Professional Services

Bentley Wealth Advisors LLC has merged with Wakefield-based Wealth Management Solutions, the company announced Wednesday. May 16

Miriam A. Ross may have the secret to being a successful business owner – and balancing that with other professional, as well as personal, obligations and interests – and the answer isn’t all that surprising. May 5

Miriam A. Ross’ secret to success is a formula easy to understand but oh so hard for many to follow. Passion, direction and lots of hard work, she said, explaining how she came to be named this year’s U.S. Small Business Administration’s New England Women in Business Champion of the Year. “I’m up early and I’m up late,” said Ross, pictured above with Kevin P. Braga, of counsel for the Law Offices of Miriam A. Ross Esq. Ross has run her own Providence law firm for the last eight years. “To be successful in anything, you need to be doing something that you love and that you derive benefit from. … [When you’re doing that], it all sort of falls in place." Apr 28

University of Rhode Island undergraduate students Dylan Gregory and Cory Harrigan have launched a recycling company targeting the automotive industry, the university announced Wednesday. Apr 25

During his three years as co-chairman of the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition, Larry Davidson of Kahn, Litwin, Renza & Co. Ltd., in Providence, has watched the annual contest grow in size, popularity and prize money. In 2011, the competition attracted 103 applicants, nearly double the 2009 total, and awarded a record $250,000 in cash and in-kind prizes. Business- plan donors and corporate partners have spoken about trying to make the competition the largest of its kind in the nation and a catalyst for growing the fledgling knowledge economy in Rhode Island. Apr 7

Commercial printing is an industry that caters to other businesses, providing a variety of services, from bound reports to pamphlets and digital photography. And as with other industries it has been greatly impacted by computer technology. Apr 7

Anthony H. Bliss is a numbers guy. He’s also a man with a heart. So when the numbers guy had to tell his bosses how to save money in ways that meant losses of jobs and lessening of services, it weighed heavily. Apr 7

In 1986, David V. DeVault left his Providence accounting job to work at a small, publicly traded bank in Westerly. Within a year of joining the company, he was named chief financial officer. Friends asked why he would go there. They warned he would be bored. Apr 7

Though many would-be travelers swapped their exotic vacations for “staycations” during the Great Recession, Collette Vacations grew its tour-operation business significantly, thanks in part to the strategic vision of Chief Financial Officer John Galvin. Apr 7

Kristin Zhivago describes herself as a “revenue coach” and says personality counts when selecting her clients. Mar 31