Banking
Mark T. Houston has joined Wells Fargo as senior vice president and regional manager of private banking for Idaho and Eastern Washington. Houston, based in Boise, will oversee all private banking services through Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
Houston was market executive and head of commercial banking in Idaho for Bank of the West, where he oversaw the growth and development of the bank's Idaho presence.
Houston received a bachelor's degree in business administration from Boise State University.
D.L. Evans Bank has donated $10,000 to Business Plus, a Magic Valley economic-development group.
Construction & design
John Seidl, Seidl Homes, was installed as the 2013 president of the Building Contractors Association of Southwestern Idaho. Steve Martinez, Tradewinds General Contracting, was named Builder of the Year.
Serving with Seidl will be Jeff Thompson, Thompson Homes, first vice president; and Jon Hastings, Tresidio Homes, second vice president/secretary.
Other officers installed were Zach Evans, Evans Constructions; Steve Weeks, Weeks Law PLLC; Tracy Dixon, Payne Financial Group; and Pat Minegar, A-1 Heating and Air Conditioning.
Weeks was named associate of the year; and Tresidio Homes (Hastings and Russ VanWagenen) was named company of the year. Minegar received the Special Recognition Award, given to only five other people over the years, for his involvement with the local association and the Idaho Building Contractors Association.
Engineering
Jim Poorbaugh has joined the Boise office of Parametrix as a senior engineer.
Poorbaugh is a transportation engineer, designer, and project manager who has worked with multidisciplinary project teams. He has 15 years of military and professional experience.
He worked for Bohannan Huston in New Mexico, where he managed highway projects for the New Mexico Department of Transportation and the city of Gallup. He has a master's degree in civil engineering and is a Project Management Institute project management professional with a project management masters certificate. He has received Toastmasters International Advanced Leader and Communicator Bronze Awards.
Poorbaugh will support the delivery of key assignments on projects including the I-84 Meridian Road Interchange, the Ada County Highway District Overlay, and the Franklin Road - Black Cat to Ten Mile project.
An employee-owned firm, Parametrix provides engineering, planning and environmental sciences.
Financial services
Lance Marcus, CEO of Lighthouse Home Loans Inc. in Meridian, has been named a 2013 Five Star Mortgage Professional, an honor awarded to fewer than 7 percent of the mortgage professionals nationwide.
Award candidates are identified through nominations received by customers and real estate agents. Recent homebuyers are asked to evaluate mortgage professionals with whom they have worked and evaluate them based upon five criteria. The award process is conducted annually in each market.
Lighthouse Home Loans was founded in Salem, Ore. in 2000. Five Star Professional, founded in 2003, is based in Minneapolis.
Government
Skiffington Holderness of Boise will serve as staff director for the Republican office of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
U.S. Sen. Jim Risch is a ranking member of the committee. Holderness had been serving as a legislative assistant to Risch on financial issues, including small business.
Holderness first worked with Risch as a deputy campaign manager in Risch's 2008 campaign. He is a graduate of Centennial High School and Boise State University with a bachelor's degree in accounting. He is the son of Kevin and Pam Holderness of Boise and is married to Colbie Holderness, originally of Victor.
Gov. Butch Otter has appointed Steve Meyer to serve as the Region I representative on the Idaho Economic Advisory Council. Meyer succeeds Tim Komberec, president and CEO of Empire Airlines, who served the maximum two four-year terms.
Meyer started Parkwood Business Properties, a commercial real estate development firm in Coeur d'Alene, in 1975. Before that, he was vice-president and general manager of the Clare Pendar Division of General Instrument Corp. and senior vice president of engineering and manufacturing for American Sign and Indicator Corp. In 1979, he was a founder of Advanced Input Devices and served as chairman through 1993.
Meyer serves on the board of the North Idaho College Foundation and the board of directors of Mountain West Bank. He is a small venture-capital investor working with two small companies in Idaho. In 2012, Idaho Smart Growth awarded Meyer the Charles Hummel Lifetime Achievement award.
Meyer earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Idaho and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
The Idaho Economic Advisory Council's main purpose is to advise the governor and the Idaho Commerce Department on goals and objectives that further economic development within the state.
Ashley Parkinson, Sean Murphy and Daniel (Danny) Schneider have joined the Washington, D.C., offices of Sen. Mike Crapo as interns. Elizabeth Bender, Andrew Gipe and Amanda Rosier are interning in the senator's state offices.
Parkinson, originally from Pocatello, recently graduated from Boise State University, where she studied political science with a double emphasis in American government and public policy. She hopes to work in human rights domestically and abroad and is looking for opportunities in the D.C. area to advance this goal.
Murphy, a Boise local, recently graduated from Boise State University, majoring in political science with an emphasis in international relations and a minor in history. After his internship, Murphy plans to pursue a career within the federal government in international relations.
Schneider, of Idaho Falls, is a recent graduate of Brigham Young University-Idaho, majoring in political science. He was recently accepted to American University for law school and will be furthering his studies in the D.C. area next fall.
Bender and Gipe are serving in Crapo's state office in Boise.
Bender recently moved to Idaho from Colorado, where she graduated from high school. She plans to attend Boise State University in the fall, majoring in political science with an emphasis in foreign communications.
Gipe, a lifelong Idahoan, grew up in Nampa and is a senior at Boise State University. He will graduate in May with a bachelor's degree in political science with an emphasis in American government and public policy. He is applying to law schools and hopes to continue his studies this fall.
Rosier will be assisting Crapo in his Idaho Falls office. Originally from Tallahassee, Fla., Rosier is a junior at Brigham Young University-Idaho studying economics. She hopes to attend law school after graduation.
Health care
Nathan Pierce has joined PacificSource Health Plans as an Idaho sales executive. He will be primarily responsible for growth and retention of group lines of business and broker relations.
Pierce was with Willamette Dental Group for seven years as a senior sales representative.
A graduate of the University of Idaho, Pierce lives in Boise and is active in the Leadership Boise Alumni group and the Vandal Scholarship Fund. He is also the president elect of the Boise Metro Rotary Club.
St. Luke's Clinic Coordinated Care has been selected as one of 106 new accountable care organizations in Medicare, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius says.
Under the Affordable Care Act of 2010, accountable care organizations are intended to assure Medicare beneficiaries access to high-quality, coordinated care.
Doctors and health care providers can establish accountable care organizations to work together. Since passage of the act, more than 250 accountable care organizations have been established.
Brenda Ford, business analyst, has joined the project-management team of the Idaho Health Data Exchange, Idaho's state-designated health information exchange.
Ford will focus on project management for vendor interface consultation, development and implementation. Ford brings 15 years' experience in health care, information technology and system process and planning analysis with Treasure Valley employers including Blue Cross of Idaho, TEKSystems and Delta Dental of Idaho.
The data exchange enables authorized and participating health care providers to securely exchange critical patient information electronically. Participants include hospitals, labs, radiology centers and other business partners. The data exchange has connected several hospitals and independent reference labs and has enabled access to more than 1,000 participating providers and clinical personnel. It is working to connect additional physician practices, hospitals, lab and radiology centers, and all other health care stakeholders across Idaho.
Nonprofits
Dawn Stahlberg and Bibiana Nertney have joined Community Partnerships of Idaho as directors.
Stahlberg has been hired as director of autism training and consultation to build family education and training programs. She will also provide therapeutic consultation and habilitation intervention training. Stahlberg has worked as a special education teacher, a behavioral specialist, and an autism specialist in Oregon. She has developed services for schools, families and agencies in her private practice as an autism specialist. Stahlberg holds a master's degree in special education from the University of Oregon.
Nertney has been hired as communication and community development director, spearheading Community Partnerships of Idaho's integrated marketing, public relations, community development, communications and research programs. She most recently served as administrator of marketing and communications for the Idaho Department of Commerce.
Recently promoted Community Partnerships employees include Kevin Haro, named assistant controller; Richelle Tierney, named director of professional and business development; and Nina Brandes, named director of children's services.
Haro is responsible for preparing and reporting financial statements and ensuring quality efficiency and effectiveness in the accounting, human resources and billing departments.
Tierney plans, directs and coordinates training objectives internally and externally and collaborates with parent, advocacy and other outside groups. She is responsible for identifying growth opportunities for the business.
Brandes is responsible for expanding children's services and providing redesign services for them.
Community Partnerships is a multiservice company supporting children, teens and adults with developmental disabilities.
Technology
Jennifer Hetherington has joined Eagle time-tracking technology company TSheets as vice president of marketing. She will lead the development and execution of brand and marketing strategy for the growing software-as-a-service application used by more than 100,000 employees around the world.
Hetherington joins TSheets after working two years at Bodybuilding.com, most recently as vice president of brand marketing. She holds a master's degree in psychology from the State University of New York at Albany.
Other businesses
Automated Maintenance Services Inc. donated $1,000 to the Idaho Foodbank.
Richard (Dick) Bronson, a design consultant with Pipeco Idaho and former owner of Growers Supply in Fruitland, has been selected as the Idaho Irrigation Equipment Association's 2012 Person of the Year.
Bronson comes from one of the first sprinkler irrigation companies in Idaho. Growers Supply Co. was established in 1947 by Ted Riens and Karl Bronson, who won the award in 1996. Richard Bronson joined his father in developing Growers Supply as well as coming home to work the family farm after he served in Vietnam.
Richard Bronson and his wife, Marcy, have worked to maintain traditions and innovations, preserving a "century farm" on which they are establishing a tree nursery as well as operating a relatively new venture, Lone Pine Corp., a family farm in which Jim and Carie Bronson, the fifth generation of the Bronson family, are working with their parents.
