Advertising, Marketing & Public Relations Jamie Fisher has been promoted to associate creative director at the Balcom Agency. She brings more than 15 years of creative strategy and copywriting experience to this new role, a first for the agency. Her work for such clients as Justin Boots, USMD Health System, PCCA, Cook Children’s and Pediatric Eye Specialists has won numerous industry awards, including Best of Show at the Fort Worth ADDY Awards and Best of Show at the national Healthcare Advertising Awards. In her new position, Fisher will help direct multi-media campaigns for clients and provide guidance to the agency’s creative teams.
Aviation Elbit Systems of America LLC, a subsidiary of Elbit Systems Ltd., named Chris Hickey vice president of its Services & Support Solutions. With more than 25 years of experience in aerospace and technology industries including a diverse background in defense, civil, and international markets, Hickey will oversee Elbit’s aircraft modernization and sustainment facility in San Antonio, its product support sites in Fort Worth and in Woensdrecht, Netherlands, and logistics support and obsolesce management center in Talladega, Ala. Hickey is also responsible for customer service and product support related to the Merlin and Metro commuter aircraft.
Banking & Finance Trevor Baker joined Southwest Bank’s Midtown location as vice president-commercial lender, bringing more than eight years of banking industry experience in the Dallas-Fort Worth market. Prior to Southwest Bank, Baker served as vice president of BB&T’s Tarrant County market and as relationship manager at BBVA Compass in Arlington. Baker serves as an active volunteer for the Panther Club, is a member of the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo greeting committee, and is an assistant chairman for the Crowne Plaza Invitational. Baker is also a board member at the Tarrant County Bankers Association. Michael Backman, a new hire at Mason Joseph Company Inc., will open an Arlington-based origination office with a focus on multifamily loans including FHA-insured debt. Backman joins MJC after previously serving as the Fort Worth multifamily hub director for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and most recently as the managing director of a Denver-based FHA lender.
Boards & Organizations Curtis B. Beitel, professional associate and water resources program manager at HDR Inc., has been elected president of the Texas Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers for the 2014-2015 fiscal year.
Education Shelly Frank is the new director of development at UNT Health Science Center. Frank spent the last seven years as director of leadership gifts at the University of Texas at Arlington. She previously had development positions at the James L. West Alzheimer Center, Trinity Valley School, All Saints Episcopal School and Texas Wesleyan University.
Health Care Drs. Megan Gillem, Rachel Huston and Sameer Singh joined USMD Affiliated Services. Gillem will practice at USMD’s Flower Mound Clinic. She completed her residency in family medicine at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and her doctorate at University of North Texas Health Science Center College of Osteopathic Medicine. Huston will practice at USMD’s Fort Worth Clinic. She completed her fellowship in rheumatology at Franciscan St. James Health, her residency in internal medicine at Plaza Medical Center of Fort Worth and her doctorate at Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine. Singh will practice at USMD’s Cleburne Urology Clinic. He completed his medical degree and his residency in urology at University of Texas Medical Branch.
Honors & Awards The National Multiple Sclerosis Society presented Dr. James Barry with a certificate designating him as a Partner in MS Care. Barry has more than 200 patients in Bedford and the surrounding communities that are diagnosed with MS. He and his staff at Kane Hall Barry have partnered with the National MS Society to further their commitment to the treatment and welfare of everyone impacted by the disease. Kane Hall Barry has participated in Walk MS for seven years. Barry is the first neurologist of Kane Hall Barry to receive the designation as a Partner in MS Care. W. Ashley Griffith, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Texas at Arlington, has been awarded up to $400,000 from the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program to study how rock structures react to events such as earthquakes, meteor impacts and explosions. Griffith also will use the grant to partner with Teach for America Dallas-Fort Worth to create the TFA Geocorps. His project will involve secondary school teachers in research and provide them with geophysics-based curriculum for their classrooms. Grapevine Craft Brewery brought home a gold medal from the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colo., Oct. 2-4. The brewery placed first in the English Brown Ale category for its Sir William’s English Brown Ale. There were more than 5,000 entries for the awards, and the winners were selected by a panel of more than 200 judges. The craft brewery broke ground at 924 Jean St., Grapevine, in September and is expected to be open by February. Plans include a two-story tasting room and an outside area, and will feature beers the company has not distributed anywhere else. First American Payment Systems received the Independent Bankers Association of Texas President’s Award for going above and beyond in serving the community banking industry and IBAT members. This is the first time a company has been honored with the award. The Greater Fort Worth Builders Association honored Scott Sandlin of Sandlin Homes with the 2014 Builder of the Year Award. The award is based on service and commitment to the association, the building industry and the community as a whole. Sandlin was named developer of the year in 2004.
Send newsmakers to Betty Dillard at bdillard@bizpress.net
UT Arlington College of Business promotes three The University of Texas at Arlington College of Business recently appointed Greg Frazier – to associate dean for faculty and research, Chandra Subramaniam to associate dean for students and programs and David A. Mack to associate dean for executive education and communication. Frazier, professor of operations management, joined UT Arlington in 1997 as assistant professor of operations management. He has since served as MBA program director, Ph.D. program director, interim chairman of the Marketing Department, and chairman of the Information Systems and Operations Management Department. Frazier has taught courses on operations management, project management, operations planning and control, and management science, to undergraduate, MBA, and Executive MBA students locally and in China and Venezuela. Prior to joining UT Arlington, Frazier spent seven years on the faculty at the University of Oregon and one year on the faculty at Texas A&M University. He has served as a Faculty Fellow at the Boeing Corporation in Renton, Wash., and has taught in Harvard Summer School at Harvard University. Subramaniam, professor of accounting, was promoted to associate dean after serving as chairman of the Accounting Department since 2008. He joined the accounting faculty at UTA in 2003 after a 10-year stint at Texas Christian University. Subramaniam has primarily taught financial and managerial accounting in the undergraduate and graduate programs as well as several programs in China. Prior to academia, he worked as a process engineer and material superintendent for National Semiconductors in Malaysia. Mack joined UTA in 1997 and prior to his promotion was assistant dean of the College of Business. He is the director of the Goolsby Leadership Academy and also manages the college’s domestic Executive MBA program. Mack teaches undergraduate and graduate courses at UT Arlington as well as the college’s EMBA programs in Fort Worth and China. His teaching specializes in leadership, management consulting, applied research, ethics, management, and organization behavior. Mack has had extensive management experience in the insurance and financial services industry. He worked for Allstate Insurance Co. for more than 18 years as a senior manager in the systems, accounting and operations areas. He is vice president and financial officer of C. J. Weeks Inc., an insurance and financial services marketing/management business located in Irving that manages 40 insurance agencies in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Â