Banking Comerica Bank has hired Dana Morris to be assistant vice president and banking center manager for the institution’s recently-opened Westlake Village branch in Ventura County. Most recently Morris was a branch manager for Community West Bank and comes to Comerica with 22 years of experience in the financial industry. John Stephan has been named market president for Union Bank’s Los Angeles retail group. Burbank resident Stephan has 25 years in the banking industry. Prior to joining Union Bank in 2002, he was a senior vice president and district manager for Wells Fargo Bank. Stephan has also been in executive positions at East West Bank, Great Western Bank and the former First Interstate Bank. Education Leanne Neilson has been confirmed as provost and vice president for academic affairs at California Lutheran University. She has served as interim provost since April when Chris Kimball was elevated to president. Previously, Neilson was associate provost Neilson has been a member of the CLU psychology faculty since 1993 and while serving as director of the graduate psychology program co-chaired a fundraising effort that garnered $80 million in capital contributions. She is chair of the United Way of Ventura County board of directors and is a founding member of the United Women’s Leadership Council. Energy Peter Kavounas has been named as the city of Glendale representative on the board of directors of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Kavounas is assistant general manager of Glendale Water & Power and is replacing James M. Rez, who served as the city’s MWD representative since August 1988. Prior to joining Glendale as water services administrator in April 2004, Kavounas spent 17 years with the L.A. Department of Water and Power, managing the department’s Eastern Sierra environmental group. He is also on the board of the Castaic Lake Water Agency. Government Greg Lippe, managing partner for the CPA firm Lippe, Hellie, Hoffer & Allison, has been appointed to the State Board of Pharmacy. Lippe also serves as chairman of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, is on the executive committee of the Valley Economic Alliance and is a trustee of Woodbury University. Encino resident Peter Lopez has been appointed to the California Exposition and State Fair Board of Directors and reappointed to the State Athletic Commission on which he has served since 2007. Attorney Lopez is a partner at Kleinberg, Lopez, Lange, Cuddy and Klein, specializing in entertainment law. Healthcare Dale Clendon has been promoted to president of Tri-anim Health Services, Inc., He was vice president of sales and marketing for the Sylmar-based company over the past four years. Clendon’s prior experience includes 11 years with three medical device start-ups. Before that, he spent 12 years with Smiths Industries Medical Systems in various positions of responsibility. The company has also promoted Steve Cash to the position of vice president of sales and health systems. IRIS International, Inc. has appointed current director Edward F. Voboril as the company’s board of directors new independent lead director, replacing Richard H. Williams who is leaving the board. Voboril is chairman of the board of Analogic Corp. and is an adjunct professor of biomedical engineering and Chairman of ‘NUvention,’ life sciences innovation program at Northwestern University. Insurance Venbrook Insurance Services of Woodland Hills has added three to its Construction Group under the direction of Tim Johnston, senior vice president. Veteran account manager Eileen Parnes will be unit manager of the group. She has more than 30 years experience in the L.A. insurance industry, with the last 10 being spent exclusively in construction insurance. Parnes’ primary focus will be on major sub-contractors. Donna Rowland joins as senior account manager. Another 30-year veteran, Rowland’s experience includes both residential and commercial construction accounts. She also brings to the group an expertise in risk management. Julie Felix, account manager, has 20 years in the industry with a special expertise in certificates. Arkady Milgram, financial planner with Walker Financial Partners in Westlake Village, has earned the Special Care Planner designation. To do so he completed a certification program that is designed to help financial planners better assist individuals and families with special needs children. The designation is unique to Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. Milgram is only the third person in Southern California to complete the program. Landscape Po-Sun Chen has joined ValleyCrest Landscape Companies of Calabasas as managing director of the ValleyCrest Design Group, a landscape architecture practice with offices across the country. Chen spent the past few years as executive director of WD Partners and previously was managing director of ZweigWhite. Manufacturing Tali Krakowsky joined water feature designer and manufacturer WET Design in Sun Valley as director of experience design. In this new position, Krakowsky heads up the WET Think Tank to incorporate multimedia design and technology into the company’s water features. Prior to joining WET, Krakowsky was a director at design and production company Imaginary Forces. Steve Chavez has joined Systems Automated as a customer service representative for Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. Prior to Systems Automated, Chavez worked at SDI Industries. Real Estate Lee & Associates has added two new professionals to its Calabasas office team. Margie Jones, a 30-year commercial real estate industry veteran, joins as a principal and senior vice president while Cheri Blessing Honig is an associate. Jones and Honig both were previously with Sperry Van Ness in Woodland Hills. Before that, Jones was an associate broker with the boutique firm 222 Commercial Group. She began her commercial real estate career at Westoaks Realty (a predecessor company to Westcord) and rose to vice president of the commercial leasing division. Honig has also worked at Westcord Commercial Real Estate Services and helped open the Prudential California Realty Thousand Oaks commercial real estate division. Leah Pollack with Elite Professionals Real Estate Services in Valencia has earned the National Association of REALTORS & #381; Green Designation. To do so, Pollack completed 18 hours of coursework in understanding what makes a property green, how to evaluate the cost/benefits of green building features and practices, how the various industry rating and classifications systems work and the financial grants and incentives available to homeowners. Technology Scott Schafer has been appointed as executive vice president of sales and marketing of Arecont Vision, a Glendale-based maker of megapixel cameras and software. Prior to joining Arecont, Schafer served as senior vice president of Americas and Global Marketing and North American Sales at Pelco. He was also a manager for The Reynolds Co. and NCR Corp. Steve Kelley has been appointed as executive vice president of corporate development at Symark International. In that position Kelley will oversee strategic planning and business development activities. Prior to Symark, Kelley served in senior product management and business development roles for Websense, a leading security software provider in San Diego and as a consultant at Accenture’s Center for Strategic Technology in Palo Alto. Baseline Consulting has appointed Tim Milovich to the newly created position of chief operating officer. Milovich has more than 25 years’ experience starting and growing technology businesses such as ParAccel, Inc., which he co-founded, and Questerra, LLC, where he was president and CEO. Video game software developer Emergent Game Technologies in Calabasas added two to its management team. Amanda Cinfio has been named as the director of business development and Tim Flett has been named as manager of developer relations.
