Business Beat

New faces:

Coeur d’Alene-based Mountain West Bank has added the following people to its staff:

Dennis Tolzmann was hired as controller in the bank’s Finance Division. Tolzmann has 20 years of experience in accounting with Louisiana Pacific and, most recently, as an international accountant.

Shelly Romine joined the bank as a commercial loan analyst in the Small Business Lending Department. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Lewis Clark State College and is licensed as a CPA in Idaho. Romine previously worked for a local accounting firm and as a controller for a Silver Valley construction company.

Bob Curtis and Lynn Curtis have joined the Colfax office of Windermere Real Estate as sales associates. Bob Curtis, a Washington State University graduate, is a local farmer and rancher. For the past 45 years, he’s also been the sportscaster of football and basketball games at the University of Idaho. Lynn Curtis presently owns Quail Crossing, a gift store she opened in 1993. She’s also a board member of the Colfax Chamber of Commerce and the chairperson of the Colfax retail trade committee.

The following people have joined the board of directors of the Women Helping Women Fund: Louise Saylor, Tana Rekofke, Terrie Scott, Melinda Travis, Roberta Brandt, Karen Burkhardt and Shirley Rector.

Moving up:

The following employees of Mountain West Bank have been promoted:

Diane Reed was named senior vice president of residential living. Reed has more than 20 years of banking experience in Kootenai County. She oversees the bank’s residential real estate departments in North Idaho and Boise.

Kim Jacklin was promoted to vice president of operations and corporate marketing. Jacklin, who has more than 14 years of banking and credit card industry experience, has worked for Visa International, Valley National, Seafirst and Inland Northwest Bank. She joined Mountain West a year ago to head its marketing program for high performance checking. Jacklin also was named secretary to the board, and is the bank’s security officer.

The Spokane law firm of Sperling and Balch has named Darlene Adams as manager of the firm’s East Sprague closing office, and Kristi Burke as manager of the Broadway closing office. Both Adams and Burke have more than 10 years of experience in the real estate closing business.

Elected:

Officers of the Women Helping Women Fund for the 1999-2000 fiscal year include: Mary Perdue, president; Betsy Wilkerson, president-elect; Pam DeRusha, secretary; Karen Burkhardt, treasurer; Nancy Fike, vice president for funding; Jan Gerards, vice president for operations; and Christie Hinnen, vice president for events.

The Spokane AIDS Network has elected the following officers: Tim Bartley, board president; W.D. “Dub” Evans, vice president; Kim Buck, secretary; and Jan Loux, treasurer. Other board members include: Don Adair, Dr. James Baird, Lani Delong, Dr. William Greene, Marc Fleming, Larry Kuznetz, Mike Leon, Dennis Patterson and William Pederson.

Appointed:

Jeff Benesch, director of personnel for Trans-System Inc. and its subsidiaries System Transport, TW Transport and James J. Williams, has been appointed chairman of the Resource Committee at the Spokane Food Bank. Benesch has been on the committee since 1996 and has been a board member since 1998.

Christopher Howell, a local author and Eastern Washington University professor of creative writing, has been appointed to the 1999 Governor’s Writers Award jury. The group picks the recipients of the annual writing award. Ten books published during the previous year are chosen for the honor. Howell is the author of six collections of poems and received the 1986 Governor’s Writers Award for “Sea of Change.”

Kudos:

Darrick Hunt of Greenacres and Tin Nguyen of Spokane were among the top 10 finishers in the May 1999 Uniform CPA examination administered by the Washington state Board of Accountancy. Hunt ranked fifth, Nguyen seventh. Other Inland Northwest residents who successfully completed the examination include: Susan Marie Bergstrom, Tricia Cloke, Todd Evans, Brittany Ann Garwood, Bonnie Green, Lisa Herman, Kathleen Joanne Howard, Michelle Lea Johnson, Khoon Eng Lai, Bethany Meter, Darci Nilson, Jeffery Orwick, Vicki Osburn, April Owen and Jacqueline Sandquist, all of Spokane; Steven Bennett, Brian Scot Eldred and Michael Eldred, all of Veradale; Lorie Blum, Colville; Ronald Cone, Moses Lake; Brian Donahue and Delmar Morais, both of Pullman; Sara Engle, Spangle; Jennifer J. Fields, Colfax; Robert Goranson Jr., Post Falls; Eugene Hein, Davenport; Melanie Hubbard, Odessa; and Sandra Lamson, Sandpoint.

Events:

Monday through Friday - The Service Corps of Retired Executives offers free counseling to potential and existing small-business owners from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. at the Business Information Center in Room 240 of the Spokane Regional Business Center, 801 W. Riverside. For appointments, call 353-2820. Counselors also are available on Tuesdays at the Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce, 8817 E. Mission. For appointments there, call 924-4994.

Tuesday - The Service Corps of Retired Executives offers free counseling to potential and existing small-business owners from 9 a.m.-noon at Tri-County EDD, 347 W. Second, Suite A, in Colville. For appointments, call (509) 684-4571.

Tuesday - Leads Club, a networking organization for business leads and referrals, meets at 12:15 p.m. at the DoubleTree Hotel on Sullivan at Mission. For information, call Beth Ann at 921-9581.

Tuesday - Power Networking meets at 7 a.m. to exchange business leads and other business information. For information about location and topics, call 468-9695 or 467-2081.

Wednesday - The Spokane office of the Washington state Department of Revenue presents a free “New Business Outreach’ workshop from 8:30-11:30 a.m. and again from 1:30-4:30 p.m. on the eighth floor of the Northtown Office Building, 4407 N. Division. To register or for more information, call 482-3805.

Wednesday - The Spokane Public Library and Spokane Area Business Information Center present a free seminar on “Patent and Trademark Searching” at 12:15 p.m. in Room 240 of the Spokane Regional Business Center, 801 W. Riverside. For more information or to register, call 353-2800.

Wednesday - The Service Corps of Retired Executives presents a workshop on “Basics of Recordkeeping” from 8 a.m.-noon on the second floor of the Spokane Regional Business Center, 801 W. Riverside. Cost: $35; for information or to register, call 353-2820.

Thursday - Will Parks of Adventure Dynamics will be the featured speaker at a meeting of the American Society for Training and Development from 11:30-1 at Camp Sekani, 6707 E. Upriver Drive. An optional workshop follows from 1:15-4:15 p.m. Call 625-3843 to register or for more information.

Thursday - Karen Welts, an independent beauty consultant for Mary Kay Cosmetics, and Beth Ann Daigre, Leads Club chapter consultant, will speak at a meeting of Lake City Leads Club from noon-1:15 p.m. at the Coeur d’Alene Inn in Coeur d’Alene. For more information, call Karen Welts at (208) 667-5606.

Thursday - Spokane Chapter 143 of the National Association of Women in Construction presents an ice cream social at 5:30 p.m. at Garco Construction, 4114 E. Broadway. For more information, call Joyce Hayes at 535-3354.

Thursday - Eastern Washington University hosts the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce’s Business After Hours from 5:15-7 p.m. on the campus mall in Cheney. Cost: $5; for reservations, call 459-4111.

Thursday - Datapro Solutions Inc. presents a free seminar on “Keyflow Commerce: A Successful Model for Enterprise Automation on the Web.” For more information, call 532-3530, ext. 306.

Aug. 23-24 - CompuMaster presents a two-day workshop on “Discovering the Secrets of Microsoft Access” at the Days Inn Spokane Airport, 4212 W. Sunset Blvd. Cost: $399; to register, call (800) 867-4340.

Conventions:

Wednesday through Friday Washington Air National Guard 75th anniversary reunion, Days Inn (Sunset).

Wednesday through Saturday Washington State Emergency Medical Services, DoubleTree City Center.

Friday through Aug. 22 - Northwest Indian Encampment and Pow Wow, Cavanaughs Inn at the Park