Change Ups: GZA promotes Westra to principal

Norwood, Massachusetts-based GZA GeoEnvironmental Inc. promoted environmental chemist Mark A. Westra to principal. Westra is the district office manager of GZA’s Grand Rapids office, where he is responsible for the overall development and management of that office. He had previously been a principal in Rose & Westra Inc., an environmental engineering and consulting firm which GZA acquired in 2016. Westra has more than 35 years of environmental consulting experience. His portfolio of work includes projects for industrial, commercial and municipal clients.

ACCOUNTING

Denice Pavey and Ronald Kaley joined Pennell CPA as principals.

ADVERTISING & MARKETING

Taste the Local Difference expanded its services to West Michigan with two local food coordinators, Annaliese Brown in Grand Rapids and Devon Wilson in the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek area.

ARCHITECTURE & ENGINEERING

Fishbeck, Thompson, Carr & Huber announced it acquired Sutherland, Iowa-based Northwest Consultants Inc. The acquisition brings together two privately held consulting firms rooted in infrastructure engineering services in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. NCI’s most notable projects include work with the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Toledo Public Schools and the U.S. 31 Kokomo bypass in Kokomo, Indiana. NCI was established in 1985.

TowerPinkster Architecture, Engineering, and Interior Design announced the promotion of design architect Shawn Parshall to principal.

ARTS

The Grand Rapids Public Museum announced Crystal Flash underwritten busing costs to help bring students from rural schools to visit the museum once again for the 2019-20 school year.

BANKING

Deb Maintz-Evans joined Independent Bank as a vice president, private banker, working from the bank’s Monroe Center office.

Holland-based Macatawa Bank announced Jon Pastoor joined its retail team as branch manager for its Walker office, 2750 Walker Ave. NW. Pastoor will be responsible for building and maintaining relationships with customers and driving the sales and service culture, and assist with consumer and mortgage lending, business banking and retirement planning.

BUSINESS SERVICES

Kentwood Office Furniture announced Kerry Siereveld joined the company as a sales and design associate in its Grand Rapids office.

EDUCATION

Affinity Mentoring announced it will open its fourth mentoring site at Godfrey-Lee Early Childhood Center this fall at 961 Joosten St. SW, Wyoming.

Bill Smith, a middle/high school science teacher at Grand Rapids Public Schools’ CA Frost Environmental Science Academy, recently won $1,000 from the Van Andel Education Institute to purchase a greenhouse and provide new resources for hands-on learning. The award came during VAEI’s Pitch Tank 2019, which took place July 15 and 16 after Science on the Grand: a STEAM Conference for Inquiry-Based Instruction.

Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University announced the Daniel and Pamella DeVos Foundation renewed its support of the college’s Pamella Roland DeVos School of Fashion with a gift to be disbursed in annual increments over the next five years. The renewal of support will enable the Fashion Studies program to continue to include educational experiences in fashion centers around the world in its curriculum at little or no additional cost to students, ensuring all KCAD Fashion Studies students can participate, regardless of financial means.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Grand River Commerce Inc., the bank holding company for Grandville-based Grand River Bank, qualified to trade on the OTCQX Best Market. Grand River Commerce Inc. upgraded to OTCQX from the Pink market.

FOOD & BEVERAGE

Sprinkles Donut Shop is mobile with a new food truck.

HEALTH

The American Red Cross of West Michigan selected Jon Dewey, Chemical Bank, as its board chair. Additional board members included Leon Conklin, Mercy Health – Muskegon; Jeff Dornbos, Clark Hill PLC; Lincoln Gibbs, Ferris State University; Sonya Merriweather, state of Michigan; and Dennis McKee, Consumers Energy.

LEGAL

Christopher Hoffmann joined Miller Johnson as an associate in the firm’s Grand Rapids office. He advises clients on matters related to employment practices, labor relations and litigation.

Warner Norcross + Judd LLP announced Cheryl Coutchie moved into the newly created role of director of pricing and process improvement. Coutchie will be responsible for developing a strategic pricing framework that will enable the law firm to migrate from time-based billing to value-based billing while incorporating the enhanced legal practice management needed to support it.

MANUFACTURING

CasterDepot announced it is the official supplier of RWM casters and wheels at its six nationwide stocking-sales centers.

Grand Haven-based GHSP announced the hiring of sales and marketing veteran John Major as the company’s first marketing director.

Kalamazoo-based Borroughs Corp. announced Shannon Salchert was hired as director of marketing.

MEDIA

The Midwest Automotive Media Association recently hosted the fifth annual MAMA Track Driving School at GingerMan Raceway in South Haven. CGI Motorsports led 20 automotive journalists in a track training session, covering everything from braking techniques, vehicle weight-transfer management, vision instructions and appropriate driving position.

PUBLIC SERVICE

The Rotary Club of Grand Rapids announced Neil Marchand, a partner at Miller Johnson in the law firm’s Grand Rapids office where he is the vice chair of the firm’s mental health law practice group, will serve as the club’s 2019-20 president. Marchand is the youngest person to serve in the role in the organization’s 106-year history.

RETAIL

The James Salon & Boutique, a full-service salon, medical aesthetics spa and clothing boutique, opened for business at 550 Settlers Drive, Suite 102, as part of Ada Village’s downtown development project.

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

Tetra Discovery Partners, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, announced the company’s name change to Tetra Therapeutics, which reflects its transition from a company focused on discovery research to one with multiple clinical-stage programs aimed at treating conditions that impair thought and human brain function.

TECHNOLOGY

Portage-based the InterNational Electrical Testing Association launched two new NETA Self-Paced Technical Seminars — “Overall Transformer Insulation Diagnostics: Field and Laboratory Approach” and “Understanding Partial Discharge Workshop” are available from NETA’s website at netaworld.org/learning-resources/spts.

services provider US Signal announced general availability of DRaaS for VMware, its new Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) solution running on VMware technologies. Powered by VMware vCloud Availability, the offering is a unified solution built to offer simple, more secure and cost-effective onboarding, migration and disaster recovery services for multitenant VMware clouds, so that organizations of all sizes can have their workloads protected from unexpected events.

TRAVEL & TOURISM

Experience Grand Rapids projects the economic impact of meetings and conventions brought to Grand Rapids/Kent County for August will be: Total No. of meetings: 17; total attendees: 10,557; total hotel nights: 29,770; and total estimated spending: $14,628,503.

WEBSITES

The InterNational Electrical Testing Association’s redesigned website features a cleaner, fresher design that makes accessing NETA content easier. The redesign involved updating and revisiting all existing content and, where appropriate, re-organizing it for even greater ease of access. Details: netaworld.org.