CONCORD, N.H. — The Business and Industry Association will honor three leaders for their lasting contributions to New Hampshire at its upcoming annual dinner.

Claira Monier, retired 20-year executive director of the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority; Joseph Pepe, MD, retired chief executive officer of CMC Healthcare System; and Harold Turner Jr., founder of The H.L. Turner Group will be honored at BIA’s 108th Annual Dinner and Awards Celebration, presented by Eversource, from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 20 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Manchester Downtown Hotel. The event also will be livestreamed with support from Bank of America.

The Lifetime Achievement Award, sponsored by Whelen Engineering Company, recognizes business leaders who have demonstrated a commitment to leadership in their professions, communities and New Hampshire. Award recipients help shape their communities and the state through successful business endeavors, active participation in civic organizations, involvement in boards and service to local and state government.

Last year’s Lifetime Achievement honorees were former Govs. Steve Merrill and John Lynch.

Claira Monier led the N.H. Housing Finance Authority from 1988 to 2007, soon finding herself in the middle of the state’s growing workforce housing shortage. Under her tenure, NHHFA completed more than 400 multi-family housing projects.

Housing remains the major issue in the state, she said, adding, “If you want a stable community you have to have home ownership.”

Monier is a former geography professor, whose passion for learning led her to earn a master’s in urban geography at Clark University and later to teach urban geography and urban planning at St. Anselm College. “That helped me understand some of the problems here,” she said.

Monier serves as chair of Residential Ratepayers Advisory Board with the N.H. Public Utilities Commission, program chair of the Manchester Rotary Club and on the boards of Breathe NH, Blue Knights Foundation and Amoskeag Industries. She is a Goffstown Garden Club member. The Plymouth State University Alumni Association honored her with a 2020 Alumni Award.

Monier was a former aide to Republican Gov. Meldrim Thomson and is the widow of Senate President Robert Monier. She served as regional administrator for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Reagan administration.

Joseph Pepe, MD, retired this summer as CEO of CMC Healthcare System, which includes Catholic Medical Center, New England Heart and Vascular Institute, physician practices, an ambulatory surgery partnership and urgent care centers. His 10 years as CEO were highlighted by a constant effort to improve the level of care at CMC, expanding available procedures, providing less invasive surgeries and deploying the latest medical technologies.

“When we can boast that healthcare is excellent in New Hampshire, people want to move here,” he said. “High-tech healthcare is important for the health of New Hampshire and literally the health of New Hampshire citizens.”

Pepe remains CEO of GraniteOne Health, which includes CMC, Huggins Hospital and Monadnock Community Hospital. He serves on the board of GraniteOne Health, Monadnock and Huggins hospitals and the St. Anselm College Board of Trustees. He is a former member of BIA’s Board of Directors.

Dr. Pepe graduated from St. Anselm College with a bachelor of arts in biology, received his medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine and completed his postdoctoral training at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Massachusetts. His first healthcare job was an internist at CMC.

Harold Turner Jr., former president and CEO of The H.L. Turner Group, founded the company in Concord in 1990 and for more than 30 years pursued his passion of building better, more sustainable buildings, schools and homes. He inspired The H.L. Turner Group’s architects, engineers and building scientists to deliver award-winning designs, advancing “the technology, art, and science of the built environment.”

Of his career, he said, “It’s not work if it’s fun. It just becomes a passion.”

“We took the best work from our architects, engineers and building scientists and collaborated to build a better project,” he added. “It’s been integral to our practice the last 30 years. I think the constant in all of that is technology never stops evolving.”

Turner is board chair of the Granite Institute and serves on the Granite State Hydropower Association board. He is an advisory board member for the NH Technical Institute’s Architectural Engineering Technology and Civil Engineering Technology programs and NH Children’s Scholarship Fund. He served for three terms as BIA board chair, from 2001 to 2003.

Turner was named to the NH Business Review’s 2019 NH 200, which honors the state’s most influential business leaders and received NHBR’s Business Excellence Award in 2019.

Click the following links for headshot photos of the Lifetime Achievement Award recipients.

Claira Monier

Harold Turner

Joseph Pepe

New Hampshire Business Committee for the Arts will receive BIA’s 2021 New Hampshire Advantage Award. NHBCA’s new augmented reality art app allows users to bring New Hampshire art anywhere with your smartphone. AR+ art by NHBCA App will be on display during the Annual Dinner’s reception. Check it out at www.nhbca.com/ar-art-app.

Past recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award

2020

Former Govs. Steve Merrill and John Lynch

2019

Larry Gammon, Easterseals New Hampshire

Joseph McQuaid, New Hampshire Union Leader

Joan Goshgarian, New Hampshire Business Committee for the Arts

2018

Hon. Linda Dalianis, former chief justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court

Dr. Richard Gustafson, former SNHU president and CCSNH chancellor

Hon. W. Douglas Scamman Jr., former Speaker of the New Hampshire House

2017

Hon. John H. Sununu, former governor, former White House chief of staff, and president of JHS Associates

Dr. Edward MacKay, former chancellor, University System of New Hampshire

2016

Pam Hall, Normandeau Associates

Dick Hamilton, White Mountains Attractions Association

Tom Rath, Rath Young Pignatelli

2015

Bradford Cook, Sheehan Phinney Bass and Green

Barbara Couch and Richard Couch, Hypertherm

2014

Douglas Dean, Elliot Health System

John Olson, Whelen Engineering Inc.

Gary Long, Public Service of NH

2013

Donna Sytek, former Speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives

Wendell Jesseman, chairman of New England Wire Technologies

2012

John Collins, Dartmouth-Hitchcock

James Varnum, Dartmouth-Hitchcock

Ray Wieczorek, Wieczorek Insurance

2011

John Crosier, BIA; Patrick Duffy, P. Duffy and Associates

Judd Gregg, former U.S. senator and former governor of New Hampshire

2010

John Broderick, former N.H. Supreme Court chief justice

2009

Lew Feldstein, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation

Dr. Stephen Reno, University System of New Hampshire

2008

Patrick Duffy, P. Duffy and Associates

2007

Andrew Lietz, University System of New Hampshire

2006

Henry Powers, Sprague Energy

2005

Jack Middleton, McLane, Graf, Raulerson and Middleton

2004

Malcolm McLane, Orr and Reno

2003

J. Bonnie Newman, Kennedy School of Government

John Frisbee, New Hampshire Historical Society

2002

William Ruger, Sr., Sturm Ruger and Co.

James Wagner, Nexfor Fraser Papers

2001

Stephen Barba, the Balsams Grand Resort

Saul Greenspan, Seco

2000

Sylvio Dupuis, Notre Dame College

Kimon Zachos, Sheehan Phinney Bass and Green

1999

David Putnam, Markem Corp.

1998

William S. Green, Sheehan, Phinney, Bass and Green

Walter Peterson, Franklin Pierce College

1997

Eli Isaacson, Isaacson Structural Stee

F. Fuller Ripley, Troy Mills

1993

Courtland Freese and George Freese Jr., Globe Manufacturing Co.

John Morison II, Hitchiner Manufacturing

Neil Tillotson, Tillotson Corp.

Tickets for BIA'S 108th Annual Dinner and Awards Celebration, presented by Eversource, are $1,500 for a table of 10 or $150 per person and may be purchased at BIAofNH.com/events. For more information, call (603) 224-5388 ext. 101. To learn about sponsorship opportunities, email Lora McMahon.

Sponsors for this year’s annual dinner include:

Presenting – Eversource

Livestream – Bank of America

Audio Visual – Catholic Medical Center

Program Sponsor – Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics

Dessert – GZA GeoEnvironmental

Event parking – Well Sense Health Plan

Registration & Name Badge – Eastern Bank

Centerpiece – Rath Young and Pignatelli

Wine – The Mountain Club on Loon

Wi-Fi – United Healthcare

Hors d’oeuvres – Cook Little Rosenblatt and Manson

Platinum – BAE Systems, Bank of New Hampshire, CGI Business Solutions, Cirtronics Corporation, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, Fidelity Investments, Hitchiner Manufacturing Co., Inc., Liberty Mutual Group, Maloney & Kennedy PLLC, McLane Middleton Professional Association, Normandeau Associates, Rasky Partners, Sig Sauer, Inc., The RiverStone Group, Unitil, Waste Management, People’s United Bank

Media – New Hampshire Business Review

Newspaper – New Hampshire Union Leader

Gold – Anheuser-Busch, Inc., AT&T Services, Inc., C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc., Exigere Networks Inc., Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Hinckley Allen, Millennium Agency, Nathan Wechsler & Co., PA, Novocure, Sheehan Phinney, Watts Water Technologies

Silver – Anagnost Investments, Inc., Baker Newman Noyes, Casella, Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC, Fiduciary Trust of New England, The NHHEAF Network Organizations, Liberty, Monadnock Paper Mills, Inc., Mountain View Grand Resort & Spa, New Hampshire College and University Council, New Hampshire Electric Cooperative, Inc., Northeast Delta Dental, Onvio LLC, Orr & Reno, PA, Planet Fitness World Headquarters, Sojourn Partners, Sprague Energy, TD Bank, Verizon, Vitex Extrusion/Momentum Manufacturing Group

Exhibitor – Littleton Coin Company

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About the BIA: The Business and Industry Association is New Hampshire’s statewide chamber of commerce and leading business advocate. BIA represents more than 400 leading employers in a variety of industries including manufacturing, technology, professional services, financial services, health care, hospitality and tourism, public utilities, higher education, insurance, and many others. Member firms employ 93,000 people throughout the state and contribute $4.5 billion annually to the state’s economy. While proud of its many large members, 69% of BIA members have an annual payroll of $3 million or less. Through advocacy with state legislators and regulators, BIA works to promote a healthy climate for job creation and a strong New Hampshire economy. For more information, visit www.biaofnh.com.