Associations

Wayne Hammon has joined the Idaho Associated General Contractors as executive director.

Hammon has experience in large-group management, state and federal laws and government operations, the Idaho political arena, and the Boise community. He has been acting administrator for the Division of Human Resources for the state of Idaho, state executive director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency, and director of government relations at the National Association of Wheat Growers. He is an adjunct instructor at the College of Western Idaho and most recently worked as the administrator of the Division of Financial Management for the state.

Hammon attended Cornell College from 1989 to 1990 and Brigham Young University from 1992 to 1995, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in public policy. His honors and awards include receiving the Idaho Accomplished Under 40 Award (2009), the USDA Secretary’s Award for Outstanding Achievement (2007), an honorary State FFA degree (2005), and University of Idaho associate alumnus designation (1998).

Banking

U.S. Bank has awarded a $6,119 grant to the Women’s Business Center of Idaho, and Key Bank has made a $5,000 donation to the group.

The banks’ grants will support programs at the center to help women entrepreneurs start and build businesses. While the center does offer assistance to all entrepreneurs, its primary focus is on women-owned businesses, especially those in underprivileged demographics.

Since opening in January, the center has counseled 115 clients and assisted in the startup of 15 new businesses and the creation of 21 jobs.

These grants provide the financial leverage to assist the WBC in meeting its requirements to partially match the grant funds received from the Small Business Administration.

Financial services

Janis Upton, Barbara Hyndman and Lee Wright have joined the Boise office of Eide Bailly LLP, regional certified public accounting and business advisory firm.

Upton is a recent graduate of Idaho State University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance and computer information systems. She is a member of Beta Alpha Psi and is working toward her CPA license. She joins the company as an audit associate.

Hyndman joins Eide Bailly as a tax associate. She is a recent graduate of the University of Idaho, where she earned her master’s of accountancy degree. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Idaho State University. Hyndman is a member of Beta Alpha Psi and is currently working toward her CPA license.

Wright earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance as well as a master’s of accountancy degree from the University of Idaho. He is also a member of Beta Alpha Psi and is working toward his CPA license. Wright joins Eide Bailly as a tax associate.

Brian Cook has rejoined Western Benefit Solutions as administrative manager after two years at the University of Utah.

Cook has a background in sales, customer service and management. He will focus on human resources, including coordinating efforts between satellite offices.

Western Benefit Solutions is an employee-benefit brokerage and consulting firm based in Boise and Idaho Falls.

Health care

Joshua R. Thompson was named the new administrator for the Pocatello Veterans Home by the Idaho Division of Veterans Services.

Thompson will manage the day-to-day operations of the home and will work with other local organizations that serve veterans and their families.

Before joining the division, Thompson was the administrator of Safe Haven Hospital and Care Center, a 14-bed psychiatric hospital and an 84-bed skilled-nursing home that caters to special-needs people. He has been an administrator for BRP Health Management Inc. in Burley and the assistant administrator of Life Care Centers of America in Boise. He has a master’s degree of public administration from Idaho State University.

The Pocatello Veterans Home is a 66-bed skilled nursing facility that features an extensive therapy and activities program.

Law

Ammon Taylor has joined Boise law firm Belnap Stewart Taylor & Morris PLLC. He will lend his skills to the firm’s work in business counseling, litigation and family-wealth management.

Taylor earned his law degree from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University, graduating with honors. After law school, he worked as a law clerk to Cheri C. Copsey, district judge in the 4th District of Idaho, and to Terry L. Myers, chief U.S. bankruptcy judge for the District of Idaho.

Taylor has been a member of the Idaho Bar Association since 2008. He is a member of the bar’s commercial law and bankruptcy section.

Merlyn W. Clark, John F. Kurtz, John McGown and Nicholas G. Miller, partners at Hawley Troxell, have been named lawyers of the year in the 19th edition of Best Lawyers. Only one attorney in each practice area in any designated city is chosen to be lawyer of the year.

Clark was named 2013 Boise mediation lawyer of the year; partner Kurtz, 2013 Boise bankruptcy and creditor debtor rights/insolvency and reorganization law lawyer of the year; counsel attorney McGown, the 2013 Boise tax law lawyer of the year; and partner Miller, the 2013 Boise corporate law lawyer of the year.

Since 1983, Best Lawyers has conducted an annual peer review by attorneys, who submit more than 4.3 million detailed evaluations of other lawyers in the same and related specialties.

Sixteen lawyers from Moffatt Thomas were recently selected by their peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2013.

Recognition goes to the following individuals: Robert Bakes for mediation; Robert Burns for real estate; Gary Dance for medical malpractice and personal injury; Richard Fields for commercial litigation, labor and employment law, and health care; Larry Hunter for commercial litigation, environmental law, litigation — construction, and personal injury litigation — defendants; Gerald Husch for employment benefits (ERISA) law and insurance law; James Manning for tax law and trusts and estates; James Martin for insurance law and litigation — banking and finance; Michael McGreaham for trusts and estates; Patricia Olsson for employment and labor law and medical malpractice law; Randall Peterman for bankruptcy and creditor debtor rights/insolvency and reorganization law; Mark Prusynski for insurance law and personal injury litigation — defendants; Michael Roe for mergers and acquisitions law and litigation — real estate and mergers and acquisitions; John Simko for corporate law and mining law; Stephen Thomas for commercial litigation and insurance law; and John Ward for corporate law and litigation — banking and finance.

Real estate

Karen K. Nelson with The Nelson Group LLC has been awarded the Seniors Real Estate Specialist designation by the Seniors Real Estate Specialist Council of the National Association of Realtors.

Nelson joins more than 16,000 real estate professionals in North America who have earned the designation. All were required to complete a course in understanding the needs, considerations and goals of real estate buyers and sellers 55 or older.

Gretchen Carlson has joined the accounting department of Thornton Oliver Keller Commercial Real Estate.

Carlson will assist with accounting tasks and client needs associated with the firm’s management portfolio of 5 million square feet of commercial real estate properties. She has 15 years of experience supporting accounting departments.

Technology

Michael Rayfield has joined Micron Technology as vice president of the Wireless Solutions Group.

Rayfield will manage all aspects of the group, which provides digital memory products, including multichip packages, to the global mobile-device market.

With 15 years of executive management experience and nearly 30 years in the industry, Rayfield worked for the past seven years as the vice president and general manager of NVIDIA Inc.’s mobile-business unit, where his team created advanced computer-on-a-chip technology and won mobile-industry reference designs.

Rayfield’s background also includes executive sales, business development and operations roles at Stretch Inc., Reshape Inc., Cisco Systems, Growth Networks and Texas Instruments. He began his career in technical-sales roles with Texas Instruments.

Rayfield holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Vermont.

Crucial.com, an online retailer specializing in computer-memory upgrades and solid-state drives, was named the recipient of the 2012 Bronze Stevie Award for excellence in computer hardware websites at an awards gala hosted by The American Business Awards.

The Stevie Awards were created to honor and generate public recognition of the achievements and contributions of organizations and business people worldwide.

Crucial.com also won the Silver Stevie Award for excellence in customer service at The American Business Awards in New York earlier this year.

Crucial.com was founded to make computer-memory upgrades easy for the everyday consumer. It is owned by Micron Technology Inc.

Other businesses

Ben Ellsworth has joined the Idaho Business League as executive sales and business development director.

Ellsworth has 14 years of customer service and sales experience. His background includes work in telephone systems, cabling, computer systems support and computer-chip manufacturing.

D.W. Fellows, Hayden, a sales firm in Idaho representing plumbing and decorative products, has agreed to represent two product lines — made-in-America Longleaf Collection door hardware and accessories, and Webert kitchen faucets — in partnership with Marketing Representatives LLC, the national sales organization for Longleaf and distributor for Webert kitchen faucets.

D.W. Fellows represents many lines of plumbing and decorative products and covers the states of Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Montana and Wyoming.

Michael Grogan, a local driver for the Con-way Freight service center in Meridian, won first place in the five-axle division of the 75th annual National Truck Driving Championships held in Minneapolis in August.

The competition for professional truck drivers is hosted by the American Trucking Associations.