Riverside Sunoco on Riverside Avenue in Westport is undergoing renovations and will reopen as a food mart serving fresh coffee, snacks, and other food items. Owner Victor Kronberg said it will open in March under the name Riverside Sunoco Food Mart. The location will still sell Sunoco gasoline. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Bob Eckman for WestportNow.com

By Keith M. Phaneuf

www.ctmirror.org

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy tapped a member of the legal team that helped bring Connecticut a multi-billion settlement against the tobacco industry one decade ago to become the new head of the Department of Consumer Protection.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy (l) introduces William M. Rubenstein, his nominee for consumer protection commissioner, today in Hartford. Ctmirror.org photo

Malloy, who announced his selection of Hartford attorney William M. Rubenstein, 59, Monday morning in the Legislative Office Building, charged his new commissioner with keeping a close watch on the “charlatans” that are bilking consumers on ever-growing Internet markets.

“The Department of Consumer Protection has a broad mandate – spanning a range of marketplace regulation – from keeping the public safe from nefarious business practices and ensuring that professional licensure standards are maintained,” Malloy said. “Bill’s exhaustive experience in public service … leave me with no doubt that we have a commissioner who will be a diligent and thoughtful protector of, and advocate for, Connecticut residents.

Rubenstein, who will serve on an interim basis while his nomination is considered by the General Assembly, pledged that those who perpetrate fraud on consumers “deserve no quarter, and get no quarter on our watch.”

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Westporter Michele Albano is bringing her award-winning Michele’s Pies to Westport. She hopes to open the expansion from the Main Avenue, Norwalk store in mid-February at 180 Post Road East in space vacated last September by Baskin Robbins after 40 years. (See WestportNow Sept. 28, 2010) Albano, who frequents the farmers’ markets in Westport, said the Westport store will not only offer all the pies she has in Norwalk but also a big coffee selection and breakfast pastries every day. “Expanding our business to Westport makes sense to us,” she said. “We have a huge Westport clientele. I grew up in Westport.” (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Reporting by Dave Matlow; Contributed photo

Westport’s Bridgewater Associates, the town’s largest private employer which oversees one of the world’s largest hedge funds, is taking more than 50,000 square feet of space at The Towers complex in Norwalk, where it will share the headquarters building of Xerox Co., according to Fairfield County Business Journal’s Westfair Online.

According to records on file with the city of Norwalk, some $1.5 million is being spent on renovations to the offices, which are owned by Norwalk-based developer Building and Land Technology (BLT), the newspaper said.

Bridgewater Associates employs more than 900 workers at its headquarters just off Ford Road, on Riverside Avenue, and at the Nyala Farm office complex.

There has been recent speculation that Bridgewater is seeking to move its headquarters in order to consolidate its workforce. (See WestportNow July 9, 2010)

Westport-based Terex Corp., one of the world’s largest heavy construction manufacturers, said today its chief operating officer and the head of its cranes business have resigned.

In the shake-up, Terex COO Thomas Riordan, second-in-command behind Chairman and Chief Executive Ron DeFeo, will leave Jan. 31 to become chief executive of casting company Neenah Enterprises Inc. effective Feb. 1. Riordan’s duties, which also include president of Terex, will be taken over by DeFeo.

Terex said Richard Nichols, formerly president of the company’s cranes business, will be leaving the company in February. He had been cranes president since 2008. He will be succeeded by Kevin Bradley, who has been president of Terex’s financial services business.

Bradley will be replaced by Ramon Oliu, who has held a variety of positions in the financial services unit since joining Terex in 2007.