Business Beat

Banking

Wheatland Bank has hired Bridget Barrington as vice president of business development and treasury management officer. Barrington will assist the commercial banking team to increase the bank’s market share in Spokane and will work with branch staff throughout the region to strengthen the awareness of Wheatland and the services it offers.

Northwest Bancorporation Inc., the holding company for Inland Northwest Bank, has announced Nancy Allen, vice president of real estate and general counsel for Stay Alfred, has joined the company’s and INB’s board of directors.

Banner Corp., the parent company of Banner Bank, has named Peter Conner, current executive vice president of Banner Bank, to the same position with Banner Corp. Conner worked as chief financial officer at SKBHC LLC and AmericanWest Bank before joining Banner after its 2015 acquisition of AmericanWest.

Health

Jesse Brouwer has joined Inspire Physical Therapy as a physical therapist. Brouwer, who will practice out of Inspire’s north Spokane location, recently worked in an outpatient setting in North Idaho. He received a doctorate in physical therapy from Eastern Washington University in 2015.

Insurance

Alliant Insurance Services has announced four promotions. DeeDee Pike has been named Northwest region operations manager. Jennifer Polignoni has been promoted to small business unit manager. Crystal Yurik has been promoted to internal service unit manager. Lydia Parisot has been named commercial lines manager.

Alliant Americas has hired Nic Borden as commercial account representative. He comes to Alliant from Travelers Insurance.

Media

Rick Sant has been hired as director of operations at The Spokesman-Review. Sant comes to the newspaper from The Orange County Register, where he worked for 41 years in circulation and production as well as serving as vice president of operations for 10 years.

Recreation

Friends of the Centennial Trail, the nonprofit that assists in the maintenance and completion of the Spokane River Centennial Trail, has named its board of directors for 2018. Executive board members are co-chairpersons, Jon Jonckers of OutThere Monthly and Dan Maguire of Transcanada; secretary, Hannahlee Allers of the city of Spokane;treasurer, Mike Merritt, CPA; and at-large members, Mike Basinger of the city of Spokane Valley and Melanie Keiser of Hart Capital Management Inc. Members are Amy Condon of Itron, Dean Feldmeier of DoubleTree by Hilton Spokane City Center, Greg Loew of Avista, Becca McConnaughey of Spokane County, Nick Murto of Seven2, Gair Petrie, a retired attorney, and Jackie Post of Banner Bank. Ex Officio members are Lori Kinnear of the city of Spokane and Jason Wheaton, retired president at Greenstone.