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Board Member Profiles

Tyler Ward
Tyler Ward, now in his fourth term as of 2023, is guided by his interest in local, small business, including agriculture; his advocacy for maintaining a vital downtown rich with historic integrity and top notch amenities; his passion for "Green" energy and practices; his understanding of the economic importance of conserving open land and preserving / promoting the re-use of our historic buildings;  and his sensitivity and respect for those that came before him in serving Peterborough.

Having worked independently as a Carpentry Contractor since 2004, Ward joined Frost Pond Carpentry, LLC in late 2017. This local firm specializes in highly energy efficient new construction, renovations and historically sensitive additions using cutting edge technology and renewable energies, frame to finish.

Before his carpentry career he spent 4 years as a Stay at Home Dad, managing household and working part time as a landscape contractor while renovating his family’s cottage, barns and Sugar House.

As General Manager for Medina Inc., a Washington DC based Moroccan import company, he worked with artisans in Marrakesh on product development/sourcing, sales, marketing, quality control and packing shipping containers.

While working retail jobs in Southern Connecticut he attended technical college, ultimately receiving an Associate in Science degree in Architectural Engineering and later pursued a Bachelor of Architecture degree at the Boston Architectural Center.  

As early as his first job delivering newspapers and subsequent retail positions, Mr. Ward gleaned the importance of entrepreneurship and teamwork as well as how to succeed independently.

Selectman Ward successfully brokered the deal to re-use the historic GAR Hall by connecting the owners of Post and Beam Brewery with the Town; Inspired and oversaw the development of “Our Town’s” own tourism app; collaborated to form the Peterborough Recycling Center Advisory Committee; Encouraged stronger presence on social media for the Town in order to better inform constituents.

He has the honor of being Select Board Liaison to the Conservation Commission, Heritage Commission, Open Space Committee, Planning Board and the West Peterborough TIF District Advisory Committee.

He is a founding member and currently volunteers on the Board of Directors at MAxT MakerSpace in Peterborough, a shared workspace and entrepreneurial incubator serving the Monadnock Region of Southern New Hampshire. Having been involved with the management team since its inception, he is working with artists, creators, musicians, inventors and techies to bring their wares to market in a collaborative work/share space. Their goal is to foster entrepreneurship and a resurgence in manufacturing.

As Co-Founder of the popular Repair Café at MAxT MakerSpace,  a monthly event centered around saving broken stuff from the landfill where volunteers help willing visitors fix their items in need of care, he is fostering a sense of compassion, collaboration and re-use. 

In his spare time, he enjoys travel and dining with his family; supports Music and the Arts; dislikes vacuuming and loves to read.

Bill Taylor
Bill Taylor has been a Selectman since May of 2019. He is a lifelong resident of Peterborough with roots going back to the construction of the Town House in 1918. He lives on Old Town Farm, a property that has been in his family for a century. He stayed in New England to further his education, graduating from Mount Ida College in Newton, Massachusetts.

Bill’s strong connection to the area serves him well in his work as a realtor for Masiello Group. Bill serves on the Contoocook Valley Board of Realtors, and was President of the Board in 2017 & 2018. Bill has developed a true interest in preserving open space in the Monadnock Region, while at the same time preserving the rights of citizens to choose how to utilize their own property.

Prior to his career in Real Estate, Bill was the National Sales Manager for Jaffrey Fire Protection/Armored Textiles. He was responsible for setting up and maintaining a national sales force consisting of manufacturers representatives and territory managers. Bill had contracts with the City of Chicago, Jacksonville, San Diego, and many others while at the same time managing a territory of 13 states in the Northeast. He knows the importance of forging connections and building strong relationships in order to find creative solutions, which proves useful in his work representing the citizens of Peterborough.

When Bill is not working, he can be found on the region's beautiful lakes year-round, boating, ice-fishing, snowmobiling or four-wheeling. You may also spot him on a tractor, maintaining fields or helping out with his brother's stonework business.

Bill serves as Select Board Liaison to the Agriculture Commission, Library Trustees, Recreation Committee, Recycling Center Advisory Committee, and the South Peterborough TIF Advisory Committee.

He became active, in part, to encourage more people to get involved and make positive changes for the town instead of just sitting on the sidelines. He loves Peterborough and his role as one of three dedicated selectmen.

William Kennedy
William “Bill” Kennedy, newly elected in 2021, brings an eclectic set of skills and experiences to the Select Board. As a scientist, educator, author, business manager, corporate executive and proven consensus-builder, Bill approaches problems systematically, finding solutions by interacting with and listening to fellow townspeople. Accordingly, Bill is working with other dedicated town officials and committees, with the Master Plan in mind, to:

  • Keep us healthy and safe
  • Promote sustainability in our government and our community
  • Maintain and improve our infrastructure while preserving our open spaces
  • Support and help our local businesses and merchants thrive
  • Ensure that Peterborough remains an important social, cultural, and economic center of the Monadnock Region, and
  • Preserve our beauty and character as, "a small town feel with big town opportunities."

Trained as a biochemistry/biophysics PhD, Bill’s medical research at labs in St. Louis and Chicago during the 70’s and 80’s is published in Biochemistry and several other peer-reviewed journals. Intrigued by the personal computer technologies emerging at about that same time, Bill moonlighted with his wife, Jeanne Dietsch, to program PC-based games and educational software, producing among other published titles the series, Interviews with History and a best-selling mystery game, Intrigue! Drawn to the vibrant computer magazine publishing center of the world, Bill and Jeanne settled here in 1984 to begin their family.

Here, Bill became technical editor for inCider Magazine and, later, editor-in-chief of its A+ Publishing parent. When IDG Peterborough dissolved, Bill partnered with colleague Chuck Musciano to co-author what evolved into a six-edition best-selling technical book series, HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide, published by O’Reilly & Associates.

Meanwhile, once again bitten by an emerging technology bug, Bill learned about intelligent mobile robotics and headed up marketing and sales at Real World Interface, Inc in Jaffrey. When RWI merged their defense robots with another company to form iRobot, Bill and Jeanne nurtured the research robot side of the business into MobileRobots Inc, here in Peterborough, to become the leading supplier of intelligent research robots in the world. The moderately priced platforms advanced robotics research, such as autonomous navigation for DARPA, giving tens of thousands of undergrad and graduate students hands-on access for the first time.

Mobilerobots won Small Business Innovative Research grants from the National Institute of Health, with Bill as principal investigator, to develop an autonomously navigated wheelchair, tested by Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center students. In 2010, Mobilerobots merged and Bill moved on, yet the technologies it developed are still used by its new owner, Omron, in Amherst, NH.

In 2013, Dublin School invited Bill to join their science and technology team, teaching physics, electronics, software programming and a variety of other skills to their international high-school students. Bill fully retired in 2020.

Bill loves Peterborough. He respects its effective, people-focused local government and has joined its community of active volunteers. He served as chair of the ConVal Community Scholarship Foundation, on the Town’s Recycling Advisory Committee, the Economic Development Authority, and the Greater Downtown TIF Advisory. Bill is eager to use his experience and skills to work with the other members of the Select Board for the Town of Peterborough.

 

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