Business Beat

New faces:

Kraig L. Mentor has joined Anderson Mraz Design Inc., where he will be responsible for creative digital development and programming of Web sites, interactive kiosks, CD-ROMs and multimedia projects. Mentor received a master’s degree in computer science and communications from Eastern Washington University. He previously worked in the machine design and automation group at Key Tronic Corp.

Commerce Loan Co., a division of Bank of Commerce, has named Debbie Lawton as business development officer in Spokane. She will provide Small Business Administration guaranteed loans to businesses in Eastern Washington and North Idaho. Lawton, who has extensive commercial lending experience, previously was a small business development account officer with the North Idaho region of Washington Trust Bank. Earlier, she was a vice president and SBA loan operations manager with Truckee River Bank.

Dean M. Conrad Jr. has been named an agent for Country Companies insurance group. Conrad, who recently completed the company’s New Agent School, is based at 1500 W. Fourth, Suite 501.

Ed Clark has been appointed to the Public Facilities District Board by the city of Spokane to fill the remaining two-year term of Jim Ray, who has moved away. Clark, an advertising and public relations agency owner, handled the advertising campaign for the 1990 Arena bond issue and served as a public relations consultant to the district while the building was under construction. He also has served as vice chair of the Spokane Area Convention and Visitors Bureau and created the tourism television campaigns of the late 1980s.

David Breen has joined the Spokane office of Landau Associates Inc., an environmental and geotechnical engineering consulting firm. He has 10 years of contaminated industrial site remediation experience.

Mark Russell has joined Nichols & Associates Private Investigations, 815 N. Monroe, Suite 4, as an investigator.

First National Financial Group has added Scott Reeves and Donna Butterfield to its Home Loan Division. Reeves is a veteran of real estate financing and a specialist in Veterans Administration streamline refinancing. Butterfield specializes in sub-prime financing, helping clients who have experienced credit problems in the past.

Moving up:

Landau Associates Inc. has promoted Craig Schwyn to Spokane office manager. He succeeds Leslee Conner, who has moved to the firm’s headquarters in Edmonds, Wash., where she will continue to manage environmental projects involving remediation, permitting, cost allocation and property acquisition. Schwyn, who has 14 years of experience as a hydrogeologist, will continue to manage projects involving hazardous materials sites, industrial facilities and leaking underground storage tank sites.

Transactions:

Janek Co. Property Management Division took over management of the following properties on April 1: The Rockwood 12, 12 E. Rockwood; Rustic Villa Apartments, a 28-unit complex at 320 S. Elizabeth; Mapleview Apartments, with 28 units, at 1611 E. Sixth; Cedar Pines, a 62-unit property at 11921 Mansfield; Greenwood Villa Apartments, with 18 units, at 6813 E. Second; and Farr Court Apartments, a 72-unit property as 210 S. Farr Court.

Kudos:

Novell Inc. has honored Resource Computing Inc., a Spokane-based network integration firm, for excellent customer service. Resouce Computing received Novell’s “Support Connection 1999 Service Excellence Award.” It was among 28 Novell resellers in the nation, and the only one in the Pacific Northwest, to receive the award.

John Nelson, a salesman for the Sir Speedy center at 617 N. Fancher, has received the Gold Level Top Performers’ Club award for extraordinary sales during 1998.

David S. McClellan has been declared a diplomate of the American Board of Emergency Medicine. McClellan, who received his training in Washington, D.C., and San Diego while in the U.S. Navy, has practiced at Sacred Heart Medical Center for six years.

Debbie Lathrop, a sales associate for Boyd-Crowley North Better Homes and Gardens, has earned membership in the Better Homes and Gardens 1998 Medallion Club. Membership is based on sales of $1 million to $2 million for the year. Lathrop also received a national President’s Circle Award for total number of sales and listings produced in 1998 and a Gold Award from the Spokane Association of Realtors.

Tom LaLone, a sales associate for Boyd-Crowley North Better Homes and Gardens, earned a Rising Star Award from Better Homes and Gardens President’s Circle. The national award is based on sales and listing volume for 1998.

The following engineers were recognized as “Engineers of the Year” by local chapters of the following engineering groups:

The American Society of Civil Engineers presented the award to Howard Copp, who is retired.

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers honored Richard Jacobsen.

DeAnn Arnholtz, who works for Coffman Engineers, received the award from the Structural Engineers Association of Washington.

The Society of Manufacturing Engineers chose Detlev Otto, a Hewlett-Packard employee, for the award.

Ann Siebert has been named 1998 Personal Banker of the Year for Sterling Saving’s Bank’s southern region. Siebert, a personal banker at Sterling’s Coeur d’Alene branch, joined the bank last June. She was with U.S. Bank for 15 years prior to joining Sterling, most recently as a loan officer and personal banker.