Prior to joining Pieciak & Company, PC in September 2006, Tammy spent eight years in the investment banking division of Citigroup as a Vice President in the Global Loans Portfolio Management Group and as an Associate in the Acquisition Finance Group. Tammy graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from Hamilton College. She is a member of the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts.

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Cheryl Bedard

Cheryl Bedard is BDCC’s newest member of the Executive Board of Trustees, having been elected in October 2006, although she has been affiliated with BDCC since 1994 as a member of the corporation. A native New Englander, Cheryl has lived in Vermont since 1989, when she and business partner Jim Lin became the co-owners of Vermont Circuits, Inc., a Brattleboro company that manufactures high-technology printed circuit boards (PCBs) for electronic components for commercial, military, and aerospace clients. Cheryl has the distinction of being only the second woman to serve on the BDCC Executive Board of Trustees (current President Debbie Boyle is the first) and being among only a handful of female owners of PCB manufacturing companies in the USA.

Although PCB manufacturing tends to be a male-dominated industry, Vermont Circuits itself has about a 50-50 ratio of male and female employees. Since 1989, Cheryl and Jim have grown the company from 45 to 95 employees. Cheryl’s professional experience also includes working with Hadco, Wang, and G.E. before becoming a business owner herself. In addition to her role with BDCC, Cheryl’s community service includes being a member of the board of the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce, Windham County United Way, and Vermont Manufacturers Extension Center (VMEC), as well as volunteering her time for the Brattleboro Women's Crisis Center and Morningside Shelter.

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Barry Beeman

Barry Beeman is the newest member of BDCC's Board of Trustees, having been elected in October 2008. Barry came to the Brattleboro area in 2005 to become the president and chief executive officer of Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (BMH) and Southern Vermont Health Services Corporation. He has more than 26 years of experience in healthcare administration, including serving as president and CEO of Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin, MD, and of Eastern Connecticut Health Network in Manchester, CT. Prior to that, he worked for 13 years at Rockville General Hospital in Connecticut in various positions, including president and CEO for the last four years.

Barry has a master's degree in healthcare management from Rensselaer at Hartford Graduate Center in Connecticut and a bachelor's degree in psychology from St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY. Barry's wife, Kathy, is a registered nurse who trained at the Thompson School for Nurses in Brattleboro.

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Debbie Boyle

Debbie Boyle became the first woman to serve on the BDCC Executive Board of Trustees when she was appointed in 2001. She also is the first female president of the corporation, serving for the 2005-2007 term. A Brattleboro native, Debbie has been a commercial lender for more than two decades. She is a vice president at Chittenden Bank, Vermont's largest full-service bank with more than 50 offices and 670 employees throughout the state.

Among Debbie’s various community service commitments are membership on the Otis Health Care Center board (vice president and past treasurer), the Brattleboro Outing Club board (past treasurer and vice president), the Town of Brattleboro Small Business Assistance Program Loan Committee, Brattleboro’s Economic Development Town Plan Committee, the Southern Loop Community Working Group, the Brattleboro Rotary Club (past treasurer), and the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital’s Community Health Assessment Advisory Committee. A Vermont native, Debbie earned her B.S. in finance from the University of Vermont and her M.B.A. from Plymouth State University. A resident of Brattleboro, Debbie is married and has two sons. She enjoys most sports (recently, tennis is the main one) and enjoys watching her sons play basketball.

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Carl Lynde

A native Vermonter with local ancestry dating back several generations, Carl attended area schools before going on to earn his double B.S./B.A from Hawthorne College in New Hampshire. A commericial lender in Southern Vermont and Southern New Hampshire for more than three decades, Carl has worked 22 of those years with TDBankNorth, one of the 25 largest commercial banking organizations in the United States.

Carl has been a member of the BDCC Executive Board of Trustees since 1992, although his affiliation with BDCC began in 1989 as a member. He served as president of the corporation for the 1997-99 term. Carl’s community involvement also includes past president of the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce, past Board member of Building a Better Brattleboro, current Board member of Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, current volunteer for the Brattleboro Chapter of Habitat for Humanity, and current member of the Brattleboro Rotary Club.

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Kevin Meyer

Kevin Meyer has been a member of the BDCC Executive Board since 1995, serving as president of the corporation for the 2001-2003 term. He is the president of Mary Meyer Corporation, a family business started in 1933 by his grandmother to manufacture quality stuffed animals.

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William Palumbo

Bill Palumbo moved to the Mount Show Valley region in the early 1960s as a ski instructor. From there, he sold ski lifts and was the general manager at the Haystack Ski Area for a time before entering the real estate field in 1972. In 1978, he started The Andrew Corporation construction company, which has been building quality homes in the greater Wilmington/West Dover area ever since. In 1980 he became the owner of Kenyon Realty, which merged with Carriage Realty in 2004. The agency is now known as Century 21 Kenyon Realty.

Bill has been a member of the BDCC Executive Board since 1995, although he has been affiliated with BDCC since 1986. He served as president of the corporation for the 2003-2005 term. He has also been involved in the community in other venues, including being a member of the Mount Snow Ski Academy board of directors, a member of the Wilmington Planning Commission, and the chair of the Wilmington Selectboard.

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Mark Richards

Mark Richards has been affiliated with BDCC since 1982 as a member of the corporation, before joining the Executive Board of Trustees in 1984. He served as president of the corporation for the 1987-1989 term.

He is a Vermont native with family ties dating back to the 1700s when his ancestors settled in the Landgrove and Ludlow areas. Mark's parents brought the family into the Brattleboro area, where Mark attended local schools. He graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts, attended Columbia Business School in New York, and then spent three years as a U.S. Naval Officer.

Mark returned to Vermont in 1971 to join his father Edward in the family business, which is now known as The Richards Group, one of the oldest insurance agencies in Vermont, dating back to 1867. Edward bought a small Brattleboro agency in 1948 called the Clark Agency which, over time, merged with several other agencies, eventually adopting the name The Richards Group. Still a family business today, the agency is headed by Mark, who is joined by his two sons, Peter and Drew, his brother-in-law Henry Taggard, and his nephew Ben Taggard. The Richards Group has offices in Brattleboro, Bellows Falls, and Wilmington, and provides comprehensive insurance and financial services to clients in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and the greater New England area.

Mark is a strong believer in community service and has served on numerous boards, including Chittenden Bank, Vermont National Bank, Brattleboro Savings and Loan Association, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, Retreat Healthcare, and the Brattleboro Outing Club. Mark and his wife Liz live in nearby Dummerston and consider themselves lucky to have their three children Peter, Drew, and Annie living in the area, too.

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Philip H. Steckler III

Long-time Brattleboro resident Philip H. Steckler III, has worked for 30+ years with Country Business, Inc., a company that manages ownership transitions of privately held businesses. CBI operates out of 13 offices located in principal cities throughout New England, Eastern Canada, and the Capital District of New York. Phil is a vice president, director, and affiliate manager of the Brattleboro office.

His past professional experience includes managing a branch of a statewide real estate company and specializing in business and commercial properties. He was also an economics and mathematics teacher. Since 1992, Phil has been a member of the BDCC Executive Board, although his affiliation actually began in 1985 as a member of the corporation. He served as president of the corporation from 1999 to 2001.

Phil’s extensive community service participation includes serving as an executive board member and president of the Regional Development Corporation; an executive board member and president of the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce; a member of the Vermont State Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors; a member of the Marlboro College Board of Trustees; a member of the President’s Council at World Learning Inc.; a member of the Brattleboro Music Center’s Business Advisory Council; and a member and past president of the Brattleboro Rotary Club. Phil is a Certified Business Intermediary, a member of the International Business Brokers Association, and a member of the Institute of Business Appraisers.

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David M. Dunn, Clerk

BDCC's clerk is David M. Dunn, of Potter Stewart Jr. Law Offices. David received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University, and graduated Vermont Law School in 1981 with both a Juris Doctorate and a Master's of Studies in Environmental Law. After graduating, he worked in Washington, DC , for a small international maritime law firm, gaining experience in international trade and letters of credit. David specializes in banking, corporate, and business litigation, including creditor's rights and bankruptcy.

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Stephen Phillips, Assistant Clerk

BDCC's assistant clerk is Stephen R. Phillips, of Potter Stewart Jr. Law Offices. Steve is a graduate of Hobart College and the Vermont Law School, as well as a graduate of the Snelling Center for Government Leadership Institute. He is a former chairman of the Brattleboro Development Review Board and the Brattleboro Planning Commission. Steve is also admitted to practice law before the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont. He focuses his practice on estate planning, probate administration, and corporate and business law.

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Dart Everett, Trustee Emeritus

Dart Everett has served as a BDCC Executive Board member since 1981, although he became affiliated with the corporation a year earlier as a member. He served as president of the corporation for the 1989-1992 term. Born in Utica, New York, Dart earned his Ceramic Engineering degree from the (then) New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Dart’s professional background includes working for American Standard (actually Processa Standard) in Monterrey, Mexico, and serving in the U.S. Army at the Granite City (IL) Army Depot, where he met his future wife, Joy. He did a stint working at Edgar Plastic Kaolin Company in Florida, before going to work for Carborundum Company in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Niagara Falls, New York, and Ligonier, Pennsylvania. He then became editor of Ceramic Age magazine in Cleveland, Ohio, before relocating to Vermont in 1971 to purchase the Guilford Country Store, which he ran with his wife and family until 1987.

Currently, Dart is the owner and president of Everett Real Estate Services in Brattleboro, providing real estate appraisal and consulting services in Southern Vermont and New Hampshire. Dart is a current member and past president of the Brattleboro Rotary Club, where he helped to create the club’s Gateway Foundation to provide scholarships to local graduating seniors, and Pure Water for the World, a project that has become a 501(c)(3) organization supported by Rotary International.

Dart’s extensive list of community service also includes the following organizations: Brattleboro Museum and Art Center (past president), New England Youth Theatre (current vice president), Building a Better Brattleboro, Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce (past treasurer), Brattleboro School Board (past chairman), Windham Regional Planning Commission (past chairman), Brattleboro Planning Commission, Brattleboro Town Meeting Representative, Charter Revision Commission (twice), Windham County United Way (past co-chair with wife Joy), Guilford Volunteer Fire Department (past president), and Center Congregational Church (choir member and past moderator).

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