Banking & Finance
Rylander, Clay & Opitz LLP promoted Donna Mayes and Robert Simpson from senior audit manager to partner. They both started their careers in the audit department at RCO in 2003. Mayes was a parks and recreation board member for the city of Benbrook from 2008-2013 and has served on the board of Cancer Care Services since 2008, where she was president in 2013. Simpson is an executive and finance committee member at ACH Child and Family Services and is board chairman of the ACH Foundation.
Boards & Organizations
The Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology named Regina Smith, organizational development manager at Freese and Nichols Inc. in Fort Worth, to the board of examiners for the 2015 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Wendy Shabay, vice president and manager of Freese and Nichols’ Urban Planning and Design Group, has been elected to the national board of the American Planning Association. Shabay will serve as an APA director for Region III, which includes Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico and South America.
Energy
Epic Lift Systems LLC appointed David Nemeskal as CEO. Nemeskal had been a vice president of Intervale Capital, Epic’s majority stakeholder, since June 2011. During his tenure with Intervale, he managed several investments, including Epic, Aegis Chemical Solutions LLC and Antelope Oil Tools. Prior to Intervale, Nemeskal co-founded and served as CEO of a social media marketing firm and was a vice president at Fidelity Equity Partners. He also was an investment banker in Lehman Brothers’ retail and consumer products group.
Government
Aubrey D. Thagard will be the new Neighborhood Services Department director for the city of Fort Worth. The department administers grant-based housing, community development and human services programs aimed at improving Fort Worth neighborhoods. Since July 2014, Thagard has been a principal at Marlboro Policy Advisors, a consulting firm specializing in economic development, transportation and public policy development in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Previously, he was assistant deputy chief administrative officer in Prince George’s County, Maryland, where he directed the economic development and public infrastructure cluster of 11 county departments and independent agencies. For more than eight years, he served in the District of Columbia Government Office of Planning. Thagard is expected to start work in Fort Worth on Nov. 30.
Health Care
Ben Coogan is the new chief operating officer at Medical Center Arlington. Previously, Coogan led the market leadership efforts for Cigna’s network and contracting functions in North Texas and Oklahoma. He also was assistant vice president of Medical City and Medical City Children’s Hospital in Dallas. Coogan also had operations and practice management roles with the Baylor Scott & White System, including as a regional practice administrator with the HealthTexas Provider Network.
Honors & Awards
University of Texas at Arlington physicist David Nygren, a member of the National Academy of Science, is one of two recipients of a new instrumentation award from the American Physical Society for his widespread and lifelong contributions in the field of particle physics. Nygren is the Presidential Distinguished Professor of Physics in UT Arlington’s College of Science. He developed the Time Projection Chamber in 1974 to enable accurate and complete capture of results when high-energy particles collide.
Erayne Gee Hill, vice president of marketing at Unity One Credit Union, has been named an industry “Rock Star” by Credit Union Magazine. Gee Hill was one of 49 credit union employees nationwide who received this designation. Her marketing efforts for the recent “Don’t Get Spanked by Banks” campaign earned her the nomination from industry peer Andy Reed, president of Texas People Federal Credit Union in Fort Worth.
The city of Fort Worth recognized former Fort Worth Independent School District Coach Robert Hughes Sr. with the naming of a street in his honor. A portion of Cass Street adjacent to the east side of Dunbar High School is now known as Robert Hughes Street.
UT Arlington physics professor Kaushik De has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society for his work in developing cloud computing architectures that enabled global collaboration and big data analysis on the ATLAS experiment at CERN. CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research’s laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, is where scientists discovered the Higgs boson or “God particle” in 2012.
Rahr & Sons Brewing Co. won two gold medals at the 2015 Great American Beer Festival. The Regulator won the top prize in the German-style Doppelbock or Eisbock category, while Oktoberfest won for best German-style Marzen.
Museums
The Sid Richardson Museum named Andrea Hassenteuffel director of school and family programs. Previously, Hassenteuffel was fine arts director at Covenant Classical School, where she helped develop the fine arts department and taught studio art and design classes. Before moving to Fort Worth, she worked in Las Vegas, Nevada, as an art teacher, school curator, summer art camp instructor and after-school art instructor. A photographer and designer, she has exhibited work in London and Las Vegas and has worked with numerous contemporary artists, assisting in their studios and with site-specific works.
Real Estate
CBRE Group Inc. promoted Michael Caffey from executive managing director to president of the company’s Texas and Oklahoma division. He is also responsible for CBRE’s business in Arkansas and Louisiana. Caffey was previously the senior managing director in CBRE’s Dallas office, responsible for global corporate services, tenant representation and retail services. Before CBRE, Caffey was a senior vice president of corporate services with Trammell Crow Co. and also a vice president of tenant representation at JLL. He serves on the boards of The Real Estate Council, Downtown Dallas Inc. and the Dallas Regional Chamber.
Champions DFW Commercial Realty LLC added two seasoned sales and leasing associates, Lavon Herring and Trisha Williams. Both worked for Keller Williams Realty in Southlake.
Send newsmakers to Betty Dillard at bdillard@bizpress.net
Moresi retires from North Hills Hospital
After 25 years serving North Hills Hospital, CEO Randy Moresi announced Oct. 16 that he will step down from his position.
A search for his replacement will soon be underway.
“A true example of servant leadership, Randy’s passion for his community and dedication to exceptional patient care have left an enduring mark on Northeast Tarrant County and on North Hills Hospital,” said Erol Akdamar, president of the HCA North Texas Division.
An affiliate of HCA, North Hills opened in 1961 in North Richland Hills as Glenview Hospital and is the oldest of HCA’s four Tarrant County hospitals. The current facility opened in December 1983.
Moresi began his career with HCA as the human resources director at De Tar Hospital in Victoria in 1981. He served as vice president of operations at South Arlington Medical Center before joining North Hills in May 1990.
Moresi has helped guide the 164-bed, Joint Commission-accredited hospital through numerous expansions in both services and building projects. Under his leadership, North Hills became the first hospital in the nation to have a Cycle 4 Chest Pain Center and the first in Northeast Tarrant County to have an O-Arm navigation system for computer-assisted spine surgery. The hospital, which specializes in joint replacement and cardiac care, also achieved Primary Stroke Center certification.
Moresi oversaw the development of the Texas Pediatric Surgery Center on the North Hills Hospital campus, one of the first dedicated outpatient pediatric surgery centers in the country, as well as the Calloway Creek Surgery Center and the Dr. David Pillow Senior Clinic, Tarrant County’s longest-operating senior specialty clinic.
Most recently, Moresi helped develop the ER at Alliance in 2011, which evolved into the full-service hospital Medical Center Alliance.
Active in the community, Moresi serves on the boards of HCA Hope Fund, Northeast Tarrant Chamber of Commerce, MidCities Pregnancy Clinic, Fort Worth/TCU Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the North Richland Hills Economic Development board. He previously was chairman of DFW Hospital Council and the Community Enrichment Center, and served on the boards of North Texas SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), Birdville Independent School District Foundation and Northeast Leadership Forum.
The city of North Richland Hills dedicated a new walking trail adjacent to the North Hills Hospital campus in Moresi’s name.