People on the Move
Neighborhood Fuel names its director of strategic initiatives, and Port Everglades names a new port security manager. A vice president at Coral Springs-based ABB Optical Group receives industry recognition and Palm Beach Opera announces board vice presidents. Submit promotions, new hires to SunSentinel.com/peopleonthemove or email peopleonthemove@sunsentinel.com. Contact ckent@sunsentinel.com, 954-356-4662, or Twitter @mindingyourbiz
Industrial
Traffic Cones for Less recently announced the relocation of its headquarter to new office space in Fort Lauderdale to accommodate its growth and future expansion plans for its traffic cone factory and custom applications business. In addition to the new facility, OES Global Inc., parent to Traffic Cones For Less, recently added Karen
Zinna to a newly created project manager position and added Susan Dowd as the accounts receivable manager.
Law
Haliczer, Pettis & Schwamm co-founding partner Jim
Haliczer was appointed co-chairperson of the trial lawyers section of the Broward County Bar Association by incoming President Edwina Kessler, for a term through June 30, 2019. The trial lawyers section is meant to assist the courts in improving the administration of justice, to promote the art of advocacy and to preserve and protect the jury system. Haliczer focuses his practice in medical and legal malpractice, personal injury, wrongful death, commercial and construction litigation.
Finance
Jaime Montalvan was promoted to relationship manager at Bank Leumi USA in Aventura. Previously, he was an associate relationship manager, and he has been with the bank since June 2016. Melinda Perrier has been named area executive for First Citizens Bank in Southeast Florida, where the bank has seven branches in the market. Perrier, based in Fort Lauderdale, joined First Citizens as a commercial banker in Austin, Texas, in 2014. Before that, she was consumer sales director for Regions Bank overseeing retail, small business and mortgage sales for 12 branches. She was also a district manager and financial sales leader at Wachovia Bank where she opened 22 financial centers. Ocean Bank announced new additions to its wealth management Ocean Financial Services subsidiary; Joining from EFG International are Mario Fernandez, Alexandra Rumié, Henry De Valle, Daniel Cabrera and Maria Luisa De Jesus. Fernandez joins as senior vice president; Rumié oversees the team’s family office offering; De Valle focuses on portfolio investment analysis and Cabrera and De Jesus join as investment analysts.
Automotive
Julio Piti has been appointed Neighborhood Fuel's director of strategic initiatives. Neighborhood Fuel is a Miami-based app that delivers gas to customers at work and residential complexes. It fuels up your parked car at various communities and companies in Miami-Dade, and is expanding to Broward and West Palm Beach. In the past, Piti worked at CareerSource Florida, and before that spent more than a decade with the Miami-Dade Beacon Council.
Business development
The Economic Council of Palm Beach County has appointed Michele Jacobs as president and chief executive officer, replacing Michael DeBock, who joined the organization one year ago and has stepped down to accept a newly created position with Florida Power & Light Co. Jacobs joined the Economic Council in 2017 as chief strategy officer.
Port
Port Everglades has appointed Robert Jenkins to port security manager, a promotion from security compliance manager. Jenkins joined the Port staff in 2013. Before Port Everglades, he was a senior marine terminals operations representative for the Port of New York/New Jersey. He also was the facility security officer for the New Jersey Marine Terminals and managed a 24-hour operations control center.
Wellness
Canine Assisted Therapy in Oakland Park has named Courtney Trzcinski as its executive director. She was director of resource development and for the past five years has had multiple roles at the nonprofit organization.
Architectural
International planning, architecture, engineering and interiors firm Leo A Daly has promoted
Michael Schmidt to lead its food, distribution and manufacturing design practice in the southeast region, based out of the firm’s West Palm Beach office.
Logistics
Miami-Based Comet Delivery Services, a transportation and delivery company, has appointed Samantha and Dustin Oaks to anchor its new Stuart facility, which doubles the company’s footprint, providing specialized local and national shipping services to the Martin, Indian River, Okeechobee, St. Lucie and Palm Beach counties. Samantha Oaks is director of operations and her husband, Dustin Oaks, is director of business development. Samantha Oaks is the daughter of Steven Seltzer, company founder, president and chief executive officer of Comet Delivery Services.
Cultural
Palm Beach Opera announced the recent appointments of three vice presidents to its board of directors for the company’s upcoming season. They are: Jeffrey Alderton, who was appointed to the board of directors during Palm Beach Opera’s 2017-2018 season, a senior partner with Deloitte Consulting; Sanford Fisher, CEO of Media Access Corp., who was reappointed to the board of directors during the company’s 2017-2018 season, will now serve as another vice president of the board; and David Genser, owner of Genser Insurance, which specializes in fine arts and personal insurance worldwide.
Recognition
Nan Meehan, ABB Optical Group vice president of eyewear has been recognized as one of the “Most Influential Women in Optical” by Vision Monday, an optical trade publication. The annual list honors women who make a difference in the optical industry through their leadership, talent and innovative ideas. Meehan is responsible for overseeing the company’s strategic direction and development of ABB Optical’s eyewear division and its Primary Eyecare Network (PEN), as well as sales efforts for the company’s Digital Eye Lab (DEL) Network. Additionally, Meehan is the 2018 membership committee vice chair for the Optical Women’s Association. She also is involved in the Vision Council’s mentoring program and is regularly a guest speaker at optical industry event. Headquartered in Coral Springs, ABB Optical Group is a national distributor of optical products including brandname contact lenses, custom specialty contact lenses, ophthalmic lenses, eyeglass fabrication and business-building tools.