Meet Our Shape Your Cape Summit Speakers

Meet Michael J. Pillarella of the Wianno Club

Michael Pillarella, a Massachusetts-native, has been cultivating his love of food since childhood. Throughout his professional journey, he has studied at Johnson and Wales University, trained with two Certified Master Chefs, and participated in three American Culinary Federation Cooking Competitions, going home with two gold metals and one silver as well as earning the title of Northeast Regional Chef of the Year. Today, you can find Michael inspiring guests through his culinary prowess as the Executive Chef at the Wianno Club in Osterville.

Michael is bringing his culinary expertise to our Redefining the Cape Cod Professional session. Hospitality and culinary professions are too often not thought of as "professional" work despite making a significant mark on our local economy. Michael will speak on his experience working as chef on Cape Cod and how we can break the mold of what a traditional young professional can look like.

Meet Nick Berardi of Cape Cod Healthcare

Many within our CCYP community may recognize Nick as one of our CCYP Board Directors as well as our Board Liaison to our Connect Events Committee. However, when Nick isn't passionately advancing the mission of CCYP, Nick is hard at work as an experienced human resources professional.

Following graduating from Pace University in New York City, Nick began his professional career in the hospitality industry at the Plaza Hotel. Nick was ultimately drawn to human resources and brought his innate people skills to the HR department of the Loews Regency Hotel. In 2015, Nick was drawn to Cape Cod and found his current role as HR Manager at Cape Cod Healthcare. His main focus is making the employee experience at CCHC a positive one, ultimately leading to superior patient care.

Nick will be joining our Critical Career Conversations session and will lend his experiences as an HR professional to providing attendees with effective interpersonal communication skills that become crucial when navigating complex professional situations. Learn how to ask for a raise, terminate an employee, deal with workplace gossip - all valuable skills in creating a positive and productive workplace environment!

Meet Gary Sheehan of Cape Medical Supply

Gary Sheehan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cape Medical Supply, is not unfamiliar with stepping into leadership roles. In fact, in addition to his role as Cape Medical Supply, Gary serves as a Board Member to the American Association of Homecare, the Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod, and Home Medical Equipment and Services Association of New England. He is also a co-founder of CCYP.

Gary will be bringing his experience as a community and regional leader to our So You're Finally the Boss - Now What? session on April 4th. Gary, along with other local business and community leaders, will share successes and challenges they have encountered along their career path. By offering their favorite management techniques, trainings, and philosophies, attendees will leave with new tools to use as creative and productive workplace leaders.

Meet Benjamin Lamb of 1Berkshire

As a PhD student, Ben was not the type of student to rest on his haunches. Rather, despite balancing the busy workload of higher education, Ben found his professional passion for community development as the Vice President of the City Council in the City of North Adams and co-founder of NAMAzing Initiative, a volunteer group focused on growing and sharing their love for North Adams with locals and visitors alike. His love for North Adams is hard to ignore - Ben went on to launch the NAMAzing Eagle Street Initiative, a crowdfunding place-making project to revitalize the historic Eagle Street, and co-founded the TEDxNorthAdams.

Today, Ben works as the Director of Economic Development at 1Berkshire, a regional economic development and marketing organization for Berkshire County of Massachusetts. Ben will be contributing his knowledge of community building to our Live & Work Success Stories: How Creative Workforce Recruitment Efforts Are Shifting Economic Landscapes Nationwide session. This All Conference session is designed to facilitate conversation around creative workforce recruitment initiates and act as a rallying force for the Cape's young workforce in our efforts to support our local economy for generations to come.