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Carol Katz named Business Person of the Year

April 15, 2009

Carol C. Katz, president and CEO of Loomis Communities, has been named this year's Business Person of the Year by the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce.

"I'm very honored," Katz said last week.

Katz will be honored at the Business Person of the Year Dinner on April 27 at 6 p.m. at the Log Cabin Banquet and Meeting House.

The award has been presented annually since it was first presented to the late Daniel J. O'Connell in 1972.

News of the award came as a surprise to Katz. However, she said she was pleased and perceives the award as acknowledging the hard work of everyone at Loomis Community.

"I see it as recognition for the Loomis Communities," Katz said.

"I've worked hard and our organization has worked hard, and that's what makes us successful," Katz added.

Lawyer John Driscoll, of Resnic, Beauregard, Waite & Driscoll, chaired the selection committee and will preside at the dinner. He was the 2008 awardee.

"Carol Katz has been a leader in services for the aging for two decades," Driscoll said recently. "While she continues to meet the challenges of that industry, she devotes her volunteer efforts to the needs of the community and the agenda of the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce. She is highly deserving of recognition for her commitment, judgment and leadership."

Employed by Loomis Communities for 20 years, Katz has been CEO for 16 years. During that time, she has overseen the growth and development of the organization's three related facilities: Loomis House in Holyoke, Loomis Village in South Hadley, and Applewood in Amherst. The three facilities have more than 550 residents and employ 420 people, Katz said.

A graduate of Northampton High School and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Katz began her career in Wisconsin before returning to this area.

She is a director of the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce and PeoplesBank, chair of the finance committee of Congregation B'nai Israel in Northampton, a campaign volunteer for United Way of the Pioneer Valley, a member of the Holyoke Rotary Club, and is active in the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging.

She is also a former trustee or Westfield State College, and a former director of the United Way, Regional Employment Board, and Massachusetts Aging Services, which she also served as chair.

Katz and her husband, Brad, live in South Deerfield and have two grown children and two grandchildren.

For more information on the dinner, call (413) 534-3376.