Announcements.

Bankers

Jorge Garcia has been named vice president and director of training and organizational development at Kislak National Bank in Miami Lakes, Fla. Garcia came from Ocean Bank, where he was training director.

Financial Services

Lawrence E. Doran, formerly vice president of major accounts for BISYS Information Systems, has joined Houston-based Pinnacle Financial Strategies as chief relationship officer and director of marketing Among other appointments, William C. Bracken, CPA has been named chief financial officer, and David D. Mann has been named national sales director. Bracken previously served as chief financial officer, treasurer and chief accounting officer for a $2 billion bank. Mann most recently was district sales manager for Nortel Networks.

Service Providers

FutureBrand, an international brand consulting firm, has appointed Carol Parish as executive director of the firm's financial and professional services practice. Parish comes from The Deal, LLC, where she was vice president for marketing. FutureBrand, part of the Interpublic Group, is based in New York with 28 offices in 17 countries.

Bill Grogan was appointed to the new position of national category director for BannerDirect, a full-service direct marketing agency based in New York. His responsibilities will include generating new client relationships, with a specialization in the insurance industry.

Bart Duffy was named sales executive with PrimeNet Marketing Services of St. Paul, Minn. Duffy will be responsible for business development, focusing on national accounts, and with the health care and bank markets.

Alyce Piper was appointed vice president for sales and business development for OneCore Financial Network, a provider of e-finance programs for financial institutions. She is in charge of OneCore's West Coast initiative. Previously, she was vice president for sales and marketing at ReSourcePhoenix.com in San Rafael, Calif.

Jim Green, formerly vice president and deposit products manager at Compass Bank in Alabama, was named vice president, business development, at Specialty Direct Marketing Inc. of Annapolis, Md.

BISYS has completed its acquisition of Boston Institutional Group, a provider of outsource services for mutual fund complexes. The acquisition adds about 30 major mutual fund complexes to the BISYS platform. BISYS has also acquired The Insurance Exchange of America Inc., an insurance brokerage. The acquisition is intended to increase BISYS's marketing presence in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Digital Insight Corp. signed an agreement to provide its AXIS Internet banking and cash management systems to Intrieve Inc., a data-processing vendor for community banks. Intrieve's clients include 150 banks in 23 states, with more than $13 billion in assets. Digital Insight has also signed an agreement with Yodlee Inc. of Redwood Shores, Calif., to offer Yodlee's account-aggregation program to Digital Insight's 1,300 financial institution clients.

edocs Inc. of Natick, Mass., has joined in a strategic alliance with Spectrum EBP of Atlanta to offer Spectrum's electronic presentment and payment system to connect billers and customers. Both Spectrum and edocs are owned by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., First Union Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. Spectrum, which was formed to facilitate electronic bill and payment exchanges, now counts 22 institutions on its network, including those that have signed letters of intent.

American Management Systems has signed a joint marketing agreement with Exchange-America LLC to sell an online automatic annuity application for the insurance and financial services industries. The Exchange-America software leads insurance representatives through a series of choices, checks that applications are complete and then forwards the information to a variety of interfaces, including the National Securities Clearing Corp.'s insurance processing service.

Waussau Financial Systems and the Teradata division of NCR Corp. announced plans for Waussau to offer Teradata's data-warehousing programs to the community bank market. Previously, the companies said, the programs were available only to top-tier financial institutions. The agreement is an outgrowth of a long-standing alliance between the companies.

AOL-Time Warner entered a multiyear strategic marketing alliance with H&R Block to offer the latter's tax services through the online AOL Online Tax Center. H&R Block wilt also promote AOL's software through its nationwide retail offices.

Good Deeds

Beneficial Savings Bank of Philadelphia is offering parents of kindergarten pupils in 24 local schools $25 reimbursements toward the cost of newly mandated school uniforms this year. Through the bank's KinderBucks program, $40,000 has been made available at six bank offices that service low- to moderate-income Philadelphia neighborhoods. The funds are available to parents of students at 14 public schools and 10 Catholic parochial schools. This is the program's second year. Beneficial, founded in 1853, has assets of $1.9 billion and operates 35 offices in greater Philadelphia.