Newsmakers: Quorum Architects makes additions

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

ADVERTISING/MARKETING

Balcom Agency has added Andrew Begay  as senior project manager. Begay previously served as account manager and project manager for Produce Results, an advertising and branding firm based in Denton.

Andrew Begay

He brings more than eight years of experience in marketing campaigns and production for former clients including Dickies (Williamson-Dickie Manufacturing Company), PenTex Energy, First State Bank, Burrows Law Group, Fannin Tree Farm and multiple clients in the veterinary space.

Begay has joined the agency’s project management team to oversee integrated projects across multiple brands including Sinclair Oil Corporation and Smith+Nephew (Advanced Wound Management). He will also manage project timelines, track budgets and move work efficiently through the agency.

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ARCHITECTURE/DESIGN

Zack Spero

Zack Spero  has joined Quorum Architects as a full-time member of the municipal design team. He had interned with the firm two years ago. Spero earned his bachelor of architecture from the Fay Jones School of Architecture & Design at the University of Arkansas in May.

Molly Middlebrook  has joined the Interior Design studio of Quorum Architects as junior designer. She is a Fort Worth native, returning to her hometown after graduating from Baylor University in May with a Bachelor of Science in Interior Design.

Molly Middlebrook
Billie Williams

Architect Billie B. Williams, AIA, CSI, LEED-GA  has joined Quorum Architects to assist with firm’s affordable housing design projects. Candice Puente  has joined Quorum Architects as Project Coordinator for their affordable housing design team. Williams comes following a 42 year tenure with Cameron Alread, Architect Inc. (CAAI), where he focused on construction administration. Quorum recently assumed the workload of CAAI. Puente also comes from local firm CAAI, where she worked since 2001. Quorum recently assumed the workload of CAAI.

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Candice Puente

Quorum and the CAAI staff have been working together for the past three years to serve housing authorities in Texas as Cameron Alread prepared for retirement. Quorum assumed the affordable housing business and two staff members in the merger, finalized in March.

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BANKING/FINANCE

Simmons Bank has named Kent Eastman  executive vice president and Texas Division president. Eastman’s responsibilities will range from overseeing business development and brand awareness to driving community engagement.

The decision to place a local commercial banking leader at the helm of Simmons’ Texas markets follows on the heels of a 2019 naming rights agreement the bank inked with Dickies Arena for the Simmons Bank Plaza and Pavilion, the bank said in a news release.

Affiliated Bank has promoted Corey Doyle  to Director of Commercial Real Estate to head and oversee the strategy and growth of the bank’s commercial real estate efforts throughout the bank’s markets, the bank said in a news release.

Doyle obtained a master of business administration degree with an emphasis in finance from the University of Texas at Arlington, where he also earned a bachelor’s degree in finance.

He has been active in many civic and non-profit organizations including The Parenting Center, Arlington Chamber of Commerce, Kenya Kids Can, Habitat for Humanity, Jewel Charity Golf Fundraiser and Bethesda Christian School.

Whitley Penn has announced that Mike Herman has joined the firm as Chief Operating Officer. Herman earned both his BBA and MBA from Texas Christian University. He is a Certified Public Accountant and has served as an adjunct professor in the College of Business Administration at the University of Texas at Arlington. He is a member of the American Institute of Certificated Public Accountants, Financial Executives International and the Council of Petroleum Accountants Societies.

Regions Bank has announced that Tyrus Sanders  will serve as Dallas-Fort Worth Market Executive and Commercial Banking Leader for the Metroplex. Sanders is a financial industry veteran of 30 years, and most recently served as Regions’ Small Business Administration Director.

Sanders led the bank’s Government and Institutional Banking group after arriving at Regions in 2004. Previously, Sanders served as a Business Banking Executive for U.S. Bank, where he led a team of more than 50 bankers across the Midwest.

Sanders succeeds Brad Campbell  as Market Executive. Campbell has transitioned to a new role as Corporate Banking Regional Executive, leading the delivery of financial services to business clients across large portions of Texas and Louisiana.

Origin Bank has announced that Susan Ascoy has joined the company’s North Texas team as a vice president, treasury management officer.

Ascoy has nearly 14 years of banking experience specializing in treasury management and business development for commercial, wealth management, and international banking, Origin said in the announcement.

CONSTRUCTION

TDIndustries has promoted Chris Rogers to Fort Worth Vice President of Special Projects. Rogers is a 16-year Partner and has been a steady presence: He was one of the pillars that helped grow TD’s Fort Worth office, the company said in a news release.

EDUCATION

The TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine has named Dr. Kelly Pagidas, MD-CM, MA, FACOG, FRCSC, its academic chair of Medical Education.

Pagidas previously served as a professor adjunct and Division Director of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Alabama Birmingham School of Medicine in Birmingham, Alabama.

As academic chair, she will oversee faculty recruitment and retention in her department, among other responsibilities.

TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine associate professor Amber Heck, Ph.D., has been chosen as the 2020 recipient of the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) Early Career Award for Excellence in Teaching and Innovation.

The award honors an IAMSE member who has made significant innovations, particularly with respect to teaching, in the short time they have focused their careers toward enhancing teaching, learning and learner assessment, according to their website.

The Northwest ISD Education Foundation Board of Directors has approved Jennifer Burton  to lead the foundation as its new executive director effective July 13.

In addition to her work on the foundation board, Burton held similar positions as the director of corporate development for the Tarrant Area Food Bank and the Dallas-based nonprofit Dwell with Dignity. Prior to that, she was the executive director for Speedway Children’s Charities, a neighboring nonprofit whose mission is to support children in need in Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant counties.

ENGINEERING

Freese and Nichols Inc. Vice President/Principal Alfred Vidaurri Jr.,  FAIA, NCARB, AICP, was elected first vice president/president-elect of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) at the organization’s 2020 Annual Business Meeting.

Vidaurri will become the first Latino president of the organization, which facilitates licensure and credentialing of architects, in June 2021, Freese and Nichols said in a news release.

HONORS/AWARDS

The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Inc. (CBCF) announced July 9 that Tonya Veasey, communications and marketing agency founder, and CEO of Open Channels Group (OCG+), will lead the organization as its new president and chief executive officer.

Laura Miller  has been elected to serve as a member of Chi Omega’s Governing Council as national president for the 2020-2022 biennium. Miller is Fort Worth Market President of Veritex Community Bank. She has more than 40 years in business and banking. Miller has been involved with TCU, having served six years on the board of trustees and as a member of the Executive Committee. She has also served as president of the National Alumni Association. She has received the Alumni Service Award, the President’s Service Award, and the Outstanding Sorority Advisor Award all at TCU.

Miller has been active in the Fort Worth community, serving in various leadership positions on boards that include the Junior League, Trinity Valley School and University Christian Church, where she is currently an elder.

Denton County Public Health (DCPH) has received recognition from the National Association of County and City Health Officials’ (NACCHO) Model Practice Program as a 2020 National Promising Practice. NACCHO selected DCPH’s Diabetes Education and Case Management Program as a promising practice and recognized DCPH’s team at the 2020 NACCHO Annual Conference virtually July 7-9, 2020.

LAW

Patricia Burns Cole, previously a partner with Decker Jones PC in Fort Worth, has been named legal counsel for Texas at TFI Family Services, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization providing foster care and case management in West Texas.

NONPROFIT

The Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame Board of Directors has appointed Andrea Ruby as museum director. The Hall of Fame was founded in 1997 by Bobby and Susan Kerr of Hico to pay homage to the horsemen and women in Texas who have excelled in and out of the arena. In 2001, Holt and Jo Hickman moved the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame to the Fort Worth Stockyards to compliment the world class exhibits already located in Barn A.

The board said in the announcement that it had searched for someone educated about Western culture and lifestyle and found that in Ruby, a lifelong resident of Tarrant County and the granddaughter of Bob Wills, the “King of Western Swing.”

TECHNOLOGY

KS2 Technologies of Grapevine has hired Mike Morgan as its new director of Professional Services.