WOBURN, Mass.–Woburn-based Cummings Properties has expanded its leadership team with the addition of Annette Kovamees and attorney Laura Hiller. Kovamees joins the full-service commercial real estate firm as senior director of accounting, and Hiller has assumed the role of Cummings Foundation deputy director.
Kovamees brings more than two decades of finance and accounting experience to the organization, gained during her tenure in senior leadership positions with ADP Taxware, Beacon Health Options, Bluestem Brands, and other national and multinational corporations. She transitions to Cummings from Commonwealth Care Alliance, where she served as VP, financial operations.
“Annette’s extensive knowledge of corporate business operations and financial reporting makes her an ideal fit for Cummings, which has long been one of the nation’s most financially stable commercial real estate firms,” said CFO and senior VP Bill Grant. “Our team is sure to benefit from her demonstrated strategic leadership capabilities.”
As senior director of accounting, Kovamees will manage the 52-year-old company’s internal accounting and reporting, financial planning, and analysis activities. She will also oversee and develop a team of 10.
Kovamees is originally from Sweden, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Lund University. She now lives in Middleton with her husband and three sons.
Hiller, a former trusts and estates attorney, gained expertise in charitable gift planning and nonprofit law while practicing at Boston law firms Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP and Burns & Levinson, LLP as well as, most recently, Clarkin & Phillips, PC of Wellesley. Prior to studying law, she learned the finer points of nonprofit development as assistant director of communications and donor retention at Tufts University’s Annual Fund.
“Laura brings a key blend of tax law expertise and philanthropic knowhow to the position,” said Grant, who also serves as an ex officio trustee for the $3 billion Cummings Foundation. “Her solid grasp of complex legal statutes and practiced analytical approach will help to guide the Foundation’s continued development.”
In addition to crafting grant agreements and providing counsel on tax-related matters, she will liaise with and provide oversight for the Foundation’s numerous affiliates, including Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and Cummings School of Nursing and Health Sciences at Endicott College.
Hiller holds a bachelor’s degree from Tufts University, a Master of Education from Boston University, and a JD from Boston College Law School. A Missouri native, she is presently relocating from Wellesley to Lynnfield with her husband, their son, and their West Highland Terrier.
