Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Business beat

Have an item for Business Beat? Send it to businessbeat@ spokesman.com.

Finance

Idaho Independent Bank has named Aaron Emmert as vice president and senior commercial loan officer at the Coeur d’Alene branch. Emmert has 20 years of experience in community banking.

Rick Biel has completed a course of study in retirement planning and earned the Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor designation from the College for Financial Planning. Biel is a financial adviser with Biel Investment Management.

RiverBank has named Norman Judd as executive vice president and chief financial officer. Judd has more than 25 years of experience in the public accounting, banking and health care industries. He previously served as a financial executive and investment portfolio manager.

DepositAccounts.com, a bank comparison website, has named Inland Northwest Bank to its 2015 edition of the Top 200 Healthiest Banks in America. The website evaluated 6,998 banks in the areas of capitalization, deposit growth, loan to reserve ratios and more to determine the list of financially healthy banks.

Insurance

Farmers Insurance agents Gina Lanza and Brad Leggat have been named Championship agents for their outstanding achievements and customer service. The Championship program recognizes the top three percent of Farmers agents.

Law

Paine Hamblen announced that Gerald Kobluk, a partner with the firm since 2002, has been elected to the firm’s executive committee. Kobluk’s practice focuses on complex litigation, such as tort liability and medical malpractice defense.

Brian Rekof ke and Ryan Beaudoin, attorneys with Witherspoon Kelley P.S., have been named to the 2015 Washington State Super Lawyers magazine. Rekofke and Beaudoin were recognized in the Medical Malpractice Litigation – Defense category. Super Lawyers lists attorneys based on a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement.

Nonprofit

East Central Community Center has hired Christina Nelson as a food bank manager/volunteer coordinator. Nelson has seventeen years of experience in the criminal justice field and previously worked with a local law firm.

Panhandle Area Council named Wally Jacobson as the executive director and Cindy Jordan as the director of small business finance. Jacobson previously served as a director/partner in several consulting and project development firms. Jordan has experience in small business banking, including four years as a business banking officer.

Realty

Keller Williams Realty Spokane has been ranked in Top 1,000 national real estate brokerage firms in RISMedia’s 27th Annual Power Broker Report. The ranking is based on a national survey of residential real estate brokerage firms according to closed transaction numbers and closed sales volume.

Retail

Etailz hired Joy Hardy as a marketplace marketing coordinator, Megan Richardson as a purchasing relations associate and Lindsey Wells as a graphic designer.