Business & Tech

Bailey, Valente to Head Groton Business Association

The GBA holds monthly meetings on the third Thursday of each month at 7:30 a.m. at a business in the Greater Groton community.

From a GBA release:

Susan Bailey and Al Valente will co-chair the Groton Business Association (GBA) of the Greater Mystic Chamber of Commerce in 2014.  Valente, who has been active in both GBA and the Greater Mystic Chamber of Commerce, will be teaming up with Bailey, who chaired the GBA during the past year.

The GBA is a coalition of representatives from the local business community, the educational sector, the non-profit community and governmental units.

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Valente is currently an independent agent for ACI Merchant Systems and provides credit card processing, gift card promotions and POS systems to business owners in the greater Groton area.

“Groton is a magnificent community with outstanding public services and is resplendent in history, not to mention the beautiful shoreline,” Valente said, “I look forward to my new role as Co-Chair to continue the mission of the GBA of fostering the growth of businesses in Groton through the collaborative efforts of business, government, and our non-profits.” 

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Valente has been active in both the GBA and the Mystic Chamber. He has served on the GBA’s steering committee and media committee, and serves on the Chamber’s membership committee.  He also runs programs at the Westerly YMCA as a volunteer. He has been in the merchant services field since 2007, and previous to that he worked for decades in the greater Boston computer field in both technical positions and sales and marketing.

Valente said he’d continue to “promote and grow” the GBA’s major events; the Groton Fall Festival and the Groton Holiday Lights Parade.

No stranger to Chamber work, Valente ran businesses in Worcester Massachusetts and was past president of the Central Massachusetts Tourist Council and past president of a satellite of the Worcester Chamber of Commerce, covering the towns of Shrewsbury, Westborough, and Northborough.

Valente lives on the Groton side of Mystic with his wife Jayne in a 300-year-old colonial house.  They moved here 1993 from Massachusetts and have three grown children.

Bailey took the reins of the GBA in 2013 after assuming increasing responsibilities over the past several years.  She has been active in the Greater Mystic

Chamber of Commerce (GMCC) and Groton Business Association since 2008, serving on the GMCC Membership Committee and the GBA Steering and Holiday Lights Committees.  She served as the GBA vice-chair in 2012.

Professionally, Bailey is currently the Development Coordinator for the Riverfront Children’s Center, Inc. in the City of Groton.  She has been employed there since 2006.  The Riverfront Children’s Center, Inc. is a Groton non-profit providing early education and childcare to children of lower income families.  As Riverfront’s Development Coordinator, she serves as a liaison to the community, leads fundraising events, coordinates United Way Day of Caring volunteer projects and is one of the Center’s grant writers.

Bailey formerly worked with troubled teenagers in a local community and then spent many years as a small business owner providing professional garden design and landscape consultation services.  A past president and Honored Member of the North Stonington Garden Club, she is a recent North Stonington transplant and currently resides in Groton City with her husband, David.  They have two grown children.

The GBA holds monthly meetings on the third Thursday of each month at 7:30 a.m. at a business in the Greater Groton community. Businesses wanting to host a monthly meeting should contact Tricia Walsh, President of the Greater Mystic Chamber of Commerce, at 860-572-9578 or e-mail her at triciawalsh@mysticchamber.org


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