Business Beat

New faces:

Wells Fargo has hired Lori Knoles as a Small Business Administration business development officer. Knoles, who is based in Spokane, provides entrepreneurs in Eastern Washington and North Idaho with SBA-guaranteed loans to help them start or expand their businesses. She previously worked for eight years at Washington Trust Bank where she was a small-business loan sales supervisor, SBA loan officer and small-business loan underwriter. Knoles earned a bachelor’s degree in communication with an emphasis in business from the University of Puget Sound. She also is a graduate of the Northwest Intermediate Commercial Lending School.

Country Companies Insurance Group has named the following people as agents:

Craig David Baumgartner, who is based at 115 S.W. Blaine, Suite B, in Pullman, received a bachelor’s degree in risk management/insurance from Washington State University in 1999.

John Wilmoth earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and accounting from Eastern Washington University in 1979.

Chad L. Young shares an office with Wilmoth at 1500 W. Fourth in Spokane.

Dr. Gregory MacDonald has joined the Rockwood Clinic in the practice of pediatric neurology. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1983. He completed an internship, residency and a fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco, in 1988. MacDonald has been accepted for membership in the Spokane County Medical Society.

Jennifer Oertli has joined Mark Absec and Dennis O’Brien on the professional staff of H.F. Magnuson & Co. as a staff accountant in the firm’s Kellogg office. She is a graduate of the University of Montana, where she earned a degree in business administration with an emphasis in accounting. Oertli previously worked in the accounting departments of Dave Smith Motors and Junkermier, Clark, Campanella & Stevens P.C.

David Jackson has joined the Lewiston corporate office of AIA Insurance Inc. as director of public relations. His primary duties will be to oversee AIA’s Harvest Rewards program and to coordinate activities between AIA and the national and state agricultural and professional associations with whom they work.

Moving up:

John Jones, vice president of information systems, has been promoted to chief information officer at Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. Inc. He joined the company in 1997.

Elected:

New officers and directors of the Spokane Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors include: Ron Carolus, president; Todd Claypool, president-elect; Todd Bauman, vice president; Tom Schweifler, secretary-treasurer; Ron Hauenstein, national committeeman; and Denel Ingraham, Frank Skaw, Bret Wheeler, Joel White and Shari Wilhelm, all board members.

The Junior League of Spokane has elected the following officers for 2000-2001: Joanne Ferris, president; Suzanne Lynch, president-elect; Alanna Crouch, administrative director; Wendy Griffin, community director; Laura Lawton-Forsyth, funding director; Sandy Nadeau, treasurer; Marlo Pratt, membership director; and Faris Charbonneau, sustaining representative.

Kudos:

Coeur d’Alene-based Ponderosa Motors has earned DaimlerChrysler’s Five Star designation by successfully establishing a rigorous set of processes designed to ensure the highest level of customer satisfaction. The new Five Star program is designed so dealers continually examine and reevaluate the way that they do business. To maintain their five-star status, dealers are encouraged to think of ways to constantly improve the way they conduct business and to put the customer first in every interaction with the dealership.

The International Biographical Centre in Cambridge, England, has included Charles Giammona, dean of the health and environmental sciences division at Spokane Community College, in its list of “2,000 Outstanding Scientists of the 20th Century in Remote Sensing.”

CIT Group’s Newcourt Small Business Lending Corp. has been named top dollar volume lender to small businesses throughout the Spokane District of the Small Business Association. The company made $5.8 million in loans to small businesses during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 1999. Newcourt has handled loans ranging from about $200,000 to $2 million and averaging $400,000. Loan recipients range from medical and dental practices to gas stations, manufacturing companies and service providers.

Chipman Moving & Storage Inc. of Spokane has qualified for the “President’s Club” award from United Van Lines Inc. The award signifies at least $1 million in sales for the United system during the past year.