Fairfield County Newsmakers, 2.3.2014

Two new tax associates have joined Reynolds & Rowella L.L.P., a consulting, audit and tax accounting firm with offices in Ridgefield and New Canaan.

Jessica Scattolini joins as a tax associate. She has four years”™ accounting experience after graduating from Western Connecticut State University”™s Ancell School of Business with a bachelor”™s degree in financial accounting.

Jina Willie comes to the firm with three years”™ experience as a staff accountant and is currently completing a master”™s degree in taxation at the University of New Haven.

Reynolds & Rowella now employs 41 people.

”˜I do”™ goes high tech

County-based BetterThanRice.com founders Maribel and Matt Wright have embraced a creative approach to the wedding registry, combining the ideas of crowd-funding, buying local and social media. The website allows couples to choose from creative gifts provided by local boutiques and vendors in the Gift Shop or use the Mine Button to add gifts from anywhere on the Web. Couples can also plan and fund their honeymoon, create funds for personalized experiences or destinations or create funds for causes close to their heart ”¦ all from their registry.

First Niagara debuts new HQ

In this first-day photo at 40 Richards Ave. in Norwalk, site of the new regional headquarters for Buffalo, N.Y.-based First Niagara Bank, from left, are Bruce Rogers, regional director of insurance for Pierson and Smith, the Norwalk-based insurance subsidiary of First Niagara Bank; Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling; Cathie Schaffer, First Niagara”™s tri-state regional president; and David Ring, First Niagara”™s New England regional president and managing director of enterprise banking.

Cross-border commute to similar demographic

Scarsdale, N.Y.-based Twin Oaks Construction appointed Richard S. Bobrow, a Westport resident, as chief operating officer.

Bobrow, 56, has 30 years experience in development, acquisition, finance, construction and management. Most recently, he was president of RHB Development Corp., a Fairfield County-based developer of luxury single-family homes as well as residential and commercial construction in the New York Metro area and Fairfield County.

“The demographics of Fairfield County and the demographics of the Scarsdale area are certainly similar,” Bobrow says. “It”™s a good match.

Lodge brings ”˜secondaries”™ focus to Commonfund

Wilton-based Commonfund, a manager for institutional investors, announced its wholly owned subsidiary, Commonfund Capital, has promoted Cari Lodge of Darien to the position of managing director. “Lodge has been an important contributor to the organization”™s secondaries investment business and will help lead continued growth within this important investment practice,” the company said in a statement. “Secondary investments serve an increasingly important component of Commonfund Capital”™s core private equity, venture capital and natural resources investment programs.”

Previous to Commonfund, Lodge was a director in Tulane University”™s investment management office and, prior to that, was a director at Credit Suisse Strategic Partners in its secondary program.

 

Ham ups finance bona fides

Laurie Ham, a certified financial planner with Danbury-based Reby Advisors, recently obtained her MBA from Concordia University in Minnesota. She participated in an accelerated 22- month program. Founded in 1985, Reby is a financial planning, wealth management firm that provides focused lifestyle management services to individuals, institutions and nonprofits.

Local activist hails to the chief

When President Obama delivered his State of the Union Address Jan. 28, Norwalk Community College graduate Lucas Codognolla was there, the guest of Democrat U.S. Rep JIM Himes.

Himes selected Codognolla, a Stamford resident, to raise awareness of Connecticut Students for a DREAM, an immigration reform and educational equity movement for which Codognolla is a lead coordinator. Codognolla is an advocate for the educational rights of undocumented students. For the past year, he also has worked as a paralegal for an immigration attorney in Stamford.