Business Beat

New faces:

Damon Smith has joined the Spokane office of DCI Engineers as manager of the civil engineering department. Smith has more than 13 years of civil engineering experience in the public and private sector, including the last three years with Summit Property Development in Spokane. He will be responsible for starting and developing DCI’s civil engineering department in Spokane. DCI also has offices in Bellevue, Everett and Portland.

Recent additions to the staff of World Wide Packets include:

Tom Johns joined the company as chief financial officer. Johns spent the last 16 years with Avista Utilities, most recently as vice president, trading, mergers and acquisitions. He is establishing World Wide Packets’ accounting, treasury and business development divisions. Johns earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Montana State University and a master’s in taxation from Gonzaga University.

Kevin Daines was named vice president of engineering. He previously was an ASIC design engineer at Packet Engines, where he led the development of a gigabit ethernet media access controller. Daines, who received an Outstanding Contributor Award for his work on the IEEE 802.3z gigabit ethernet standard in 1998, will oversee the design and development of World Wide Packets products.

Ward Johnson joined World Wide Packets as vice president of sales, with responsibility for directing domestic and international sales efforts as well as developing relationships with potential technology partners. Johnson has more than 30 years of technical sales experience, the last 19 with Video Research in Minneapolis where he was vice president of sales. He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota.

Paul Capano was named director of human resources. Capano has more than 13 years of human resource experience as both a consultant and employee of high-tech companies, including National Semiconductor and Altera. He received bachelor’s degrees in both organizational psychology and sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a masters certificate in mediation, facilitation and arbitration from the University of Denver.

Octavio Morales joined World Wide Packets as vice president of marketing. His responsibilities include the product, segment and outbound marketing and strategies. He also oversees public relations, special events and advertising campaigns. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in marketing, both from Colorado State University.

Moving up:

GST Telecommunications Inc. has appointed Dana Ryan as regional sales support manager for the company’s Northwest region and Shane Hyland as inside sales supervisor. Ryan, who has been with GST for four years and is based in the Spokane office, oversees account development representatives, sales assistants and order management specialists in GST’s Washington, Oregon and Idaho offices. She previously served as the company’s national account development representative manager. Earlier, she worked for Dakotah Direct, Spokane County and Lutheran Social Services. A graduate of Seattle Pacific University, Ryan is working on a master’s degree from Gonzaga University. Hyland joined GST as an inside sales representative in 1998 and was among the company’s top sellers of data communications solutions in 1999. As inside sales supervisor, he oversees a Vancouver, Wash.-based team of sales representatives and lead generators responsible for inside sales throughout GST’s western region.

Craig Weddle, a 15-year employee with the Grant County PUD, has been named the company’s new procurement supervisor. Weddle will consolidate supervision of purchasing and contracting activities for the PUD in customer service and hydropower operations. Weddle has been in purchasing and contract work with the PUD since 1985. Most recently, he was involved in work process reviews at Priest Rapids and Wanapum dams, as well as the acquisition and implementation of materials and financial computer software.

Certifications:

The University of Idaho College of Business and Economics has been reaccredited for a 10-year period by the International Association for Management Education, an accrediting agency for U.S. business schools. The reaccreditation team commended the college for its innovative Integrated Business Curriculum, implemented in 1994 to ensure that graduates get a broader, multidisciplined view of the business enterprise and for its ability to achieve desired outcomes within the limitations imposed by modest budgets, among others.

Headmasters Cosmetology School of Coeur d’Alene has passed an on-site accreditation review administered by the National Accrediting Commission of Cosmetology Arts and Sciences with a 100 percent (A+) rating. NACCAS is a nonprofit educational commission serving students and institutions through the highest standards of education.