Your business community: recognitions and promotions

RECOGNITION

Gov. Butch Otter has appointed Steven Keen of Boise to Idaho Housing and Finance Association's Board of Commissioners.

Keen is vice president and treasurer for Idaho Power Co. and its holding company, Idacorp Inc., in Boise.

He began his tenure at Idaho Power in 1982 and later became tax director. In 1999, Keen became president of Idacorp Financial, a wholly owned investment subsidiary of Idacorp Inc. that primarily invested in tax-advantaged real estate, before returning to the parent company in his current role in 2006. He began his business career in public accounting.

Keen is a CPA. He holds a BBA in accounting and graduated with high honors in 1981 from Idaho State University in Pocatello. He is the board chairman of the Idaho Tax Foundation. Previously, Keen served as the chairman of the board of directors for the Associated Taxpayers of Idaho, president of the board of directors for the Idaho Society of CPAs and president and a member of the board of governors for the Affordable Housing Investors Council. He was named the "Outstanding CPA in Business and Industry for 1999" by the ISCPA.

Keen was appointed to IHFA's board July 1 and announced by Otter on Dec. 18. His term expires July 1, 2012.

Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center has announced that is has been awarded the Medal of Honor by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for its achievements in increasing organ donation rates.

Saint Alphonsus is nationally one of 412 hospitals and is the only hospital in the Treasure Valley to receive the national recognition for the 26-month award period ending in May 2008. This is the third time Saint Alphonsus has received this award.

The Medal of Honor award was presented to Saint Alphonsus at the Fourth National Learning Congress on Organ Donation and Transplantation in Nashville, Tenn. Saint Alphonsus earned the recognition by collaborating with its partner, Pacific Northwest Transplant Bank, in an effort to achieve and sustain the national goal of converting at least 75 percent of eligible deaths into actual organ donors.

For more information and to register to be an organ and tissue donor, visit www.yesidaho.org.

GOOD DEEDS

Boise Co-op donated 3 percent of its sales during the Big Wine and Cheese event Dec. 7 to Easter Seals-Goodwill. A total of $3,324 was donated to support Easter Seals-Goodwill's The PLAY Project, an early autism intervention program for children ages 14 months to 8 years. Proceeds will help families in the extended Treasure Valley receive this year-long, family-centered autism intervention program.

The Whittenberger Foundation has granted Mercy Housing Idaho $3,500 toward the resident service program for properties in Nampa. Mercy Housing's mission is to create stable, vibrant and healthy communities by developing, financing, and operating affordable, program-enriched housing for families, seniors and people with special needs who lack the economic resources to access quality, safe housing opportunities.

News Assistant Pat Carson compiled this report. E-mail bizcom@idahostatesman.com, fax Your Business Community at 377-6449, or write to Your Business Community, c/o Newsroom, The Idaho Statesman, P.O. Box 40, Boise, ID 83707. Individual portraits are welcomed. All submissions become the property of the Statesman.