The Board Room for Dec. 5

Announcements

▪ Fresno architect Arthur Dyson was elected alumni president of the Taliesin Fellows. The Taliesin Fellows is an educational foundation of apprentices to Frank Lloyd Wright and alumni of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. Dyson was an apprentice to Frank Lloyd Wright in 1958 and 1959.

▪ Der Manouel Insurance Group has been included in Insurance Business America’s Elite Agencies list, which showcased 50 independent agencies that are outperforming the rest in today’s competitive market place.

▪ Attorney Mark A. Broughton, partner at Hammerschmidt Broughton Law Corporation, has been appointed by the California Supreme Court to serve on the board of trustees for the California State Bar. He was sworn in Oct. 1 at the State Bar of California’s annual conference by the chief justice of the California Supreme Court, Tani Cantil-Sakauye.

Awards

▪ Gar Tootelian Inc. has been honored by industry peers as the 2016 Ag Retailer of the Year throughout the United States. The award honors agricultural retailers who represent the best in innovative business practices, community and industry leadership, environmental stewardship, reliability, technology utilization, customer service and effective employee development.

▪ Professional boxer and WBC Continental Americas super lightweight champion Jose Ramirez received The CrisCom Company’s Leader For America award. This award is the company’s highest honor recognizing those extraordinary leaders who have made a tremendous impact benefiting the nation in a positive way.

▪ The Fresno Area Hispanic Foundation honored longtime community partner Bank of America for economic development at the State of the City. For over a decade, Bank of America has supported the foundation’s programs and services that provide technical assistance to startup and existing businesses, including the Downtown Business Hub incubator, established in 2011 as the first bilingual business incubator in the western United States.

Donations

▪ For the 10th consecutive year, Fresno 7-Eleven franchisee Serge Haitayan will donate more than 800 coats to local students just in time for cooler weather. Since 2007, Haitayan has donated more than 5,250 coats to students and families of Clovis and Fresno Unified school districts.

Coats this year will be donated to students at Molly S. Bakman, Turner, Fancher Creek and Temperance Kutner elementary schools.

▪ The Rotary Club of Fresno awarded $1,500 to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Center Inc. in support of the 30th anniversary Silent Sleigh Celebration to provide deaf and hard of hearing students in the Central Valley with a chance to communicate with a deaf Santa Claus and other fun holiday activities.

New Faces

▪ Kaiser Permanente Fresno added the following physicians: Suzette Johnson, Yasmeen Islam, Elizabeth Cao and Lissa Yu in obstetrics and gynecology; and Yujie Xu in pathology.

▪ EXIT Realty Consultants added Sukhdeep Dhaliwal and Lisa L. Looper as Realtors to its Fresno branch.

New Locations

▪ Provost & Pritchard Consulting Group has opened the firm’s eighth location, in Merced. The new office’s address is 3341 M St. and can be contacted at 209-809-2300.

The new office includes two principal staff members: Dena Traina, a principal engineer, and Brad Samuelson, a principal environmental specialist.

Promotions

▪ Crystal Grieco was promoted to vice president, branch manager for both the Herndon/Fowler office in Clovis and Foothill office in Prather for Central Valley Community Bank.

She began her career with the bank in 2003 and has been serving as the branch manager at the Foothill office since September 2015.

In her new role she is responsible for the overall branch management of both offices as well as the development of new personal and small business banking relationships.

▪ LaKishia White has been promoted to director of finance at Lozano Smith, a public agency law firm. She joined the firm in 2014 as finance manager.

She has a bachelor’s degree in business administration/accountancy from California State University, Fresno, and received her master of business administration degree from National University. She is a current member of the Association of Legal Administrators.

This story was originally published December 4, 2016 at 3:00 PM with the headline "The Board Room for Dec. 5."