South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
Law
Berger Singerman announced that
Heidi Howard Tandy joined the firm as a partner on its dispute resolution team, in Miami.
Miami-based Reed Smith attorney Ed
uardo De la Peña Bernal was appointed president of International Association of Young Lawyers’s International Arbitration Commission for the 2019-2022 term.
Deborah Baker is joining SMGQ Law as a partner in the litigation practice group in Miami. Also, Rachel Walker is joining SMGQ Law as Of Counsel and will focus her practice on commercial litigation, with a significant emphasis on business and internet-related disputes.
Governmental
The Florida Bar added five new members to its Citizens Advisory Committee, an advisory group of 12 citizens with varied interests and backgrounds who provide two-way communication between the state’s major citizen constituencies and the Bar’s Board of Governors. The committee also helps to inform and educate the public about significant legal-justice issues. The member from South Florida is Allen Jack
son of North Lauderdale, president and chief executive officer of Triune Consulting, as well as the pastor of Ark Restoration Church International. In the past, Jackson served in the U.S. Army before his career in law enforcement working for the Pompano Beach Police Department and then the Broward Sheriff’s Office. The Citizens Advisory Committee meets three times a year, often in conjunction with Board of Governors meetings. Also, returning South Florida-based committee members include Karen Cespedes of Miami, Patience A. Burns of West Palm Beach and Vincent Cuomo of Jupiter. Two attorney members also are appointed to serve as resources for the committee, including
Diana Santa Maria of Davie.
Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis announced the appointment of Miami
Mayor Francis Suarez to the Florida Blockchain Task Force. Established this year by the Florida Legislature and housed within the Department of Financial Services, Florida’s Blockchain Task Force will study opportunities for state, county, and municipal governments to benefit from a transition to a blockchain-based system and identify ways to improve government
interaction with businesses and the public.
Development
PulteGroup hired Aimee
Craig Carlson as director of land planning and entitlement for its Southeast Florida division. Carlson began her career as a senior planner for the Palm Beach County Department of Planning, Zoning & Building. She then moved into the private sector, working for Centex Homes as director of land entitlement several years before PulteGroup acquired it. Over the next 12 years, she provided director-level services including site evaluation and acquisition, due diligence, government relations, entitlement and permitting to development and investment firms before joining PulteGroup.
Finance
Primerica Inc. promoted Maxime
Michel Avin Jr. to regional vice president, in Coconut Creek.
Professional Bank hired Joshua Sweatt as vice president and chief information security officer. He was an information technology and cybersecurity leader at the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security before joining the bank’s digital innovation center.
Community
Community Care Plan, in Sunrise, announced two new additions to its executive
team: Ken
Walters as its new senior vice president and chief operating officer and Jason Grynbaum as its senior vice president and chief financial officer.
Public relations
Julie Spechler and Marla Oxenhandler announced the formation of their own public relations and marketing communications agency, S + O Communicators, in Fort Lauderdale. Most recently, Spechler and Oxenhandler worked for several years in public relations and marketing communications for Nova Southeastern University. Before that, Spechler directed public relations for AT&T’s business and consumer operations in Florida for 29 years. Oxenhandler has held key communications roles at Memorial Healthcare System, O&G PR, Burger King Corp. and Jewish Family Service of Broward County.
Boca West Children’s Foundation appointed Pamela Weinroth as executive director. Most recently, Weinroth cofounded and served for 17 years as the chief operating officer for Freedom Medical Services in Boca Raton.
Habitat for Humanity of Broward named Thor Barraclough as its new chief program officer, in Fort Lauderdale.
Medical
John Cucuras, DDS, was appointed dental program director at the C. L. Brumback Primary Care Clinics in West Palm Beach.
Holly L. Neville, M.D., a fellowship-trained, pediatric general surgeon was named to lead the division of pediatric general surgery at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood. Neville is also associate program director of the general surgery residency of Memorial Healthcare System’s Graduate Medical Education program and conducts clinical research, often involving the treatment of pediatric tumors. Also, Neville is president of the Florida Association of Pediatric Surgeons,
Health Care District of Palm Beach County board elected Leslie B. Daniels as chair in West Palm Beach. Daniels was appointed to the Health Care District Board in May 2013 by former Gov. Rick Scott and was reappointed for a second four-year term in 2017. The Board reelected Nancy C. Banner as vice chair and Sean O’Bannon as secretary.
Maria T. Abreu, M.D., professor of medicine and microbiology and immunology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, is receiving the 2019 Sherman Prize awarded by The Bruce and Cynthia Sherman Charitable Foundation to recognize outstanding achievements in the fight to overcome Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, also known as inflammatory bowel diseases. Abreu is also the director of the University of Miami Health System Crohn’s & Colitis Center, and the only South Florida-based recipient of the prize. Also, Florian Rieder, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Inflammation and Immunity and part of the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at Cleveland Clinic, received the Sherman Emerging Leader Prize.
Retail
Rene Ruiz was named as an AT&T area retail sales manager in South Florida, in Miami. Ruiz joined the company in 2014 and held several roles, including retail sales consultant, assistant store manager, retail store manager, and most recently an area retail sales manager, in AT&T’s Ohio/Pennsylvania market.
Sports
Rachael Pierce joined the Miami HEAT and AmericanAirlines Arena as assistant counsel. She previously worked for Canon U.S.A. and CBS Broadcasting.
Real estate
Berkadia appointed Scott Wadler as managing director in the firm’s Miami office. Most recently he was a senior director of HFF’s Miami office. Additionally,
Jaret Turkell and Roberto Pesant were appointed to co-lead Berkadia’s South Florida investment sales team.
Colliers International South Florida announced that Tyler de la Pena has joined the firm as senior associate, office services, joining Team Kingsley-Rutchik, in Miami.
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