CAMDEN — Cole Bovasso lives in Camden, but works in Los Angeles as an investment analyst. How can you be two places at once? Sounds tricky, and it is, but with the Internet, cell phones and fax machines it’s a lot easier then it sounds, especially when your company approves of it.

“I work for Zeno, a financial consulting firm, and we do trade cost analysis for pension funds," said Bovasso. "The company is actually out of Washington, D.C., and we have an office in Los Angeles. I was working in the Los Angeles office when I got the idea to move to Maine.”

Zeno Consulting Group, LLC  is a boutique consulting firm, not an asset manager or broker, that specializes in assisting plan sponsors/pension funds and other asset owners to monitor and manage asset managers’ trading processes.

“Now I work out of both offices and I travel a couple of times a year to D.C. and L.A. to visit both the offices,” said Bovasso. “I really didn’t think it would be a possibility when I decided to move to Maine. I thought I would have to start fresh and get another job, but they were very accommodating. They said I could work remotely and it’s just worked out wonderfully.”

Cole said it’s the Internet that makes it all possible, but it’s still a disciplined job.

“I start at 8 a.m. and I finish at 5 p.m. so it’s a pretty disciplined job,” she said. “I live close to downtown and I’m at the house and I work all day. I go through a lot of data. The pension plans send over quarterly reports that we analyze and we look for trends. Then we have consultants who take all the information and go visit with the clients.”

Bovasso said the information helps a client make better decisions for their pension funds.

“We service about 40 clients right now,” she said. “I work with the consultants in both the Washington and California offices so we talk a lot on the phone and email back and forth all day. It’s not as lonely as it sounds and it can get pretty busy sometimes.”

And what made you decide on Maine as a place to live?

“I wanted a change," she said. "I had been living in L.A. for about 15 years and my family had been vacationing up here for about seven years. I had come up to Maine for a few weekends in the summer and I thought it was lovely and of course in the summer it’s fantastic, so I thought it might be a nice change, a big change.”

Living in L.A. for 15 years you can get pretty used to the palm trees and 80 degree weather. What was the first winter here like?

“It… was… not… really… fun, but that was my first winter here,” she said. “My second winter here I realized the first winter wasn’t so bad. The first winter it only snowed a few times and it was mild, but this winter was a little different. I haven’t tried skiing yet, but I did go to the Toboggan Nationals and I had a lot of food. I like all the boats in the summertime. I love lobster. I’ve been to the Lobster Festival and I’ve had a lobster bake at my house.”

Bovasso’s parents live in Delaware and are planning on building a house in Rockport. Work is set to begin in the next six months. It was her parent’s plans that prompted her to choose Camden.

“I like it here in the summer, so I don’t want to go anywhere in the summer, but I think I might like to go somewhere warm in the winter,” she said. “And I’m dying to go to Canada. I’ve never been to Canada and it will be like a foreign country, but right next door. I think I’d like to visit Quebec.”

How does she like the people of the town?

“I find the people here so incredibly friendly and welcoming. I like to call it the village and I feel like it’s kind of like living in a soap opera town. Everybody knows a little bit about your business and who you are. You can’t even go to the supermarket without running into somebody you know. It’s a wonderful place. In the summer you can’t beat it, I invite everybody to come and visit, really this is the most beautiful place you’ve ever seen.”

Cole’s companion is Little-Friend, a part Chihuahua mix that looks a little like one of the gremlins form the movie of the same name. She assured me he was a dog.

“She is my little friend,” she said. “She’s the best littlest friend anybody could have. Businesses let her in and they give her biscuits and treats. She’s spoiled. I’ve had Little-Friend for five years. I found her in Los Angeles. She was a stray and I took her in and she's been with me ever since. She really had no trouble adjusting here. The first week we were here she went out into the yard and killed a mouse and brought it in to show me, so she’s not a city dog anymore, she’s a country dog now. She’s not too fond of the winter being part Chihuahua, but she likes to find sunny spots in the house and she’ll lay there content.”

So Bovasso might stay around a while?

“I like it here,” she said. “I think I might stay around a while.”