Newsmakers: Southside adds new commercial lending leader

Southside adds new commercial lending leader

Southside Bank has named Mark Drennan executive vice president for commercial lending for the North Texas region.

Drennan joins the team to expand and develop new commercial and health care banking relationships in Dallas-Fort Worth and throughout Texas. With more than 17 years of banking experience, he has worked in commercial banking, managed a commercial real estate group and started and managed a health care banking team.

“The addition of Mark allows us to further expand our reach in new ways and through different markets. We know he will be able to grow and develop the bank’s commercial business, particularly in the health care segment,” said Tim Carter, regional president in North Texas. “Our goal is to be the commercial bank of choice in this community. We are so pleased to have an experienced banker like Mark join Southside.”

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Drennan previously was board chairman for Leadership Fort Worth. He also served on the Vision Fort Worth Advisory Council (part of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce), the Texas Health Resources Research and Education Council and the Board of Directors for the Fort Worth Metropolitan YMCA. He is also active in the National Investment Center for Senior Housing and the Healthcare Financial Management Association.

Drennan, a Fort Worth area native, has a bachelor’s degree in business administration and an MBA, with a concentration in finance and real estate, both from Texas Tech University. He graduated from the Stonier Graduate School of Banking at the University of Pennsylvania, one of the top banking schools in the country.

Southside Bancshares Inc., the holding company for Southside Bank, is headquartered in Tyler and has about $5.6 billion in assets, Southside operates 60 banking facilities in East, North and Central Texas.

Granger names retired navy captain as chief of staff

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U.S. Rep. Kay Granger (R-Fort Worth), chairmanof the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, has hired retired Navy Capt. Eric Wiese as chief of staff.

Johnnie Kaberle will remain as Granger’s deputy chief of staff and lead on defense appropriations issues. Kaberle has served on Capitol Hill since 1994 and has spent two decades working on national security and appropriations issues.

Granger said Wiese has more than 20 years of leadership as a Navy officer, including service as deputy director of the Navy Appropriations Liaison Office at the Pentagon to her staff.

Wiese graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1990 and holds graduate degrees from the U.S. Naval War College and the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School.

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“He has vast experience in forming legislative strategy and in appropriations work. He will be invaluable to my work as we look to increase our investment in defense after years of decline during the Obama administration,” Granger said in a news release.

MedStar medical director wins state recognition

Dr. Neal Richmond, the medical director for MedStar Mobile Healthcare and the 14 first-response organizations that are part of the MedStar EMS System, was named the EMS Medical Director of the Year at the annual Texas EMS Conference.

Richmond was cited for his leadership in enhancing the state of pre-hospital care within the service area of MedStar Mobile Healthcare, the North Texas region and nationally.

The award recognizes efforts to enhance provider credentialing, quality improvement and training and education for the more than 2,200 emergency medical technicians and paramedics in the 15 cities that make up the MedStar system.

Richmond led the effort to update medical protocols for the EMS system, providing an increase scope of practice for basic providers and a focused advanced level of treatment for the first responder organizations.

Also considered in making the award was a comprehensive set of protocols for MedStar’s nationally recognized Mobile Integrated Healthcare program that is designed to improve patient outcomes and reduce the preventable use of 911 emergency service and hospitalizations.

Richmond is an active member of the U.S. Metropolitan Municipalities EMS Medical Directors Consortium and the National Association of EMS Physicians. He is a frequent contributor for many national EMS journals.

– FWBP Staff

BOARDS AND ORGANIZATIONS

John Forestner, chairman of the Multicultural Alliance, has announced the nine board members for 2017. They are Sally Burt, Rebekah Carlile, Fernando Costa, Kim Cummings, Marilyn Englander, JoAnn Jensen, Karen Telschow Johnson, Ayesha Sayany Shafi and Mary Hallman Smith. The Multicultural Alliance traces its lineage to 1951 as a member of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Today, the mission is to build inclusive communities by bringing groups together for shared experiences and educational opportunities with the goal of reducing bias, bigotry and oppression in the community.

HEALTH CARE

SteadMed Medical has promoted Jay Heitz to a new position in the company, region sales director, West Region. He will continue to support the growth and expansion plans of SteadMed Medical. Heitz joined the company in 2013. He is a graduate of Texas A&M University.

HONORS AND AWARDS

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) awarded its highest individual honor, the Gold Anvil Award, to Douglas Ann Newsom. The award was presented at the PRSA 2016 International Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana.

With more than 40 years of experience in public relations and education, Newsom is a trailblazer who set many firsts, including the first woman to win PRSA’s Educator of the Year Award in 1982, the first public relations educator to be president of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in 1985, and the first recipient of the Educator of the Year award from the Public Relations Foundation of Texas in 2008. She taught journalism and public relations at Texas Christian University for many years.

“Public relations has been my career path as long as I can remember. Many colleagues guided that path, offered advice and wise counsel,” said Newsom. “Doing the same for others is what I try to do through LinkedIn, articles, textbooks and during conferences. My mantra at TCU was ‘the most important part of your education was learning how to learn.'”

Newsom is active in several national and international associations including PRSA, College of Fellows, the International Communication Association, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, the Society for Professional Journalists and the International Public Relations Association, where she served on a committee that developed the 2011 IPRA Codes of Conduct.

Newsom also is the Stephen Minister Group Leader for Trinity Episcopal Church.

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

Zan Miller is the new president of the Principal Management Group (PMG) of North Texas, an Associa company. He joins the Associa family from the hotel industry and will be overseeing branch operations and customer relations for PMG North Texas’ offices in Fort Worth and Dallas.

Miller wa in the hospitality industry for more than 30 years, most recently in the Houston market as the director of revenue for a major hotel and resort company. He educated hotel teams about profit optimization at some of the largest resort chains in the United States such as Starwood, Harrah’s, Foxwoods and Omni.

Send newsmakers to Robert Francis at rfrancis@bizpress.net