Hula founder Russ Scully, landlord Bill Bissonette, the three sons of IDX Systems cofounder Richard Tarrant Sr. and a constellation of other Chittenden County business luminaries have teamed up to open the first new Vermont-based bank since 1989.

Eight proposed directors and 11 organizers have applied to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or FDIC, to open the Bank of Burlington, a business-only lender.

The group intends to raise $20 million to $30 million before it gets started, said Mike Pieciak, the commissioner of the Department of Financial Regulation.
A local lender is likely to be more flexible in approving business loans, Pieciak said. The proposal comes as financial institutions in Vermont are being sold and merging.

Packetized Energy, a Burlington company that makes power-saving technology, has been acquired by New York City company EnergyHub and plans to grow in the coming year.

Founded in 2016 by University of Vermont electrical engineering professors Paul Hines, Jeff Frolik and Mads Almassalkhi, Packetized Energy has developed algorithms to help utilities communicate with water heaters, electric vehicles, and battery systems to determine when and how they are operating. The algorithms also allow utilities to control how much power a home or business uses — for example, by dropping the thermostat or water heater a few degrees during times of peak demand.

Some utilities already do this, using specialized software that monitors internet-connected thermostats and other devices to assess energy use remotely.

“We built the software platform around the idea that you’ll have lots of these internet devices connected to the grid, and we need a common language for communicating with all of them,” Hines said.

Montpelier City Clerk John Odum launched a run Monday for Vermont secretary of state, a position in which he hopes to protect the integrity of Vermont’s election process through his experience in cybersecurity.

Odum, a native of Kentucky, moved to Vermont in 1996 to attend Goddard College in Plainfield and stayed to work on political campaigns and in the nonprofit sector, most recently as clerk in the state capital for the last 10 years.

Odum is a certified ethical hacker, which means he has expertise in testing how easy it is for bad actors to gain access to computer systems. It's a credential that could come in handy if he succeeds in winning election to the statewide office, which handles professional regulation, local and state elections, business services and other administrative duties.

Odum noted that the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee concluded in 2019 that Russia targeted election systems in all 50 states in the 2016 election.

“We’re talking about foreign threats to our democracy,” he said.
Odum doesn't have a bachelor's degree; he left college before graduating in order to take a job with the Vermont Democratic Party, and he remains a Democrat. He noted  he has a certificate in election management from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and an array of IT certifications, including certified network defense architect. He’s also a board member at the Cyber Policy Initiative at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy.

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