Owners Kelly Stuart and Michele Albano pose just before the new Westport Michele’s Pies opened today at 180 Post Road East. They said the store hours are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. until their grand opening on April 16 at which time they will announce any revisions to the store hours. The store has six employees and serves specialty pie and pastry offerings as well as cappuccino, espresso, latte and tea. This is the second shop for the couple who also own Michele’s Pies at 666 Main Ave., Norwalk. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Post office employees Lee Bennett (r) and Louie Kish are waited on by co-owner Kelly Stuart as Michele’s Pies opened today at 180 Post Road East in Westport. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Westport resident Rajat K. Gupta, the former Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble director accused of leaking confidential information about those companies, is suing the accuser – the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Rajat Gupta: “denies all allegations.” File photo

The Wall Street Journal reported today that Gupta, who lives in Westport’s Greens Farms area, has filed suit against the agency because it connected him to the Galleon insider trading case when it filed civil charges against him on March 1. (See WestportNow March 1, 2011)

Gupta, a former McKinsey chief, “denies all allegations of wrongdoing and ‘stands ready to mount a defense against each and every one of the commission’s charges,’” according to the report.

The regulator filed civil administrative charges against Gupta in connection to the government’s fraud case against Raj Rajaratnam. His trial is currently under way in Manhattan.

Workers prepare for the June opening of JoyRide Cycle Studio, 1200 Post Road East, Westport in the shopping complex anchored by retailer Crate and Barrel. According to co-owner Debbie Katz, JoyRide will be Westport’s only fully dedicated spinning cycle center.  Owned by Westport residents Katz, Amy Hochhauser and Rhodie Lorenz, the studio initially will have 26 spinning cycles and then expand to 40 spin cycle bikes, Katz said. The 1200 Post Road East location has emerged into a center for physical fitness with the opening of multiple exercise businesses in the past two years. Franco Fellah of HK Group said that JoyRide Cycle Studio, occupying 4,100 square feet, fills the last remaining space in the complex. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

The Forbes list of the world’s billionaires just out includes 11 Connecticut residents, none of them Westporters, but it does include Ray Dalio, head of Westport’s Bridgewater Associates.
Ray Dalio: head of Westport hedge fund has estimated $6 billion net worth. Forbes.com photo

The company, with 1,100 employees in Westport, manages the world’s largest hedge fund with $87 billion in assets.

The magazine estimated Dailo’s net worth at $6 billion, earning him a place at No. 162 on the list of 1,210 billionaires. Dalio, like seven other Connecticut residents on the list, lives in Greenwich.

The richest Connecticut billionaire was listed as Steve Cohen, a hedge fund manager with an estimated $8 billion net worth. A Greenwich resident, he is tied at No. 114 on the list. See the complete list here.

Westport’s unemployment rate in January was 6.3 percent, up from 5.7 percent in December, the Connecticut Department of Labor said.

The sharp jump was mirrored in some other wealthy Fairfield County towns – 6.9 percent in Greenwich, 6.4 percent in Darien, and 6.0 percent in New Canaan. Weston’s was 5.5 percent.

The highest Westport rate in 2010 was in January when it was 6.6 percent.

The department said the number of unemployed in January was 805, up from 732 in December.

By Dave Matlow

Heather Cavanagh is back at the Westport-Weston Chamber of Commerce on an interim basis.
Heather Cavanagh: Returning after three-year absence. Contributed photo

Cavanagh, who joined the Chamber as executive director in 2007 and served for about a year, will assume the interim role of special projects manager effective Friday, said Paul Gehr, chairman of the board.

In this position, she will be responsible for the Chamber’s “day to day operations, government and community relations, member issues” and other projects, he said.

Lisa Thygerson, executive director of the Chamber since May 2009, resigned last month to take a position as manager of a Citibank branch in Stratford. (See WestportNow Feb. 22, 2011)