BIZ BUZZ.

Byline: -- Compiled by Ben Jauron

City National Bank announced that Simi Valley resident Monika Rye has joined its Encino banking office as vice president and manager. Rye will oversee delivery of the bank's financial products and services and manage the office's customer service and business development efforts. She had served as vice president and manager of City National's Glendale office since 2000.

Duncan Lemmon, principal at Sherman Oaks-based commercial real estate provider Lee and Associates, recently signed a 14,000-square-foot lease valued at $963,000 with Regency Theatres for a property at the intersection of Beverly and Fairfax boulevards in L.A.

Attorney Kira S. Vincze has opened an estate planning and trust admini- stration law firm in Woodland Hills at 21031 Ventura Blvd. No. 803. Before starting her own firm, Vincze worked for 12 years with Doron M. Tisser, first as a paralegal and then as a partner at Tisser & Vincze LLP.

Tamar Technologies of Newbury Park earned a National Science Foundation grant to research new ways of measuring the thickness of semiconductor silicon wafers and the depth of trenches. The technology will enable scientists to study deep trenches without resorting to the current, destructive method of cutting samples across the trench or the use of expensive electron microscopes.

Starz Media has hired former Daily News Entertainment Editor Jonathan Taylor as its vice president of publicity. Taylor left the Daily News in 1992 to become the managing editor of Daily Variety, where he worked until 2001. Before coming to Starz, Taylor worked for the public relations firm the Lippin Group.

Groundlings Theatre has named Dan Fishbach its executive director. Before coming to Groundlings, Fishbach was chairman of performing arts at Harvard-Westlake High School in Studio City for six years. Fishbach has 17 years of theater experience, and as executive director, he will oversee the theater's daily operations and work closely with the company and the board of directors.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) MONIKA RYE

(2 -- color) KIRA VINCZE