May 15, 2008

Ogden Murphy Wallace

Ogden Murphy Wallace said Donald Black has been re-elected as managing member of the firm, Jeffrey Dunbar is chairperson of the litigation department, John O'Donnell is chairperson of the business department and James Haney is chairperson of the municipal department. Ogden Murphy Wallace is a law firm with offices in Seattle and Wenatchee.

Parsons Public Relations

Seattle-based Parsons Public Relations hired Emily Sherry as account coordinator. Sherry was promoted while serving an internship with the company. She also interned with NBBJ and with Bellingham's Lummi Cedar Project.

Northwest Staffing Resources

Northwest Staffing Resources, a Portland-based full service staffing company, hired Mary Ann Murray as branch manager for its Kent and Bellevue locations. Murray has 15 years experience in staffing services and sales, and will oversee a staff of seven.

Virginia Mason Medical Center

Virginia Mason Medical Center hired Santokh Gill as administrative director of cardiovascular services, Gregg Hatch as administrative director of the department of medicine, and Jessica Shaw as associate director of events for the Virginia Mason Foundation. Gill worked with Group Health Cooperative. Hatch was director of dermatology services at Virginia Mason. Shaw was an event planning manager at the Bell Harbor Conference Center.

Barclay's Realty & Management

Beverly Hills-based Barclay's Realty & Management Co. has purchased two Wal-Mart-anchored retail centers in Puyallup for $8.1 million. South Puyallup Retail Investments, LLC was the seller. The two centers total 15,257 square feet with tenants including Forza Coffee, Popeye's, Go Wireless, FedEx Kinko's and Payless Shoe Source. They are located on Highway 161, south of the South Hill Mall. Colliers Retail Investment Team, headed by senior vice president Paul Sleeth, represented both the seller and the buyer.

John L. Scott

John L. Scott Real Estate bought Real Tech LLC, a Web-based technology solutions company. Real Tech will be John L. Scott's in-house technology provider. “We have a voracious appetite for technology,” said CEO Lennox Scott. Real Tech has been John L. Scott's technology partner for five years and has been responsible for the launch of Microsoft Virtual Earth, Neighborhood Wizard with Microsoft's polygon drawing tool, and the integration of comparable sold home information with Microsoft's interactive mapping system. Real Tech's nine staffers will now operate within John L. Scott's marketing and e-strategies department, which is headed by Pat Giles, vice president of marketing and e-strategies. Giles recently joined John L. Scott, and has more than 20 years of experience in marketing, IT and Internet strategies.

REAPS meeting May 22

“Buying Houses Part-time to Build Wealth in Uncertain Markets” is the topic of the May 22 meeting of REAPS (Real Estate Association of Puget Sound). The speaker is Marko Rubel, real estate investor, wealth coach and creator of ProfitGrabber software. For more information see http://www.reapsweb.com or call (425) 458-4797. The event is from 7 to 10 p.m. in Kane Hall on the University of Washington campus. Cost is $15 and it is free to REAPS members.

Lion

Lion has entered into an asset purchase agreement with Beanstalk Networks Acquisition LLC, a unit of Beanstalk Networks, which does business as OpenClose. OpenClose will purchase and continue to operate Lion's only remaining business segment, which includes its Precision family of products and its retail Web sites business, for $525,000. The transaction is subject to shareholder approval and regulatory consent. Precision LPX products consists of a loan pricing engine, a database of loan programs and pricing information, Web tools and other services designed to enable large lenders to originate, price and lock loans.