‘If we’re going to help advance social change, then we have to work with the people who are going to advance that social change,’ says Gretchen Ki Steidle, founder of Portsmouth-based Global Grassroots.

Jack Middleton, shown here after receiving the Nixon-Zachos Award from the NH Bar Foundation in June, recently celebrated his 60th year as an attorney with the Manchester-based firm of McLane Middleton.

Fabiano Caruana, the 24-year-old, Brooklyn-raised chess champion who led the United States to victory in September at the Chess Olympiad in Azerbaijan, stopped by the Manchester Millyard a few weeks before the competition.

‘Diverse cities work best,’ he says

Meteorologist Rob Carolan’s Nashua-based Hometown Forecast Services doesn’t only serve its 60 radio clients but several in the private sector as well.

"Whether you’re in manufacturing or hospitality, it’s hard to find people with the skills you need," says Val Zanchuk, president of Graphicast in Jaffrey and a leading advocate for workforce development in New Hampshire.

For 13 years, Helaine Hughes of Greenfield has operated Poison Ivy Removal Company, one of the few businesses of its kind in the country.

‘‘Whenever you’re doing something that’s never been done before, it’s not easy,’ says Dan Karr founder of ValChoice, the first online platform that enables consumers to find out which auto insurance companies offer the best value.

‘We have an ongoing level of consolidation within the financial services industry that has been a concern to me for some time,’ says Jerry Little, the state’s new banking commissioner.

‘The most emphatic position that I’ve taken since becoming consumer advocate is staunch opposition to the idea of forcing electric consumers to double down on natural gas for paying for 20 years of firm pipeline capacity,’ says Public Utilities Commission Consumer Advocate Donald Kreis.

Barbara Van Dahlen, center, founder of the Campaign to Change Direction, with Peter Evers, left, of Concord-based Riverbend Community Health, and former NH Supreme Court Chief Justice John Broderick, co-chair of the statewide effort to teach people to be aware of the five signs of emotional suffering.

“The keys to university-level business education are ‘innovation, impact and engagement, and I think we are doing well on all three,” says Deborah Merrill-Sands, dean of UNH’s Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics.