Accounting

Jay Siegel has joined the accounting firm of RBZ LLP as a principal in the auditing and consulting department. Joining him at the firm will be Michael W. Cantrill, who has been added as a manager in the auditing department.

Lawrence Swartwood, Patrizia Copping and Margaret Diaz have all been made partners at Alder Green Hasson & Janks LLP, a West Los Angeles accounting firm. Swartwood and Copping will continue their involvement in tax consultation, while Diaz will consult with the business and accounting clients. Prior to becoming partners, Diaz and Copping were both senior managers. Swartwood was a principal. Adam Hand was also promoted. He will now be a manager working in tax consulting. Formerly, he was a senior accountant at the firm.

Advertising & P.R.

Jeanne R. Berney has been promoted to senior vice president of film and digital entertainment at Rogers & Cowan, an entertainment public relations firm in Los Angeles. She will be promoting and publicizing motion pictures released domestically as well as original entertainment content and programming produced specifically for the Internet. Prior to joining Rogers & Cowan, Berney held staff positions at several independent film companies, including Rysher Entertainment.

Michael Connell has been named vice president and creative director of the print group at Pittard Sullivan, an entertainment marketing and communications company. Connell will be based in the firm’s Culver City headquarters and will supervise both client relationships and creative work for all print projects. He was president and creative director of Media Artists, a strategic communications and design firm, before accepting his new position. Connell joins Janet Levinson, who has been promoted to vice president of operations at the print group. She will supervise the administration of the print projects within the group. Levinson has been the print group manager since 1998.

Architecture

Rue T. Fort has been appointed senior associate at the Los Angeles office of Cannon Design, an architectural engineering and planning firm. Fort will be responsible for the firm’s clients in the health care industry. Previously, he was a senior associate at HOK Architects in Santa Monica.

Banking & Finance

Christine Larson has been named executive vice president in the retail banking division of First Federal Bank of California in Santa Monica. She will head the bank’s retail banking team. Larson comes to the position from Sanwa Bank, where she was responsible for consumer and small-business product management.

Jean L. Tardy-Vallernaud has joined the Los Angeles office of Julius Baer & Co. Ltd., a Swiss private banking and investment management institution, as first vice president and representative. Tardy-Vallernaud will act as deputy head of the office and will assume responsibility for business development among the legal and other professional communities including the entertainment/media industry. Previously, he was managing director of Citibank’s private bank in Los Angeles.

David Wong has been named senior vice president and manager of international banking business development at First Bank & Trust in Lakewood. Wong will be responsible for overseeing the growth and development of the bank’s trade finance portfolio. He comes to the position after being regional manager of Southern California for Pacific Bank.

Sharon Woodson-Bryant has been promoted to vice president of corporate communications at Union Bank of California in Los Angeles. In her new position she will formulate and implement communications strategies and serve as a media and community liaison for the bank’s activities in California, Oregon and Washington. Woodson-Bryant was the news bureau manager prior to her promotion.

Entertainment

Ila Dane has been appointed vice president, marketing at York/Maverick Entertainment. She will oversee the company’s marketing efforts and her first projects will include upcoming DVD re-pricing, catalog marketing, as well as marketing for upcoming titles. Dane came from Cabin Fever Entertainment, where she was senior vice president, operations and market development.

Beverly W. Macy has joined Fandom Inc., an expanded reality entertainment company, as chief marketing officer. She will spearhead marketing and sales activities at the company’s Santa Monica headquarters. Prior to joining Fandom, Macy served as executive vice president of marketing at SoftAware Networks, an Internet infrastructure company.

Judy Ranan has been named president of Landscape Television in Los Angeles. She will be responsible for all aspects of developing the division and its slate of projects for broadcast and cable television. Ranan was formerly president of Citadel Entertainment.

Daniela Welteke has been named senior vice president and head of operations for the newly created international programming and production operation, Fox World Productions. Welteke assumes all day-to-day responsibility for Fox World Productions, and will now work to create international co-production and international format opportunities on behalf of the L.A.-based Fox Television Studios. She previously served as vice president, international programming and co-production, for Fox Television Studios.

High Tech

Herman F. Cenci has been named president and CEO of MedTrak Electronics Inc., a personal tracking and medical monitoring company in Manhattan Beach. He will be leading the company in all aspects having to do with wireless tracking and medical monitoring. Cenci was promoted to the position from chief operating officer, a position he had held for nearly a year.

Law

Owen P. Gross has joined Pircher, Nichols & Meeks, a national real estate law firm, as an associate. He will be based at the firm’s headquarters in Los Angeles, and will represent clients in connection with real estate financing, acquisition and disposition transactions. Prior to joining the firm, Gross was an associate for the Century City law firm of Kulik, Gottesman & Monton LLP.

C. Dennis Loomis has been named partner at the Los Angeles and Atlanta offices of Lord, Bissell & Brook. His practice will concentrate in the areas of trial and appellate litigation and strategic business planning, with an emphasis on intellectual property and Internet law. Loomis was formerly a partner with Troop Steuber Pasich Reddick & Tobey LLP in Los Angeles.

Craig A. Moyer is joining Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP as a partner in the firm’s Los Angeles office. His background is in environmental law and his clients will include manufacturers, developers and trade associations. Moyer comes from Demetriou, Del Guercio, Springer & Moyer, where he was a name partner.

Media

Laurie Ochoa has been named editor of LA Weekly. She will have responsibility for all editorial content. Ochoa is currently executive editor of New York-based Gourmet Magazine and will officially begin her post in February 2001.

New Media

Joel Hochberg has joined the board of advisors at Los Angeles-based Adfusion, a business-to-business software and Internet applications firm. He will be responsible for assisting with Adfusion’s ongoing business strategy. Hochberg will continue to lead AdHoch consulting, a marketing consulting firm in Los Angeles.

Jeff Dos Remedios has joined LastMinuteTravel.com as an account manager. He will work in the Hermosa Beach office, where he will be involved in provider participation in the Southern California region. Dos Remedios joins LastMinuteTravel.com from Air New Zealand, where he was involved with the airline’s e-commerce department.

Reuben Sauer has been appointed senior consulting director at NextLeft, a digital strategy, branding and technology services firm. He will operate out of the firm’s Los Angeles office and will be responsible for business development initiatives, including the development and growth of technology applications. Sauer comes to the position from US Interactive, where he served as consulting director.

Nonprofits

John A. D’Elia has been appointed senior associate director for major gifts at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. He will be responsible for all major gifts from individuals, foundations and corporations. D’Elia comes to the position after serving the Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles as director of new market development.

Real Estate

Bert Dezzutti has been promoted to regional senior vice president for the Los Angeles region of Equity Office Properties Trust. He is now responsible for directing the leasing, management and operations activities of the company’s building portfolio in Southern California. Dezzutti joined Equity Office in 1997, and was most recently vice president of leasing for the company’s portfolio.

John W. McMillan has been appointed to the National Broker Advisory Board of Cushman & Wakefield Inc., an international real estate service firm. Together with the other members of the board, McMillan will help the company to achieve strategic planning objectives. He will also continue to serve as a director in Cushman & Wakefield’s industrial brokerage services group in downtown Los Angeles.

Telecommunications

Brad Mitchell has joined TelePacific Communications, a broadband telecommunications provider in Los Angeles, as senior vice president of field management. He will lead the company’s developmental and launch plans for its new market deployment and provisioning strategies. Mitchell comes to the company from Sprint PCS, where he was area vice president.