Women of FIRE
Meryl Freedman
Growing up in the New York area gave Meryl Freedman an appreciation of differences. Moves around the country for education and career gave her an understanding of the residential real estate sales process. At her current role as leader of a large West Hartford agency,...
Laurie Gervais
Laurie Gervais is a natural choice for the Women of FIRE award. In addition to climbing through the ranks from part-time teller to executive vice president and chief administration officer in her 33-year career, in the early years she was also a volunteer firefighter....
Nancy Hancock
Nancy Hancock might be officially known as a partner and the sole female executive committee member at Pullman & Comley LLC, but she has a different explanation for her work: “I am the Office of Insoluble Problems,” she said. “And [my clients] come up with the...
Melanie Joy
Melanie Joy brings over 25 years of commercial real estate lending experience to her current position as senior vice president of commercial banking at United Bank in Glastonbury. Created in 2014 through a merger of United Bank and Rockville Bank, United currently has...Victoria Kaplan
For Victoria Kaplan, the real estate bug bit early; she was just 18 when she purchased her first property, a two-family home with one apartment for her to live in and one to rent out. Years later, she became the first female real estate broker – and one of the first...
Elizabeth Verna
Elizabeth Verna joined the family business in real estate development shortly after working as an editorial assistant at Vogue Italia in New York. The career jump was unplanned, she said, but as a member of an Italian family with a family business, “It was a great...
Margaret Wilcox
Margaret Wilcox remembers reading an advertisement in her local newspaper in 2002: “Are you independent? Self-motivated? Like to work hard? Like people?” “Yes,” Wilcox remembers thinking. “I like all those things.” “Then a career in real estate might be for you,” the...
Mary Boudreau
Mary Boudreau can be, and has been, described as an epicenter for her industry and her community. One of her greatest strengths, according to friend and former colleague Debra Alderman, is her ability not only to rally troops toward a common goal, but to find and connect with them.
Paula Feeney
After graduating from college with a degree in sociology, Paula Feeney, a Connecticut native, wasn’t sure what she wanted to do, so she entered a business program at the Katharine Gibbs School in Boston. Barbara Pearce, owner of Pearce Real Estate, was looking for a smart, business-savvy employee, so someone at the school introduced the two. After more than 30 years, Feeney is still working for the firm that snatched her up straight from college.
Robin Gallagher
Robin Gallagher has a buck-stops-here approach to her career in the banking industry, adopting the attitude that there’s no room for excuses or shortcuts. “I’ve always had the fire in my belly to take tasks one step further,” Gallagher said. “And that goes a long...
Kristin Geenty
After 15 years in commercial real estate, Kristin Geenty credits the training she received in restaurants for laying the foundation of her sales experience. In 1999, Geenty transitioned from the restaurant business, which had helped put her through college, into commercial real estate brokerage. In her first 10 years in the commercial brokerage business she served as the first female president of the New Haven Area Commercial Investment Division of the Greater New Haven Board of Realtors.
Patricia Jatkevicius
Patricia Jatkevicius credits her career to two individuals: A consultant who proved to be a valuable teacher, and a bank president willing to give her a chance. The consultant approached the bank president and recommended Jatkevicius for the job of marketing director. Recognizing her talents, yet acknowledging that she didn’t have vast experience in the area, he suggested a one-year trial.
Cheryl Kebalo
Cheryl Kebalo, broker/owner of RE/MAX Leading Edge real estate, received over 20 nominations for the Women of FIRE award from her colleagues. Each nomination was different, but nearly all of them talked about how helpful, forward-thinking, kind, charitable, successful and family-oriented she is. Kebalo got involved with real estate through her father-in-law, an immigrant from Ukraine and a carpenter. Her husband and his brother inherited those carpentry skills and developed a 55-plus community in South Windsor. Her involvement in that project led her to her career in real estate.
Shelley Kirschenbaum
Shelley Kirschenbaum knew that real estate was the right path for her from the beginning of her career, and since then has spent her days cultivating an office culture that goes above and beyond typical real estate. A mentor to over 80 sales executives, Kirschenbaum leads her Glastonbury team with the blended qualities of a rough-and-tumble business woman and a graceful philanthropist.
Teresa Knox
Teresa Knox’s expansive 28-year career spans a number of areas in the financial services industry, including community banking and mutual funds administration. It all began at Mechanics Savings Bank, where, following a move back to the Hartford area, she took a branch position as a customer service representative.
Dawn Landino
Unlike some women in male-dominated fields, when Dawn Landino started working at the New England Financial Group, an office of MetLife, as one of the first women in the firm, she felt comfortable.
Bonnie Smith
Bonnie Smith was surprised when she found out she was named a Woman of FIRE, but the human resources veteran might have been more surprised to know who nominated her: her own husband.
Julie Tétreault
At the tender age of 10, Julie Tétreault caught an early glimpse into her life’s direction. A spring break spent going door-to-door in search of an internship landed her a job at the office of Wallace-Tustin Realty. Tétreault sold multiple homes while still a college student, and by age 24, was Wallace-Tustin’s top salesperson.
Nicole Thomas
Nicole Thomas has been the senior relationship manager for Wells Fargo in the Norwalk area for more than four years. She started in the call center and worked her way up the corporate ladder over the last 14 years. She’s a top performer who has won many awards from her peers and from management; coworkers call her an excellent communicator who thinks outside the box.
