NEW HIRES

United Insurance has hired several new employees in its Portland, Bangor and Farmington locations. In Portland, Kate Piantoni is a marketing and community engagement manager; Joshua Reali and Viviana Mendoza are commercial lines account managers; and Carly Freeman Thompson is an employee benefits account manager. Holly Berry Carter is commercial lines account manager in Bangor and Kerry-Rose McLaughlin is a commercial lines account manager for small businesses in Farmington.

Mount Desert Land & Garden Preserve has appointed Patrick MacRae as chief executive officer. Previously, MacRae was Doolittle family director of gardens & horticulture at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida. He is a graduate of the Longwood Gardens Fellows Program at Longwood Gardens.

Jeff Candura is the new director of development at the Mitchell Institute. Previously, Candura was the development director and then executive director at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics Foundation. He received a bachelor’s degree in English from Ithaca College and a master’s in public administration from the University of Colorado at Denver.

Bar Harbor Bank & Trust has hired David O’Connell as senior vice president and director of operations. O’Connell has over 20 years of experience in financial service operations and previously served as head of product development and strategic partnerships at Concerto Card Company. He has a bachelor’s in government from Georgetown University.

Paul Drinan is the new active transportation director at the Bicycle Coalition of Maine. Drinan has decades of experience working with nonprofits and previously was the executive director of Friends of Fort Gorges and the founder of Vision Zero Maine.

Dr. Saiqa Choudhry has joined the team at Central Maine Neurology. Choudhry was previously a neurologist at Central Maine Medical Center. Choudhry attended medical school at Universidad Tecnológica de Santiago in the Dominican Republic, did her residency at University of Maryland Medical Center, Midtown Campus, and completed a fellowship in epilepsy at Georgetown University.

PROMOTIONS

Andrew Michaud has been promoted to vice president of construction services at S.W. Cole Engineering, Inc. Michaud has been at S.W. Cole since 1999, most recently serving as regional branch offices manager. He is also a member of the board of directors.

DuFour Tax Group, LLC has promoted Cristian Dwyer and Lucas Boulanger to staff accountants. Dwyer started as an intern in January and is in the process of completing a bachelor’s in accounting at the University of Southern Maine. Boulanger, who also started as an intern this year, just completed his bachelor’s in accounting at Husson University.