Our team

John, the founder of the Joinery, became passionate about woodworking after purchasing and renovating an old home in Saratoga. In 2021, he lived and fully immersed himself in a 3-month furniture intensive at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine. He says he is now “officially hooked.”

Professionally, John worked as a software entrepreneur. He founded SportsSignup in 2003 for youth sports organizations, and co-founded NearMe in 1999, a company delivering location based services to wireless devices.  John is also the co-founder of MapInfo (now Precisely MapInfo) building the new desktop mapping industry.  He is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he majored in Mathematics. He currently serves on the Board of the Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation. When not at the shop and woodworking, he enjoys sailing on Lake George and hiking and traveling with his wife Michelle.

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Chris Bennett is a long time resident in a historic home in Saratoga Springs. He has spent much of his career as a carpenter meticulously restoring the porches and exteriors of the city’s historic district to their original grandeur. He is an obvious asset to the Board of the Joinery.

Chris is the founder of Chris Bennett Construction and has received local recognition for his work - most specifically his hand-crafted moldings, columns and brackets. He is a graduate of the North Bennett School in Boston; a long-time member of the Saratoga Springs Design Review Board and actively volunteers for the Giving Circle on their local home rebuilding projects. When not trying to finish his wooden sailboat, Chris enjoys gardening, cooking, and hosting neighborhood parties with his wife Ellen and spending time with his three children.

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As a founding member of the Board of the Joinery, Ken combines a generational interest in entrepreneurship, community volunteering, and the arts. His grandparents (a woodworker and a ceramicist) started and ran a Music camp in the Catskills, employing his father and uncles who, in turn, started businesses and not for profit entities.  

Ken is the CEO and Cofounder of Location Analytics, Inc., a consultancy focused on sales optimization through leveraging location based data and analysis. His software leadership history also includes CMO of MapAnything, President of TerrAlign and an early role with MapInfo.  He is a graduate of Bryant College with an MBA at RPI, where he has also been an adjunct professor.  Ken, and his wife Leslie, settled in Saratoga 20 years ago, to raise their child Elliot and a multitude of pets. He enjoys golfing, boating, cooking and has recently become addicted to snowmobiling.  While working on DYI projects, he has often complained that experts have both the knowledge and right tools - he’s now trying to overcome those personal shortcomings, and help others do the same.

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Mary is enthusiastic about helping to found the Joinery because it combines a life-long love of artistry with her background in nonprofit management and fundraising. She remains a very amateur woodworker, although her foray began in the 1980s building stretchers for canvases as a painting student.

Prior to moving to Saratoga in 2010, Mary worked for 25 years for national and regional nonprofits as both an Executive Director and a Development Director, including the Student Conservation Association and the American Cancer Society. She has also consulted with businesses to help them initiate first time giving/grants programs. Mary graduated from UVM, received her Masters in Policy from Tufts and took graduate classes at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She continues to paint locally and in Deer Isle, Maine and volunteers for several nonprofits in both locales. She and her husband Mike spend their free time visiting their four grown daughters and skiing and kayaking whenever possible.

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Angelo has always had an interest in building and carpentry, although he still considers himself a novice woodworker.  His interest began years ago when he first helped his family renovate and take care of family-owned apartments as a young boy.

After completing his graduate studies at George Washington University, Angelo began a career in healthcare leadership that lasted almost 40-years and included CEO positions in western New York and Ohio.  He and his wife Kate then moved to Saratoga where he served in the role of CEO of Saratoga Hospital for sixteen years.

Recently retired, Angelo and his wife have committed to Saratoga as their forever home.  He has volunteered for several organizations over the years and continues to serve on several local Boards.  He enjoys cars, music, gardening, cooking and spending time with his family which now includes four grandchildren.

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Karen is excited to join the board of the Joinery. Her interest in woodworking originated with her grandfather but it grew immensely when she became a middle school technology education teacher. She was enthusiastic to elevate her own woodworking skills by learning from her colleagues and in turn, to introduce the enjoyment of woodworking to her students.

Karen’s first career path was in architecture.  She graduated with her Bachelor of Architecture degree from Syracuse University in 1992 and worked for various local firms as an architectural designer for the next 12 years. In 2006 she received her Masters Degree in Technology Education from the College of St. Rose. She currently teaches engineering and architecture classes at Saratoga High School where she seeks to inspire and educate her students about the rich architectural fabric of the wonderful city we live in. She is also a long-time member of the Saratoga Springs Design Review Board. When not teaching, volunteering, or building projects, Karen spends time with her husband playing golf, pickleball, or with their three children in their adult journeys.

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Eric Diem has been swinging a hammer for one reason or another since his teens.  He has been an amateur woodworker for the past twenty years but claims he still has much to learn. Eric has taken on projects large and small, including building his entire kitchen, dining table, bathroom vanities, and multiple smaller keepsakes.  

Eric is a Project Manager at Saratoga Hospital where he leads a variety of organizational initiatives from real estate development to program analysis.  Previously, he was a manager within the hospital in the physical therapy department for 20 years where he helped to grow multiple clinical programs.  He received his Master’s in PT from Ithaca College.  In addition to the Joinery, Eric has served on the board of a local PTA and was a house captain with Rebuilding Together-Saratoga.

In his free time he enjoys spending time with his wife and two daughters, playing golf, cooking, hiking and of course, woodworking.

Ben is always working on projects in and around his house in Saratoga Springs and looks forward to the Joinery being a place for all members of the community to develop new skills that improve their homes.In his free time, he enjoys hiking, playing golf, and making the most of time with his wife, daughter, friends and family.

Ben is the President and founder of Fosterra® LLC, which delivers green energy and clean transportation leadership to the commercial, government, education, and utility sectors. Prior to Fosterra, Ben was Senior Vice President for Optony Inc., where he created their international renewable energy project management services division. He was also the Senior Director at the S&P energy and construction information services divisions.

Ben has a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Accounting from the University of Colorado, Boulder and an MBA in International Business from Old Dominion University. He has earned the designations of Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR) Assessment, his CMA and CFM. He has served on boards and committees both nationally and locally and is a current member of the Climate Smart Task Force for the City of Saratoga.

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