Business Beat

From Business Beat column, April 23, 2000: The wrong photo appeared with an item about Phil Edminster joining Webiness in the April 15 Business Beat column. (Note: The correct photo ran with the April 23, 2000, column.)

New faces:

Webiness Inc., a start-up Web design, development and hosting company established by Spokane entrepreneur Bernard Daines, has hired the following people:

David Mertlich joined the company as executive director and chief operating officer. Mertlich previously was a national and international account executive for Federal Express for 14 years. His responsibilities at Webiness include developing strategic business plans for the company, as well as overseeing the company’s marketing, technical networking, sales/client services and special projects departments.

Nathan Brown was named chief financial officer. He has worked as a management consultant, business analyst and finance manager for employers such as Mitchell Madison Group, Hewlett Packard and Agilent Technologies. Brown, who earned a master’s degree in business administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, also is the founder of Town Plaza and @ Your Doorstep. He also will manage New River Communications, a sister company.

Phil Edminster joined Webiness as technical services director. He previously was one of the founders and CEO of Northwest Advantage Technologies, where he served as chief technical architect and project manager. He has extensive experience in Web design, Internet connectivity and e-commerce shopping solutions. Edminster will manage Webiness’ technical services department and oversee the analysis, specifications, design, development and deployment of client Web sites.

Robin Toth was named marketing director of Webiness. A founding member of the company, Toth previously held several marketing positions at Packet Engines, including marketing manager, marketing communications manager and trade show and exhibit manager. She is developing marketing and public relations approaches, as well as advertising and corporate communications.

Rob Tomlinson joined Webiness as a Web designer. He previously was a programmer and assistant network administrator for Northwest Advantage Technologies. He designed the back-end functionality of Web sites for their larger customers along with supporting and maintaining their Internet services. He has experience with C/C++, Visual Basic/VB Script, Perl, SQL and Java/Javascript.

Greg Wellens has joined Boise Cascade office products in Spokane as sales manager/printing and forms. Wellens, who has more than 15 years of experience in business printing in the Spokane area, will be responsible for training and motivating the company’s sales staff to sell business forms and printing. He earned a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from Eastern Washington University.

Matthew Moznette has been named assistant kitchen manager at the Ram Family Restaurant, 908 N. Howard. Moznette has 11 years of experience in the restaurant industry, starting as a server and cook at Pappa’s N.Y. Pizza in Kirkland, Wash., in 1989. He subsequently worked at R. Gyles Family Restaurant in Kirkland, then at Sak’s Family Restaurant, Kittitas Valley Health and Rehabilitation and Red Robin, later Safari Burgers, all in Ellensburg. Moznette received a bachelor’s degree in food service management from Central Washington University in 1996.

Jesse Casey has been named district sales manager in the Spokane office of Obie Media Corp., which sells, designs, produces and installs advertising displays, including posters on buses, billboards, building walls, transit shelters and bus benches.

Starting up:

Allied Mortgage Capital Corp. has opened a branch in Suite 206 of the Blue Building at 104 S. Freya in Spokane. Frank Sanchez has been appointed manager of the new branch. Allied operates more than 400 branches in 47 states, the Virgin Islands and Guam. The company offers financing from more than 700 different lenders, ranging from conventional fixed-rate loans to debt consolidation programs.

Elected:

Kootenai Electric Cooperative has elected the following people to its seven-member board: Kelly Paquin of Post Falls for District Two; Dale Pierce of Plummer for District Four; and Donna Boekel of Rathdrum for District-at-Large.

Officer and directors of the Greater Spokane Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America for 2000 include: President, Michelle Hege, Desautel Hege Communications; president-elect, Leni Selvaggio, Getronics; past president, Christine Eriksen, Rockwood Clinic; secretary, Robin Valaitis-Heflin, author of “The Messenger”; treasurer, Jessie Wuerst, Avista Corp.; membership chair, Annie McKeon, Holy Family Hospital; program co-chairs, Chad Hutson, Inland Northwest Health Services, and Susan Nielsen, Strategic Niche; professional development chair, Jerrie Heyamoto, The Heart Institute of Spokane; special events co-chairs, Susan Cerutti-Jensen, Spokane Teachers Credit Union, and Marti Kransberger, Children’s Miracle Network; PRSSA liaison, Jennifer Rappe, Coffman engineers; and member-at-large, David Gunter, Coldwater Creek.