One of the state's largest business groups has named a Cheshire woman as its new chairwoman.

Ramona Carlow, vice president of public policy and strategy for AT&T, was elected last week as the chairwoman of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association's (CBIA) board of directors. Carlow will serve a one-year term,; she is replacing Peter B. Kent, chairman and chief executive officer of Bicron Electronics in Canaan.

"We are very pleased to have Ramona lead our board into the new year," said John R. Rathgeber, CBIA president and chief executive officer.

Carlow began her career in the telecommunication business at the Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control. She joined AT&T as a policy consultant in 1996 and became part of the regulatory group the following year.

Carlow became AT&T's vice president of regulatory and external affairs in 2003 and was named state president in Jan. 2007. She took a new position earlier this year with national responsibility for AT&T, focusing on issues of public policy and strategy.

In addition to work at AT&T, Carlow serves on the board of the Connecticut Science Center, and is actively involved with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Trinity College, with a B.S. in political science, Carlow is also an honors graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Law. Her earlier legal experience includes serving as a law clerk at the Connecticut Supreme Court and as an associate at the Hartford law firm of Robinson & Cole.

Carlow and her husband, Brian, who is an attorney, have two teenage daughters.