Banking

Don Melendez has been named Idaho regional president for Wells Fargo. He was the community banking president for the bank’s Border Banking in Arizona, Laredo and the Lower Rio Grande Valley. He will have responsibility for 92 banking stores, $4.5 billion in deposits and more than 900 employees who serve Idaho; Spokane, Wash.; and Ontario and Baker City, Ore.

Melendez begins the new job Aug. 1. He succeeds Dana Reddington, who was named business banking regional manager for Wells Fargo’s Mountain Midwest region.

Melendez has 30 years of banking experience and joined Wells Fargo in 1997. Melendez has a strong community involvement background. He is the president of the Wells Fargo Sun Bowl, a member of the El Paso Community Foundation, chairman of the El Paso Collaborative, a board member of the LULAC Project Amistad and Fannie Mae’s Border Region Advisory Council, a member of the El Paso Chamber of Commerce Government Legislative Committee, the National Rural Housing Conference, the Rio Grande Riverpark Task Force, the El Paso Community College Foundation Board, the El Paso Del Note and United Way of El Paso Board of Directors. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Texas at Austin.

Shari Cater has been appointed business banking officer at the Boise River branch of Idaho Independent Bank.

Cater has 25 years of banking experience. Prior to joining IIB, she was employed by another local banking institution.

She is active with a local charitable motorcycle club that supports the funding of the Idaho Suicide Hotline.

D.L. Evans Bank was recognized by the Small Business Administration as the 2012 SBA Community/Rural Lender of the Year. John V. Evans Jr., chief executive officer, accepted the award during the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce Small Business and Nonprofit of the Year Awards luncheon ceremony at the Boise Centre.

Construction & design

Steve Kaufman has joined the McAlvain Group of Companies in Boise as chief operating officer. Kaufman has a background in finance and operations management and will oversee the company’s daily operations.

Kaufman is an Idaho native and has held executive positions within both privately held and publicly traded companies including Track Utilities, Neef Creative Ventures, Albertsons, Ridley’s Food and Drug, Fixture Source and Scott’s Refrigeration.

For 32 years, McAlvain Group of Companies has provided design/build, construction management, concrete, excavation and general contracting services throughout Idaho and the Pacific Northwest.

Education

Virginia Pellegrini has been appointed director of development for the College of Business and Economics at Boise State University.

Pellegrini will raise funds through private, corporate and foundation donations. Her responsibilities include the identification, cultivation, solicitation and stewardship of prospective and major gift donors to Boise State and its College of Business and Economics. She also will work with college administrators to define priorities for external support and will manage key volunteers.

Before coming to Boise State, Pellegrini served as the director of corporate and foundation relations at the University of Idaho. Sixteen of her 21 years of experience in fundraising were with United Way of Treasure Valley where she ultimately served as vice president of development and raised more than $80 million through annual campaigns.

Pellegrini is also an alumnae of Boise State and COBE with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

David Adler, a scholar of the U.S. Constitution and the American Presidency, has been named the first full-time director of the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University. Adler also will be the first Cecil D. Andrus professor of public affairs.

Adler earned a bachelor's degree from Michigan State University and a doctorate from the University of Utah. He is the author of more than 100 scholarly articles, essays and book chapters and has published five books, with two more coming out in 2013. Adler has been the guest lecturer at more than 30 colleges and universities, and delivered more than 500 public lectures on a variety of constitutional and governance issues.

The Andrus Center will retain its traditional focus on natural resource and environmental policy, but Adler's expertise and scholarship will allow the center to expand its mission to include issues such as civic education, the U.S. Constitution and the presidency.

Boise State University Professor John Freemuth, a public lands policy expert, will continue to serve as senior fellow at the Center and focus on natural resource and environmental issues.

Financial services

Tessa Baker has joined the Boise office of Eide Bailly LLP, a regional certified public accounting and business advisory firm.

Baker is a recent graduate of Boise State University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in accounting. She has experience providing audit services to a variety of industries and is a member of Boise Young Professionals. Baker is working toward her CPA license and joins Eide Bailly as an audit associate.

Eide Bailly provides assurance, tax, consulting services, employee benefits, financial services, forensic accounting and investigative services, technology consulting, and training and development.

Government

Dustin Miller has been appointed administrator at the Office of Species Conservation, the governor’s agency that coordinates efforts to control Idaho’s destiny on endangered species.

Miller was an environmental liaison for the agency until becoming acting administrator in March with the departure of Nate Fisher, who resigned. The University of Idaho graduate in environmental science previously was natural resources field coordinator for Sen. Larry Craig and a regulatory affairs specialist and issues advocate for the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation.

Most recently, Miller has been a key participant in Gov. Butch Otter’s efforts to forestall federal endangered-species listing of sage grouse, which state officials say could significantly reduce economic development opportunities and curtail many traditional uses of vast tracts of Idaho rangeland.

Miller’s appointment is subject to confirmation by the Idaho Senate.

Health care

Gary Smith has joined Regence BlueShield as its new director of business and community relations in Idaho.

Smith was the senior vice president for government relations at the Travelers Cos., a property and casualty insurance company. Before joining Travelers, he served as director of the Idaho Department of Insurance. As part of that role, he was a member of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners executive committee.

His other past public-service positions include working as a Boise city council member, director of external and intergovernmental affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior, deputy chief of staff to Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and deputy legislative director for Sen. Kempthorne.

After graduating with a business degree from Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore., Smith spent 5› years in law enforcement with the Oregon State Police and the Portland Police Bureau.

Nonprofits

Kevin Storms has been elected chair of the Idaho Foodbank’s board of directors. DuWayne Dahle is the new chair-elect and David Light is now past chair.

Storms is the retired president of J.R. Simplot Co.’s Food Group and is a partner at Skills Four Inc. He has served on the board since 2006. Dahle is vice president of sales at Sysco Idaho and has been on the Foodbank’s board since 2006. Light is CEO of PakSense Inc.

Also elected were treasurer Steve Peterson, retired chief financial officer at Business Psychology Associates; and secretary Darlene Nemnich, senior pricing analyst at Idaho Power.

The Foodbank’s new board members are Laura McKnight, clinical associate professor and director of dietetic programs at Idaho State University in Pocatello; and Blair Wilson, senior vice president of Northwest Farm Credit Services in Nampa.

The Idaho Foodbank Board also honored retiring member Mary Anne Pace with the Foodbank’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Pace, education program manager for Ada County Paramedics, is a past board chair and served on the board from 1996 to 2002 and again from 2006 to 2012.

The Boise Sunrise Rotary Club elected the following new officers for 2012-2013: Jeff Thomson, president; Bill Lewis, president-elect; Tricia Nilsson, vice-president-elect; Jim Hansen, secretary; Jerry Ramsey, treasurer. Board members include Jim Manion, programs; Lisa DeDapper, membership; David Fraas, social media; Merilee Marsh, public relations; Rich Burleigh, international; Sharon McGuire, youth services; Clayn Sonderegger; community services; David Penny, member-at-large.

Chartered in 1983, the Boise Sunrise Rotary Club has 80 members. The club assists children through local nonprofits and is active with projects in Ecuador and Peru. For information about the club, contact Thomson, jat@elamburke.com.

Other businesses

Scott Frasnelly has been named director of business growth and development for the ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League).

Frasnelly will be responsible for sharing best practices and ideas among ECHL teams with a focus on fostering revenue growth through ticket planning and corporate partnership initiatives. In addition, Frasnelly will serve as the league liaison with team sales personnel, offering assistance, training and additional team services.

Frasnelly has 10 years of experience with the ECHL, working with the Idaho Steelheads, Bakersfield Condors and San Francisco Bulls. He was with the Steelheads during their transition from the West Coast Hockey League to the ECHL, and was part of the club’s ticket department during the team’s 2004 Kelly Cup championship season. During his seven years with the Condors, the organization was recognized by the league twice as Marketing Department of the Year and Website of the Year, and received the Overall Award of Excellence in 2011 after hosting the 2011 ECHL All-Star Classic.

Frasnelly has a degree in business administration from Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa where he was on the baseball team.

Kathy McIntosh, editor, writer and speaker, has joined Kituku & Associates as an instructor of business writing skills. McIntosh’s emphasis will be training and coaching corporate and public managers, human resource professionals, business owners, elected and aspiring public officials, leaders and trainers to increase the effectiveness of their messages.

She was a co-founder of Healthwise, a Boise nonprofit that helps people make health care decisions. McIntosh co-wrote Healthwise’s original book, wrote the first training manual for health providers who taught Healthwise classes, and produced the program’s first television series later used as classroom aids.

McIntosh was communications manager for the Idaho Office of Energy during the energy crisis before becoming the executive director of the Idaho Private Industry Council. After obtaining a master’s of business administration in marketing, McIntosh worked as a product manager for Xerox and a customer support engineer for Hewlett-Packard, and as the manager of corporate communications at Cougar Mountain Software.

McIntosh has been an adjunct professor for Dowling College and for Boise State University. She’s also spent time in retail appliance sales, as a bank teller and as a waitress. She earned a bachelor’s degree in literature from the College of Idaho and an MBA in marketing from the Anderson School at UCLA. She writes the “Words at Work” column for Business Insider.