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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 19 A U G U S T 7 , 2 0 1 7 "I've never had two days that are the same," she says. "Especially with renovation, you open a wall or put your excavator in the ground and there's always a surprise. It keeps you on your toes." Giving back to the industry Wadsworth, who is LEED-accredited as a profes- sional, also has design and construction certifi cation through the U.S. Green Building Council. As a Green Professional-certifi ed instructor, she teaches employees best practices for creating green and effi cient buildings. She also serves as an advisor with the Westbrook Conference of Totally Trades!, a program of the job advocacy and resource organization New Ventures Maine in Augusta: She's worked with hundreds of girls exploring construction and the trades as a career option. And she's board member for Birth Roots in Portland, providing support for new parents; and YMCA Camp Huckins in New Hampshire. Like the Totally Trades! girls, Wadsworth was herself a high schooler when she offi cially began working for the company. "I was the jack-of-all-trades laborer, the lackey," she says. "I ran heavy equipment, I fi lled in, in the fi eld or in the offi ce. I was part-time summers and any day off from school, doing whatever needed to be done." She didn't plan to stay, thinking she might go into fi nance or law. At the University of Denver, she earned a bachelor's in economics. When not study- ing, she spent a couple of years with e Foreside Co., a home goods wholesaler in Gorham, in sales and trade show management. She also spent a year as an AmeriCorps volunteer. After college, her father's offi ce assistant unexpect- edly passed away. Wadsworth stepped in, thinking it would be a month or two. Instead, her father suggested she stay on and take advantage of the company's edu- cational stipend. She pursued an MBA in sustainability, fi rst part-time at the University of Southern Maine's School of Business, then transferring full-time to the online program at Green Mountain College, all while working full-time for Hardypond — a grueling sched- ule perhaps sustained by her passion for triathlon. On the job, she recalls the learning curve in the offi ce and on-site, working with project managers, overseeing safety improvements, mastering the fi ne points of esti- mating and translating blueprints into construction. "It was an organic trajectory that a lot of people go through when they join a company," she says. "You work your way up to a certain level of project manage- ment, understanding the design aspects and how a project is accomplished with all the moving parts. e easy part for me was the numbers. I had an economics background and an MBA. e hard part was learning how to understand the drawings. at wasn't second- nature. But since I had grown up around it, I knew the terms and I think that gave me an upper hand, to some extent. But I asked a lot of questions." When Gaudreau began contemplating retirement, he and Wadsworth initiated a succession plan that installed her as president in 2015, made her majority owner and will see her as sole owner in 2020. Part of the job is nurturing her father's prin- ciples. In addition to the education program, C O N T I N U E D O N F O L L OW I N G PA G E » P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F D E I R D R E WA D S WO R T H smile by emily No one has a smile like you. And no one can keep it healthy like us. Like Emily, your smile is unique. It deserves Delta Dental, the nation's leading dental benefits provider. With the largest network of dentists nationwide, quick answers and personalized service, we make it easy to keep your smile healthy. www.nedelta.com Northeast Delta Dental Deirdre Wadsworth, an accomplished triathlete, is seen here at the Tri for the Cure, held in South Portland in July.

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