Jul 10, 2003

Harbor Properties

Douglas Daley became chief financial officer and asset manager at Seattle-based Harbor Properties, which develops apartments and other properties. Daley, previously with Trammell Crow Residential, replaced Bob Krokower, who joined Seattle-based Security Properties. Daley was Trammell Crow Residential's West Coast Group chief financial officer, responsible for the Pacific Northwest and Northern California divisions. Before that, he worked as regional manager in Wells Fargo Bank's real estate group. He grew up in California and holds a bachelor's in business administration from the University of California at Davis.

Escrow Partners

Santa Ana-based First American Title Insurance Co. bought Seattle-based Escrow Partners for an unspecified amount as its entry into this region. The deal, closed on May 31, adds Escrow Partners' 60 employees in three Seattle offices to The Talon Group, First American's new title division, formed in February. Escrow Partners is a closing services provider, so it doesn't perform title services directly. But First American said Escrow Partners can channel "significant business" to underwriters, largely due to Escrow's in-house, Web-based transaction management platform. First American expects to integrate the platform with its backbone processing platform, called FAST Transaction System. Mike and Debbie Stevens started Escrow Partners in 1996. The Stevenses now run the offices for Talon Group, which also operates in Washington D.C., Chicago, Baltimore, Michigan, Ohio, Utah and Florida.

Real property update with Transnation

Real estate lawyer Scott Osborne of Preston Gates & Ellis will provide a real property update at the next Breakfast with Transnation Title on Friday July 25. The event will run from 7:30 to 9 a.m. at the Washington Athletic Club in downtown Seattle. Osborne will review case law and legislative measures as presented last month at the Washington State Bar Association's Real Property, Probate and Trust Section Midyear Meeting in Yakima. For information, call (206) 628-4650.

Versata

Virgil Sweeney and Terry Yeager became loan officers at Versata, a Lacey-based mortgage broker for the South Sound region. Sweeney is a certified governmental financial planner who previously worked for 10 years in budget management for the state. Five of those years were with the Attorney General's Office, which recognized him for his outstanding effort during the tobacco litigation case. Sweeney holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from Western Washington University and is a basketball coach for Tumwater Middle School. Yeager founded and owned Northwest Consultants, a new home design and project management firm, prior to joining Versata.

Jul 03, 2003

Trendwest Resorts

Donald Harrill was hired as president and CEO of Redmond-based Trendwest Resorts, replacing Jeff Sites, who left after a short term in that post. Sites worked for the time-share company since 1989. Harrill worked for 20 years at Hilton Hotels Corp. He was also CEO of Hilton Grand Vacations Co. from 1995 to 2000. Most recently, he was principal and president of Florida Marine & Resort Developers Inc. of Clearwater, Fla.

Trendwest is owned by Cendant Corp. of Parsippany, N.J. Cendant's timeshare division is the largest timeshare operator in the world.

In another Trendwest top management change, Al Schriber, executive vice president of administration, will leave to pursue other opportunities. A replacement won't be named. A third top executive, Timothy O'Neil, left as chief financial officer earlier this year.

Trendwest promoted operations executive vice president Gene Hensley to chief operating officer. Hensley is a 14-year veteran of the company and will continue overseeing sales and marketing.

Cendant Timeshare Resort Group President and CEO Jack McConnell said Trendwest will continue "to aggressively expand into new regions and marketplaces." Trendwest operates 48 WorldMark resorts in the United States, British Columbia, Mexico and Fiji.

Fair Housing Center of South Puget Sound

The Equal Rights Center of Washington D.C. selected the Fair Housing Center of South Puget Sound in Tacoma as one of 14 housing agencies nationally to receive the Fair Housing Best Practices award for innovative programs in 2002. The non-profit center won for its Fair Housing English as a Second Language curriculum to teach new-immigrant students how to identify housing discrimination, understand fair housing laws and enforcement options, and increase their capacity to communicate with landlords, managers and fair housing representatives. The center partnered with a technical college to design the curriculum, which has been adopted by community and technical colleges and immigrant-advocacy organizations throughout the state.

Conner Homes

Janet Truesdell was hired as community sales manager for Conner Homes at Conner's 29-home Muirfield planned community in Sammamish, across from the Plateau Golf and Country Club. Truesdell has six years of residential real estate experience. Conner also hired Satin Covey as community sales administrator at Conner's 100-unit condominium complex under construction on the east side of Green Lake in Seattle. Covey has two years of sales and customer service experience at The Bon Marche. She also started her own company last year called Graceful Feet Ballet. Conner will hold an on-site framing tour of the complex at 7000 Woodlawn Ave., on July 19 from 1 to 4 p.m.

John L. Scott

Lambert

Sybil Lambert became a sales associate in John L. Scott Real Estate's Puyallup Canyon Road office. Lambert holds a bachelor's degree in marketing and business management from the University of Washington. She has worked as a marketing manager for a national consulting firm and then as a marketing coordinator for an industrial control system integrator.

Windermere

Patti Hill and Melanie Polik joined Windermere Real Estate's Ballard office as sales associates. Hill came from John L. Scott Real Estate. Polik was previously a national sales manager with Attorneys On Line. Her background includes 15 years of advertising sales and sales management in radio, cable television, broadcast television and the Internet.

NAIOP

The National Association of Industrial and Office Properties' local chapter will fix trails and structures and build wagons for sleeping in at a Girl Scouts camp in September for the chapter's annual community enhancement day. On Sept. 13, NAIOP volunteers will work at Camp River Ranch in Carnation. They'll construct Conestoga wagon sleeping structures and repair the 435-acre facility's nature trail system and camp structures. For information, call (206) 382-9121 or go to http://www.naiopwa.org/events_set.htm.