Executive Spotlight — September 2010
Executive Spotlight
CDC Small Business Finance in San Diego has named Ken Rosenthal to the new position of senior adviser –lending, education and training. Rosenthal, a 20-year veteran of small business financing, will focus on educating commercial bankers in California, Arizona and Nevada about the SBA’s new secondary market program, designed to help jump-start the stalled secondary market for SBA-504 loans and further improve access to financing for small businesses. Rosenthal has worked as a loan officer for CDC Small Business Finance in the company’s San Diego office for the last 20 years, generating an average of $100 million annually in financing for small businesses. CDC Small Business Finance is the nation’s largest SBA-504 lender, having provided more than $5 billion in loans since 1978.
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Frederick Schenk, a partner with the Casey Gerry law firm, has earned the Wiedemann Wysocki National Finance Council Award from the American Association for Justice for his commitment to the legal profession and his efforts to improve the civil justice system. The award is named in honor of Fritz Wiedemann and James Anthony Wysocki, two New Orleans-based attorneys who died in a plane crash while traveling to an AAJ event. Schenk serves on the organization’s board of governors. He is also a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates. Schenk co-authored the LexisNexis California Automobile Litigation Handbook. He was awarded the “Outstanding Trial Lawyer Award” by the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego and is a former president of that group.
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Elaine Camuso has joined Southwest Strategies as senior account executive after more than a decade as a professional news reporter, freelance writer and editor. Camuso started her journalism career at National Public Radio in Washington, D.C., and spent most of her career at a boutique news agency which distributes original feature news to national and international media outlets. Besides news writing, Camuso’s work experience has included assignments in copywriting, Website content development and the coordination of media campaigns for clients including a Northern California-based museum and a nationally-prominent law school consultant.
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Robin Duveen, a 20-year construction industry veteran, has been promoted to vice president of operations for Gafcon Inc. Duveen has been with Gafcon for 13 years, has served as project executive for Gafcon’s Irvine office as well as division manager for its Los Angeles office. He also served as Gafcon’s program manager for the $335 million Sweetwater Union High School District bond program. Based in the firm’s Downtown San Diego headquarters, Duveen will manage operations within Gafcon’s corporate office, branch offices and project sites. Prior to joining Gafcon, Duveen was a development/project manager for Rabie Property Developers and Resnekov & Neilson in his native South Africa. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Cape Tecknikon in Cape Town, South Africa.
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Paul A. Reynolds has been appointed a partner in the San Diego law firm of Solomon Ward Seidenwurm & Smith LLP. Reynold’s practice focuses on securities and complex business litigation. He has litigated in trial and appellate courts throughout California and the United States. His specific areas of expertise include securities class action litigation, shareholder derivative litigation, corporate control disputes and litigation and internal corporate investigations. Reynolds is a member of the California State Bar Association, San Diego County Bar Association, Federal Bar Association, Association of Business Trial Lawyers, American Inns of Court, Chapter No. 9, and the Louis M. Welsh Chapter. He received his law degree from California Western School of Law.
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The San Diego Convention Center Corp. has named Charlie Orozco as the its advertising sales manager, responsible for selling print, back-lit display and online advertising for the agency. Orozco has more than 10 years of executive level sales and hospitality experience. Prior to joining the SDCCC, he served as director of sales for the Palm Springs Desert Resort Communities Convention and Visitors Authority and earlier served as director of sales at 4- and 5-star hotel properties in Southern California. Orozco holds a bachelor’s degree in public relations from Pepperdine University in Malibu. Orozco’s appointment was announced by Steven Johnson, vice president of public affairs.
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Jewish Family Service has named Bonny J. Forrest as its new chief operating officer. Forrest will oversee the organization’s more than 50 programs that operate out of 15 locations throughout San Diego County and one in Palm Desert. Forrest has more than 20 years experience as a psychologist and attorney. She has practiced and conducted research as a pediatric neuropsychologist and has led clinical programs in other nonprofit organizations. Most recently, she was the director of early childhood programs at the San Diego Center for Children and, before that, a director of developmental services, clinical programs at Rady Children’s Hospital. Forrest earned her Ph.D. from Columbia University and completed fellowships at Yale and the National Institute of Mental Health.
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RGL Forensics, an accounting and business valuation firm, has appointed Angela MacPhee as chief financial officer, overseeing global accounting and managing the financial strategies of RLG offices in 16 U.S. cities and in Australia, Singapore, Tokyo, England and Germany. Before joining RGL, MacPhee was vice president of the Timberline region of O’Neal Steel Inc., a $2.6 billion company based in Alabama. She received both bachelor’s and master’s degrees and degrees in accounting from the University of Colorado.
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Real estate veteran Jim Kelly has joined CT Realty Investors Corp. as managing partner and executive vice president of the firm’s San Diego division, located at 10650 Treena St., Suite 111, in San Diego. Kelly has more than 25 years of experience in real estate development and investment. Before joining CT Realty, he was president of Emerald Venture Group Inc., a San Diego-based real estate development company that he formed in 1999. Kelly, a licensed Realtor and general contractor, is a member of the Urban Land Institute, Design-Build Institute of America and a past member of the National Golf Course Owners Association.
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The Leichtag Family Foundation announced the election of community leader and philanthropist Murray Galinson as vice chair of its board of directors. Engaged in a wide range of philanthropic activities, Galinson currently holds the position of chair of the international Jewish Funders Network and is the immediate past chair of the Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego. He is also on the boards of the Weingart Foundation, San Diego Grantmakers and the Galinson Family Foundation and serves on the advisory board of Price Family Charities. Galinson formerly practiced law in Minnesota and was a federal prosecutor, law professor and banker. He has also held positions on numerous national and local political campaign committees.
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Veteran environmental consultant Eric Correia has joined Partner Engineering and Science as a project manager in the firm’s San Diego office. Correia comes to Partner from San Diego-based BC Group LLC, a privately held environmental consulting firm. Previously, he was quality control manager for Project Resources Inc., a national engineering and environmental consulting firm headquartered in San Diego. Correia holds a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. He will work with Partner’s San Diego client base of law firms, financial institutions and real estate companies in the acquisition, disposition and financing of mobile home parks, multi-family complexes, skilled nursing/assisted living facilities, among others.
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L. Thomas Morgan and Gary Friesen have joined Grubb & Ellis Co. as senior vice president and associate, respectively, specializing in assisting churches and nonprofit organizations with their real estate needs. The team joins from American Church Brokers, formed by Morgan, a 35-year industry veteran. Prior to forming American Church Brokers in 2009, Morgan spent five years as a senior vice president of Church Brokers, a part of Diversified Realty Advisors that ceased operations in 2009. Friesen began his career in commercial real estate in 2008 at Church Brokers. He has developed relationships with more than 55 religious organizations, including College Avenue Baptist Church, Grace San Diego, San Diego Christian Worship Center, Palomar Korean Church, and St. Stephens Cathedral Church of God.
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Kent Walker has launched a new law firm — Law Office of Kent M. Walker — to offer a range of intellectual property litigation services. His Downtown San Diego office is at 402 W. Broadway, Suite 400 in the Emerald Plaza building. “I provide more than 15 years of intellectual property experience for clients as diverse as multi national corporations as well as individual clients”, said Walker. He has previously been a partner at Nydegger and Associates and a partner at Cooley Godward and Kronish, LLP in the UTC area. Walker’s current practice focuses on patent prosecution, trademark, copyright, trade secret and entertainment law litigation. The phone number is 619-466-5603.
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Twenty-five-year commercial real estate veteran David E. Howard has been named president of Lee & Associates’ San Diego North office. Howard is a founding principal of Lee’s national accounts group which represents national office and industrial clients across the country. He joined Lee in 2005. Howard replaced Brad Roppe. Prior to joining Lee & Associates, Howard was the president and CEO of RESOURCE Commercial Real Estate Inc. The firm specialized in strategic representation to end-users of commercial real estate and buyers and sellers of investment properties. The firm expanded to six offices throughout the Western U.S. under Howard’s direction. Howard started his career in commercial real estate as a director of corporate services at Charles Dunn Co. in Los Angeles.
