Jun 08, 2000

Kibble & Prentice

Laura VanOrden has joined the personal insurance division of Kibble & Prentice, a Bellevue-based financial services firm, as an account executive. VanOrden has experience designing personal insurance programs for individuals and families.

Charter Bank

Barbara Brace and Keith McCullough have joined Charter Bank's Bellevue branch. Brace joins the bank as a vice president/relationship manager. She has 18 years of experience in banking, most recently with Key Bank of Washington. McCullough joins the bank as a vice president/credit administrator. He has 10 years of consumer and commercial banking experience.

employeesavings.com

employeesavings.com, a Bellevue-based provider of Web-based work/life solutions used by Fortune 500 companies to attract and retain employees, announced that Niklas Gustafsson, a former senior technology executive with Vulcan Ventures-funded Mercata, has joined employeesavings.com as vice president of engineering. Gustafsson will oversee the strategic planning and innovation of employeesavings.com's global technology solutions and engineering team. Most recently in leadership positions with Vulcan Ventures-backed Mercata and Asymetrix Learning Systems, he brings more than a decade of experience in managing the development and execution of technology solutions.

Pro2Net Corp.

Rick Telberg, a veteran journalist and accounting industry analyst, has joined Pro2Net Corp., a Seattle-based provider of online resources to business professionals in the accounting, financial services, insurance, legal and human resources industries as senior editorial director of its accounting business unit. Telberg will play a key role in charting an editorial plan integrating the five industries Pro2Net serves and allowing users to share information across traditional professional boundaries.

Clark Nuber

The board of directors of the Washington Society of CPAs voted unanimously to honor Bellevue-based Clark Nuber with the Firm of the Year Award for its strong support and involvement with the chapter program throughout the state and its ongoing commitment to the profession and to the society.

Bates Technical College

President William Mohler of Bates Technical College in Tacoma is a recipient of the Distinguished Citizen Award for 2000, an award presented by the Municipal League of Tacoma-Pierce County for the past 28 years. During 15 years as president of the college, Mohler has made progress in meeting the educational needs of diverse workplace populations, giving special attention to dislocated workers and WorkFirst recipients.

New real estate consultancy

Data gatherers Matthew Gardner and Jerry Johnson have left separate real estate advisory firms to form their own, called Gardner-Johnson LLC. Gardner worked the past year as a researcher for Builder Marketing Group. Johnson rose to principal in Hobson Johnson & Associates in 11 years with that firm. Gardner-Johnson has a Seattle and a Portland office. It performs "a full range of real estate and economic advisory services," Gardner said. Clients such as Weyerhaeuser, John Buchan, Simpson Housing and Fortune Group came with Gardner.

The Virginia Anderson Internship

Seattle Center director Virginia Anderson’s consistent interest in maintaining affordable housing in Seattle has resulted in her name going on a University of Washington internship program. The non-profit Housing Resources Group contributed $15,000 to fund an internship for a UW student interested in pursuing a career in affordable housing and financing. HRG named it the Virginia Anderson Internship.

The UW’s new Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies will administer the internship and doesn’t necessarily have to send the intern to HRG. Anderson helped start HRG and served on its board, but isn’t on the board now. "Anderson has worked tirelessly in a volunteer role to assist HRG create thousands of units of affordable housing in downtown Seattle neighborhoods," HRG said.

Creating the internship is part of HRG celebrating its 20th anniversary. The Downtown Seattle Association created HRG in 1980 to increase the supply of affordable housing in and around downtown.

Unico Properties

Robynn Rockstad-Rex joined Seattle-based Unico Properties as director of marketing and communications. She came from the Seattle healthcare information company CareWise Inc.

Opus Northwest

Opus Northwest made three moves on its Opus Center@Union Station office project in Seattle. Opus hired John Mills as senior property manager for the project, construction of which is set to finish this summer. The company also hired Mike Hlastala as project manager in charge of tenant build-outs at Union Station. And Opus promoted Brian Fyall to senior project manager-construction for the project.