Sep 27, 2001

Agital

Richard Kennewick is the new vice president of sales and Phil Vachon is a new board member at Agital. Previously, Kennewick was president and cofounder of Axxess Software. Vachon was formerly senior vice president of sales for Liberate Technologies and was a founding member of its management team. Agital, based in Bothell, assists companies with e-business initiatives.

Bastyr University

Pamela Snider, ND, associate dean of naturopathic medicine at Bastyr University, was recently honored with the President's Award by the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians. The award honored Snider for her work in advancing the field of naturopathic medicine.

Merix

Merix has elected Mark R. Hollinger chairman of its board of directors. Hollinger joined Merix in 1997 and will continue to hold his current positions of president and CEO. He succeeds Debi A. Coleman who had served on the board since the company went public in 1994. Merix manufactures printed circuit boards for advanced electronic equipment at its location in Forest Grove, Ore., and plans to open a new facility in nearby Wood Village next year.

Nielsen-Wurster Group

The board of directors of the Nielsen-Wurster Group has elected Jack L. Dignum senior vice president. Dignum is responsible for the management consulting division of the firm and is chief operations officer for Pegasus Consulting, a subsidiary. The western regional office management position vacated by Dignum has been split into two divisions with Jeffery L. Ottesen selected as the Northwest regional manager in Seattle and Maria Petrov as the acting manager of the Carlsbad, Calif., office. In addition, Chas Ridley, recently joined the Seattle office as corporate manager for technical writing. The Seattle office recently moved to 719 Second Ave., Suite 700.

Unity Wireless

Unity Wireless of Federal Way is adding Nart Bajj as senior design engineer, and C. K. Wong as sales engineer. Previously, Bajj was microwave design manager at Norsat International and Wong served as applications engineer for Glenayre Technologies. The company is also expanding its manufacturing facilities and increasing investment in research and development for the radio frequency power amplifiers it supplies to the wireless industry.

Wireless Services

Wireless Services, a provider of wireless data delivery solutions, and Covault, a software infrastructure provider for wireless data billing, have entered into an agreement to provide billing solutions to wireless carriers. Wireless Services is based in Bellevue and Covault is based in Seattle.

John L. Scott, Coldwell Banker Bain

In an unusual alliance of two competing residential real estate agencies, John L. Scott Real Estate and Coldwell Banker Bain together bought Lawyer’s Title Agency of Washington from Evergreen Title. "The two companies agreed to come together on this venture so that collectively they could offer an even greater level of service to their clients and agents," the two firms said in a joint statement. They want to offer one-stop shopping. Lawyer's has four offices in the Puget Sound area. "It has everything to do with economies of scale," said Jerry Moon, senior executive vice president at John L. Scott.

Brownfields conference Oct. 8-9

The third annual Oregon Brownfields Conference will run Oct. 8 and 9 at The Riverhouse in Bend, Ore. Programs will include how to land state and federal aid, working with the community, navigating through insurance and luring in bankers. For information, call Michael Fernandez at Oregon State University, (541) 737-4023, or surf to www.oregonbrownfields.org.

Grubb & Ellis

Samantha Golding-Turner joined Grubb & Ellis in downtown Seattle as an associate broker in office leasing.

Bianco Properties

Daniel Wolk was promoted to vice president at Bianco Properties, a St. Louis-based investment company that owns apartments, retail and industrial properties in St. Louis as well as in Seattle and Tulsa, Okla. In the firm's most recent deal, it bought the 70,000-square-foot Lynnwood Plaza shopping center. Working from St. Louis, Wolk directs acquisitions and development, including in the Seattle area.

Schnitzer Northwest

Catherine Munson joined Schnitzer Northwest as investment manager for Civica Office Commons, the Eastside developer's new office complex in downtown Bellevue. Munson previously worked in property management for Norris Beggs and Simpson of Portland. She also has worked for Rockwood Development in Salem, Ore., and Equities Northwest/Killian Properties in Portland. She holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Oregon. Schnitzer, meanwhile, plans to move its offices from Kirkland into Civica next month. Schnitzer will occupy 15,874 square feet, brining the structure to 86 percent leased.

CREW's annual meeting

Commercial Real Estate Women Northwest will hold its annual meeting on Thursday, Oct. 4, over lunch at the Washington Athletic Club in downtown Seattle. The event starts at noon in the Crystal Room. For information, call CREW at (206) 361-6859.

Snohomish County planning course

Snohomish County and the state have put together "A Short Course In Local Planning" to teach residents how to engage in making planning decisions. "Each workshop will focus on the state Growth Management Act, design with density/smart growth, and building urban communities," according to the Snohomish County Planning and Development Services Department. The state Office of Community Development and the Planning Association of Washington organized the workshops with the county. Each workshop covers the same material. Two are on Wednesday, Oct. 10, at the Northwest Stream Center at McCollum Park in Everett -- the first from 1 to 4 p.m., the other from 6 to 9 p.m. Two more are set for Thursday, Oct. 11, at the Lynnwood Library, from 1 to 4 p.m. and 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. For information, call (425) 388-3311, ext. 3.

L.J. Melody CEO retires

L.J. Melody & Co., a commercial mortgage banker based in Houston that operates an active office in Seattle, replaced retired president and CEO Larry Melody with a troika of co-CEOs, called executive managing directors: Tom and Mike Melody and Brian Stoffers. The company, owned since 1996 by CB Richard Ellis, bought Seattle-based North Coast Mortgage in 1998. Larry Melody retired at the end of June, after 41 years in mortgage banking. L.J. Melody also merged its loan servicing with those of GE Capital Loan Services, the third largest loan servicer in the country.