Entrepreneurs, Make your Pitch

Entrepreneurs seeking feedback from experts and a chance to win prizes will compete in the third annual Rhode Island Elevator Pitch Contest on Dec. 4, the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition has announced. Participants will present their business proposals in 90 seconds to a panel of judges, the amount of time a person with an idea might get during a chance meeting with a business leader in an elevator. Following each presentation, the judges will give feedback about the clarity and persuasiveness of the presentation and cash prizes totaling $1,000 will be awarded. Registrations to make a pitch are being accepted at www.ri-bizplan.com. The public is invited to the free event at the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce in downtown Providence.

2 charitable groups win $200,000 in grants

The Bank of America Charitable Foundation yesterday announced that the John Hope Settlement House, in Providence, and the Woonsocket Neighborhood Development Corporation have received Neighborhood Excellence Initiative awards and will receive $200,000 in unrestricted grants. The bank has committed nearly $1 million to NEI awards in Rhode Island. The recipients were honored at a ceremony at the Chace Center at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Embolden and its founder win 3 awards

Providence-based Embolden, a Web design and development company, and Ann-Marie Harrington, its founder and president, were recently selected to receive three prestigious awards. The U.S. Small Business Administration presented Embolden with the Rhode Island Minority Business Enterprise of the Year award; the Northern Rhode Island YMCA selected Harrington for a Women of Achievement Award; and, for the third year in a row, Embolden won the Alfred P. Sloan award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility. As part of a Rhode Island salute to small businesses, Embolden, a woman-owned business, received the minority business award “in recognition of your success within a highly competitive industry, and your efforts in fostering the development of other minority and women-owned enterprises by having demonstrated a willingness to assist these firms whenever possible.” The YMCA award selected Harrington for her work toward the economic empowerment of women and said, “She practices an entrepreneurial spirit.” The Sloan award is part of When Work Works, a nationwide initiative to highlight companies that have made real commitments to using workplace flexibility as a tool to enhance the success of businesses and employees.

Estate donates $1 million to Linden Place

Linden Place, an 1810 mansion and museum in Bristol that was the setting for some scenes in the movie The Great Gatsby, is getting a $1-million donation from the estate of the late Alfred Shepherd. Museum officials Monday announced the donation, which is the largest single gift in the mansion’s history. The mansion was built by Gen. George DeWolf and was later home to Industrial Trust Co. founder Samuel Colt. James Connell, executive director of the museum, said Shepherd was a philanthropist and a lieutenant commander in the Navy who married two DeWolf descendants.

Patrick wants to cut tolls west of Route 128

Massachusetts Governor Patrick is planning to dismantle the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and cut all tolls west of Route 128 except at two state border crossings, while likely raising tolls closer to Boston to pay off Big Dig debt, two government officials said Monday. Under the plan, expected to be unveiled later this week, turnpike operations west of Route 128 would be folded into the Massachusetts Highway Department. Operations within Route 128, the so-called Metropolitan Highway System, would be folded into the Massachusetts Port Authority. Massport already runs the Tobin Bridge and tunnels leading to and from Logan International Airport. The plan is an attempt to improve efficiency and try to mollify public complaints amid talk of toll hikes necessary to repair aging infrastructure and pay off the debt of the nearly $15-billion Central Artery project, said the officials, both of whom demanded anonymity in advance of the governor’s formal announcement.

2 seminars target small businesses

The Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation will host two educational seminars targeting the state’s small-business community: “Navigating the Credit Crunch: Alternative Lending Sources” on Wednesday, Nov. 19, at noon, and “Financing Fast Growth” on Tuesday, Nov. 25, at 10 a.m. Both will be held at the EDC’s offices at 555 Valley St., Providence, and are free to the public. Saul Kaplan, EDC executive director, said, “The goal of these seminars is to help Rhode Island companies learn how to access capital, develop new products and services, enter new markets and create new jobs.”

EMC unveils ‘cloud’ storage offering

Hopkinton, Mass.-based EMC Corp., a provider of information infrastructure systems, has announced its first “cloud” offering, a multi-petabyte system to help manage unstructured information across global environments. Cloud optimized storage (COS) describes information management that can handle billions of bits of new Web-based data in the form of documents, videos, digital images and music to serve hundreds of locations and millions of users around the world. EMC’s Atmos system provides the capabilities of centralized management and automated placement of information globally.

2 Vermont agencies consider efficiency move

Two Vermont transit agencies are considering joining forces as a way to be more efficient and create a regional funding source. Officials with the Green Mountain Transit Agency and Chittenden County Transportation Authority outlined their idea last week in Montpelier. Both groups are managed by the Chittenden County Authority. Officials are now talking with municipalities that receive services, the state and others who would be affected by such changes. Green Mountain board of directors Chairwoman Nancy Wasserman says a change in the funding structure would require legislative action.

Some Mass. veterans to receive $1,000 bonus

Massachusetts veterans who’ve served abroad are being recognized with special $1,000 bonuses. The “Welcome Home” payments are part of expanded benefits approved by the state in 2005. The tax-free payments are awarded to service members called to active duty since Sept. 11, 2001, and who served in Iraq, Afghanistan or any other nation in the world for 180 days or more. To date, 17,000 applications have been approved. Ten service members, including David F. Roy, of Attleboro, were to receive checks Monday at the State House from Treasurer Timothy Cahill.

After work, Vermont Yankee back online

The Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in Vernon is back in service after finishing its 27th refueling and maintenance shutdown. Plant spokesman Robert Williams says the reactor was returned to service at 1:42 a.m. Monday, ending an outage that began Oct. 19. Williams says work during the outage included an inspection of the plant’s steam dryer, which has been the focus of concern about cracking in the past. Williams says the steam dryer, reactor vessel and surrounding containment structure were deemed to be in good shape. During the outage, technicians upgraded a safety-related cooling tower cell and other plant components.