Avista Subsidiaries Name Executives

FROM MAIN NEWS page A10 (Saturday, March 4, 2000): Correction: The new vice president at Avista Communications is Kenneth Brown. A story in Friday’s newspaper had the wrong first name.

Two Avista Corp. subsidiaries bolstered their executive corps this week.

Avista Advantage added Michael Wilson, who becomes vice president of finance and treasurer; Kevin Nichols as director for e-commerce and business development; and Russ Craddock as director of maintenance and repair services.

At Avista Communications, Kevin Brown becomes vice president of technology and operations.

Avista Advantage provides energy monitoring, billing and other services at more than 40,000 sites around the United States. Avista Communications fiber-optic networks serve customers in Coeur d’Alene, Lewiston, and Billings, Mont., with others in the planning stages.

Brown has 20 years of experience in telecommunications with U S West Communications, GTE and Pacific Northwest Bell.

Most recently, he directed the U S West division developing e-commerce and Web-based business solutions. He was also development manager for other U S West and GTE operations.

Wilson moves to Avista Advantage after more than a decade at Advanced Input Devices in Coeur d’Alene. He was vice president and treasurer, and helped bring about a 1993 leveraged buyout of the company as well as the sale last December to Esterline Technologies.

Nichols is a Spokane native who worked out of Seattle on e-commerce system deployments for Andersen Consulting clients.

The customers he worked with included Microsoft, Dow Jones and Universal Studios.

Craddock has been with Tricon Global Restaurants, parent of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. He worked on the development of a financial management system as well as programs for tracking maintenance expenses.

Craddock will remain in Kentucky, where a Louisville-based company processes some of the information collected by Avista Advantage.