Lexington is fortunate to have so many residents with high-level experience in management, finance, future-thinking, data analysis and organizational efficiency. But anyone who has worked in an organization knows that being smart is only as good as a person’s ability to cultivate collaboration and produce actual results.

Two current candidates for Select Board have proven that they have ample analytical skills and experience to contribute solutions for complex problems, and also have the crucial personal and leadership skills to be effective.

Vineeta Kumar has had a 30-year career as a management consultant, guiding large multinational companies through transformational change in financial performance and operational efficiency. In Lexington, she has devoted her efforts to encouraging citizen engagement in town government and prioritizing community. Vineeta is an active Town Meeting Member and former Chair of the Town Meeting Members Association. She has served on the board of the Lexington Education Foundation, as president of the LHS PTO, and was appointed to the recent Town Manager Search Committee. Vineeta was the driving force behind LEF’s Unplugged program which created events and activities to provide Lexington students with alternatives to social media and video games.

Joe Pato has had a long career as a Distinguished Technologist at Hewlett-Packard and a visiting scientist at MIT. In his 12 years on the Select Board, he has tackled problems directly by spearheading important sustainability initiatives, guiding efforts to put enforcement teeth into the town’s noise bylaw and creating a town-wide listening tour regarding law enforcement. Joe’s technological contributions and uncompensated donation of his time, skills, and labor have served to make Lexington’s town government more transparent, inclusive, and accessible to all residents of Lexington.  

Joe and Vineeta are the best candidates running for Select Board this year. I encourage Lexington voters to consider the importance of their skills, priorities and abilities—including the people skills that make them successful leaders—and join me in voting for them both.

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