Home Helpers, of Bradenton, a provider of senior care and nonmedical in-home care, has named Carol Chew as its new community liaison. Chew has 16 years of business development and marketing experience in the health care industry. The services of Home Helpers are available in and around the communities of Anna Maria, Bradenton, Bradenton Beach, Ellenton, Holmes Beach, Lakewood Ranch, Longboat Key, Myakka City, Palmetto, Parrish and Sarasota
Dr. Jeremiah Joseph, of Pivotal Health Physical Medicine in Port Charlotte, has been accepted as a member of Laser Spine Institute’s Total Spine Care Network. Joseph joins a group of medical professionals dedicated to delivering the highest level of patient-centered care.
As a Total Spine Care Network Preferred Provider, Joseph receives access to Laser Spine Institute’s spine surgeons and chiropractors and continuing education on holistic spine care to better serve his patients.
Del Webb Lakewood Ranch has hired Rick Rizner, a veteran culinary and hospitality professional, as executive chef for the lakefront restaurant at the homebuilder’s newest 55-plus community.
Rizner has more than 20 years of food and beverage experience and previously held several noteworthy positions in the Chicago area, including regional food and beverage manager for Hyatt Hotels Group. Rizner was also executive chef at two retirement communities in the Chicago area before moving to Southwest Florida.
Rizner was most recently chef de tournant at the Founders Club, in Sarasota. As executive chef at Del Webb Lakewood Ranch, Rizner will be hiring staff and creating the menu.
Hissong PNC has named Justin Hissong as senior client adviser of its Wealth Management Office in downtown Sarasota. In his new role, Hissong will establish and build upon existing PNC client relationships while creating short- and long-term investment strategies to help clients maximize the value of their portfolios and wealth management needs. Hissong has more than 10 years of experience in financial services, including wealth strategies, investment management, trust and estate administration, and banking solutions. Before joining PNC, Hissong was a private wealth adviser for BB&T. He graduated with honors from King College in Bristol, Tennessee, and holds a FINRA Series 7 and Series 66.
Wilson Williams Parker shareholder Michael J. Wilson spoke about recent federal tax developments at the University of Florida Accounting Conference held by the Florida Institute of CPAs in early October. Wilson is a member of the Sarasota firm’s management committee. He practices tax, corporate and business law. He serves as outside general counsel to businesses of all sizes in many industries. He is certified as a tax specialist by the Florida Bar and handles federal, state and international tax planning matters. Wilson also represents clients during the tax audit process.
Snell Engineering Consultants, of Sarasota, has hired Wes Burrows as senior project manager. Burrows has nearly three decades of design experience in Southwest Florida.
He graduated from the University of South Florida in 1989 with a bachelor of science in civil engineering, specializing in structures. Before graduating, he was hired by a local engineering firm where he spent the next 28 years gaining valuable experience on all project types, new, renovation, restoration or forensic.
He is proficient in designing with materials including steel, concrete, wood, masonry and aluminum.
At the annual meeting of NetPlus Alliance, a national buying group, the Dan Judge Founder’s Award was presented to Skip DeVilling, president of DeVilling & Associates LLC of Sarasota. The award is given in recognition of contributions and support to the industrial manufacturer and distributor throughout North America.
DeVilling & Associates is a retained search firm focusing on the manufacturer and distributor and a service provider to NetPlus Alliance. NetPlus Alliance is based in Lockport, New York.
USF Sarasota-Manatee has welcomed two new members to its Campus Board. William Joseph “Bill” Mariotti and Frederick “Rick” Piccolo were appointed by the USF Board of Trustees as members of the five-person board. They join USF System Trustee and Campus Board Chairman Byron Shinn, David Eckel and Dr. Anila Jain.
Mariotti and Piccolo were appointed to four-year terms ending June 30, 2021. Mariotti, the president and CEO of Bill Mariotti Site Development Co. Inc., is a USFSM alumnus with a bachelor’s in business, with concentrations in management and marketing. He also is president of Mariotti Asphalt and Mariotti Utilities, a family-owned business. He is active in the community, serving on boards and committees of the Loveland Center, Children’s First and The Haven.
Piccolo has been the president and CEO of the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport since 1995. He has a bachelor’s in business administration from the State University of New York Buffalo. Piccolo has served as president of the Florida Airports Council. He is accredited by the American Association of Airport Executives, the largest professional airport managers association in the world. The Florida Department of Transportation selected Piccolo as the 2005 Aviation Professional of the Year.
Nick O’Donnell, founder and head designer of Sarasota’s Terraform Design, was one of seven Florida State University alumni speaking at the Jim Moran School of Entrepreneurship’s sixth annual 7 Under 30 program.
O’Donnell graduated from FSU’s College of Business with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship. His business was recognized with the Governor’s Young Entrepreneur Award in 2016. As a student, O’Donnell was a member of the InNOLEvation Center business incubator. He won the 2014 InNOLEvation Challenge for his company Wavelet, and took second place in the 2015 InNOLEvation challenge for Terraform Design.
All seven speakers at the 7 Under 30 program are entrepreneurs who launched successful businesses before the age of 30. The free event was part of a celebration of entrepreneurship called Tallahassee Startup Week.
Manatee County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller Angel Colonneso recently joined 66 clerks from across the state for the Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers 2017 fall conference. The conference, Oct. 10-13 in Orlando, covered a variety of management aspects and disciplines related to the 1,000 statutory functions performed by the Manatee County Clerk’s Office and its counterparts. Colonneso was presented with a certificate for completing 240 hours of training related to legal, budget, finance and court operations as required by statute, recognizing her as a certified clerk of the circuit court. Colonneso began the program in the fall of 2015 and finished in June. To maintain her certification, Colonneso must complete an additional 36 hours every year. In addition to serving as the Manatee County Clerk of Court and Comptroller, Colonneso is the secretary for the Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers executive committee and the chairwoman of the communications committee. She also serves on the CLERICUS committee, which handles the Florida Clerks case maintenance system, the strategic planning committee for the Florida Clerks Association and the justice partners committee.
Gail E. Farb and Jennifer Fowler-Hermes, labor and employment attorneys with Sarasota’s Williams Parker, recently presented at the HR Florida State Conference & Expo, the annual conference of the HR Florida State Council, a state affiliate of the Society for Human Resource Management. Farb presented “Error-Free Employment Relationships – Avoiding Top Legal Mistakes from Hire to Fire” (aka “How to Steer Your Spaceship Away from Employment Law Black Holes”). Fowler- Hermes presented “Managing Employee Participation in Social Movements: What To Do When Political Activism Impacts Your Organization” and “HR Professionals Just Wanna Have Fun: Weird and Wacky Employment Cases.” Farb has extensive experience in the area of labor and employment law. She is the immediate past chairwoman of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the Sarasota County Bar Association. Fowler-Hermes is a board certified specialist in labor and employment law. She serves as a Florida Supreme Court certified circuit mediator.
Robinson The law firm of Barnes Walker, Goethe, Hoonhout, Perron & Shea PLLC, has added associate attorney Michael “Brandon” Robinson to its family of legal practitioners. A combat veteran of the Marine Corps, Robinson is a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Accredited Attorney and a member of the Florida Bar, and is licensed to practice before the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Robinson’s practice will focus on wills, trusts, estate planning, probate, guardianship and veterans’ benefits.
Gates Construction has hired Chris Johnson as senior superintendent, based in the Sarasota office. He will be responsible for daily on-site supervision of Gates’ projects, including quality control, safety, security, project close-out and transition planning.
Johnson has over 30 years of construction experience with a wide variety of project types and particular expertise in multi-family, retail and religious construction. Johnson has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Columbus State University.
The Sarasota YMCA has named Debbie Trimble as the senior vice president of major gifts and planned giving. Trimble joined the Sarasota YMCA in November with more than 20 years of nonprofit experience, focused on fundraising development.
She was previously vice president of development for The New 42nd Street in New York City. She has also held development director positions at the La Jolla Playhouse in La Jolla, California, and Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, and worked as executive director of the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy in Buffalo, New York.
The Dentz Group Inc., a boutique executive career search firm based in Bradenton, has promoted Aaron Dentz to the position of president. Dentz was formerly co-founder and vice president of talent and business development. The Dentz Group Inc. specializes primarily in the retail industry. The company’s second office is in Pewaukee, Wisconsin.
Antaeus Balevre has just published his third book in “The Prepared Citizen” series. “Fight or Flight: How to Avoid or Respond to Violent Attacks” is available at Amazon.com in digital and hard copy formats. Balevre’s second book in the series, “Surviving the Threat: Terrorist Attacks, Mass Shootings, and Dangerous Situations,” has been downloaded more than 4,000 times.
The series teaches the reader how to use a three-step situational awareness technique called AIR to avoid or survive dangerous situations. Balevre lives in Sarasota.
Perri
Sara Perri, manager of Charlotte State Bank & Trust’s Charlotte Harbor office, has been promoted to assistant vice president. Perri started as a teller and worked her way up. She will celebrate her 15th year at the bank in November.
Gates Construction has hired Ralph Ritchie as senior superintendent, based in the Sarasota office. Ritchie will be responsible for daily on-site supervision of Gates projects, including quality control, safety, security, project close-out and transition planning.
Ritchie has over 25 years of construction experience, with a wide variety of project types and particular expertise in retail, religious and hospitality construction.
Jennifer Fowler-Hermes, a board certified specialist in labor and employment law with Sarasota’s Williams Parker, recently presented “Paralegals Just Wanna Have Fun: Off the Wall Employment Law Cases” at the Paralegals Association of Florida Suncoast Chapter Business Meeting and Dinner.
Fowler-Hermes represents private, public, for-profit and not-for-profit employers of all sizes in litigation matters and assists employers in managing risks to avoid litigation. She also is a Florida Supreme Court certified circuit mediator.
Bill Robertson, CEO and personal injury attorney for the Kirk Pinkerton PA law firm in Sarasota, recently received the AV Preeminent Peer Review Rating from Martindale-Hubbell, a legal services rating organization, for the 15th consecutive year.
The AV Preeminent Peer Review Rating is the highest peer review rating in legal ability and ethical standards. Members of the judiciary and state bar associations base these ratings on anonymous evaluations.
Robertson has more than 30 years of experience. He represents clients throughout the state who have been injured or lost a loved one as the result of another’s negligence.
Goodwill Manasota has promoted Bill Thielen to director of risk management. In this role, he will be responsible for contributing creative new ideas as well as implementing programs and procedures that directly impact all safety, loss and risk issues.
Thielen has been with Goodwill since 2009, starting in its Information Systems department as a support technician. Due to prior work experience in asset protection, he was asked to build Goodwill’s Loss Department team in 2011, leading to his promotion to manager of Loss Prevention. In 2016, he was promoted to Safety and Loss Prevention manager, taking on more responsibilities that dealt with safety and risk management.
He recently obtained Loss Prevention Certification, which covers knowledge in the areas of leadership, loss prevention, supply chain security and risk management.
Co-owners and stylists from Yellow Strawberry, a locally owned and operated salon in Sarasota and Manatee counties, recently returned from New York after attending the members-only Intercoiffure America/Canada 2017 Fall Atelier.
Yellow Strawberry co-owners Desmond and Caroline Behan took eight stylists to New York for the two-day convention with renowned artists and top salon owners. At the Fall Atelier 2017, Yellow Strawberry stylists observed presentations from the top talent in the hairdressing industry and demonstrations showcasing the very best in the world of cutting, color and hairstyling.
Intercoiffure America/Canada is considered the most powerful and influential organization in the hairdressing industry. Only about 200 salons in the U.S. hold membership in this organization. The Intercoiffure organization determines the standards of the industry and shares this responsibility with membership from over 50 other countries.
Melissa Hays is the new personal banker at the Punta Gorda office of Charlotte State Bank & Trust. She has nearly 16 years of banking experience. Hays has worked as a teller, teller supervisor and customer service representative and was rewarded for excellence in customer service and teller operations.
In addition to her banking experience, Hays managed a retail store and worked for a family practice physician. She also spent four years in missionary work.