Our People

Brian Baird joined Bibens Ace in August of 2000 as manager of the Colchester location, the first branching out location in the Bibens Ace family of stores.  In the following years, he was involved with the addition of South Burlington, Burlington, and the Essex locations.  In 2010 he was promoted to Territory Manager of the northern locations.  Brian resides in Colchester, VT with his wife and two sons.  When not working, Brian enjoys spending time with family, playing ice hockey, and enjoying the outdoors.

Peter Torney was raised in Springfield, VT and started working for Bibens Home Center part time while in high school. He has been a part of Bibens Ace for over 37 years and a manager for 30 of those.  He is married with 2 children and 2 grandchildren.  In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with family, friends, and with projects around the house.

John moved to Springfield, VT in the Summer of 2018 after living in the Boston area. After working in pharmacy retail management for 35 years, he joined the Bibens Ace Springfield team in the fall of 2018 as a sales associate/customer service specialist, learning the hardware business through on the job training style, from from mixing paint, to plumbing and electrical, to driving a forklift. In January of 2023 he was promoted to store Manager.

John grew up in the Burlington/Essex area, and after getting engaged in early 2018, moved from the Boston area back to Vermont, with the goal of living halfway between his children in lower New England and their family in upstate Vermont.  In John’s free time, he enjoys spending time outdoors, doing work on their new home, and day tripping with their two dogs, along with becoming an active part in the Springfield Community.

Peter Casselman grew up in Massachusetts, spending much of his childhood mucking about in boats on Buzzards Bay.  Fascinated by anything mechanical, he rebuilt his first outboard motor at the age of twelve to power the nutshell pram he had built with his brother and father.  Throughout high school and college, he repaired automobiles at a small shop specializing in European sports cars, where he honed his problem-solving abilities.  In 2006, Peter moved to Vermont and joined the Bibens Ace team as a sales associate at the Colchester location, where he found his niche in the marine department.  From 2011 to 2015, he managed the Burlington location before returning to Colchester.  Peter is a true believer in the value of the neighborhood hardware store, and strives to ensure that Bibens always is The Helpful Place.  He resides in Georgia, Vermont with his wife and their animals.

Roland Ostrout is a native Vermonter and grew up enjoying the outdoors being physically active as well as civic minded. While in school he worked various jobs from landscaping to janitorial to construction to automotive to retailing.  Roland later attended the University of Vermont and shortly after started a family in central Vermont.  He started his career in retailing with Ames Department stores in 1987 and joined Bibens Ace in 2002, while also a law enforcement officer in the town he resided for several years.

Bibens Ace South Burlington has seen many transitions in its format, and Roland has been part of that process since the beginning.  The store was the 3rd in opening for the Bibens family and the niche it has provided for the South Burlington community, both residentially and commercially, has been astoundingly positive.  Roland and the majority of the staff have been there for many years and can provide the necessary advice and assistance you’ll need to complete the task properly.

Ed Morse was born and raised in Brattleboro, VT, where his family can be traced back five generations.  In 1986, while in the Career Center Building Trades program, he was hired by Brown & Roberts to repair windows and screens, later developing into a variety of repairs, including building maintenance.  Five years later, he was promoted to hardware department manager, and six years after that, he was assigned to manage the paint department.  In 2013, Ed was promoted to Assistant Manager when the store was purchased by Bibens Ace, and in February of 2018 he was promoted to Store Manager, now overseeing the entire operation.

Lee Ann Lyman was born and raised in North Conway, NH.  During her youth, she would usually be found riding and caring for horses. She later attended the University of New Hampshire, where she continued to train and compete her own dressage horse, later deciding to leave school to pursue her equestrian dreams.

For several years, Lee Ann would follow the horse show circuit, traveling to Florida for the winters and back to Woodstock, VT for the summers, where her trainer was based.  After winning many national titles and championships, Lee Ann became a member of the United States Equestrian Team’s developing rider list.

In 2002, Lee Ann began working part-time at Woodstock Home & Hardware, soon finding herself in a full-time position in the busy paint department, where she enjoyed helping customers with their paint questions and color needs. In addition to managing the paint department she has continued to take on administrative and managerial responsibilities, and was promoted to Store Manager in 2020.  She looks forward to working with the Bibens family while continuing to work alongside her staff.  When not working, Lee Ann enjoys training and competing her 2 Labrador Retrievers in agility trials around New England, spending time with her family, gardening, and being outdoors.