Newsmakers.

Advertising & P.R.

Cary Walker has joined the Los Angeles office of Fleishman-Hillard Inc., an international communications and consulting firm, as a senior vice president. He will be responsible for developing and implementing communications programs for clients and help build the firm's corporate communications practice in the west. Previously, Walker supervised corporate public relations for Bank of America.

Architecture

Kevin L. Hennion, a registered architect with 25 years of national and international experience, has joined Irvine-based GKK Corp. as a project architect. Hennion, who will manage GKK's projects out of the newly opened Pasadena office, has a background in project management, schematic design, and design development for institutional, commercial, educational and residential projects.

Joseph E. Bricio, Javan Nabili and Vincent Hanna Petito have all been

promoted at Leidenfrost Horowitz & Assocs., an architecture firm in Glendale. Bricio has been named principal-in-charge of community relations. Bricio headed his own firm prior to joining LHA in 1982. Nabili will provide strategic direction as principal-in-charge of the educational division in addition to responsibility for business development. Previously, he was a senior vice president with the firm. Petito is now principal-in-charge of office management and is responsible for operations focusing on administration, project management and delivery systems. He was most recently a senior vice president.

Construction

James Fogle has been promoted to chief estimator in the Glendale southwest regional office of PCL Construction Services. He will be responsible for managing department operations, overseeing bids and budgets, and employee recruitment and training. Most recently, he was a senior estimator.

Entertainment

Bill Meyerchak has joined the Music Center as chief financial officer. He will oversee the Music Center's finance & accounting, human resources and information & technology operations. Most recently he was vice president of finance and chief financial officer for Rondor Music International Inc.

Jason Netter has been named president of Kickstart Productions, a newly launched animation and visual effects production company based in North Hollywood. He will be responsible for seeking animated feature film, television, and Internet projects in Hollywood for production in China. Previously he was senior vice president of business development at Netter Digital.

Marc Shmuger and Rick Finkelstein have been promoted as a result of the restructuring of the senior management team at Universal Pictures in Universal City. Shmuger is occupying the newly created position of vice chairman and will oversee the coordination of the company's motion picture assets with all Universal divisions and throughout the Vivendi Universal sister companies. Previously, he was president, marketing. Finkelstein will be adding the responsibilities of chief operating officer to his current position as president. As president and chief operating officer, he will continue to guide the division's business operations worldwide, including business and legal affairs, home video and technology. Coming in as president, marketing is Peter Adee. In his new position, he will oversee all aspects of marketing for Universal's domestic feature film releases, including creative advertising, media, publicity, promotion, research, administration and new media. Previously, Adee was president of New Wave Entertaim ent.

Government

Catherine F. Maguire, public affairs manager of Southern California Gas Co., has been re-elected chairman of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association (VICA), a non-partisan and non-profit business advocacy organization. As chairman, Maguire will responsible for effectively managing all of the key issues facing business in the coming year including L.A. City business tax reform, the Valley Transit Zone, critical problems related to energy deregulation as well as infrastructure issues.

Charles Mink is the new public works director for the city of Calabasas. He will be responsible for overseeing the beautification, safety and maintenance of the right-of-ways, including city roads and streets, sidewalks, center medians, landscaping, curbs and gutters in addition to managing the contract and administration of capital improvement projects as well as managing the public works staff. Mink has served as the interim public works director since September of 1999.

Health Care

Hugh A. Jones has been named president of Health Net, a network model health plan in Woodland Hills. He is responsible for all operational functions at Health Net of California, including commercial and government operations, medical management, information systems, provider compliance and security. Jones previously was regional manager for the Southern California region of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals, where he oversaw restructuring and performance improvement. Also new at Health Net is Beverly Bandini, who has been named vice president of product development. In her new position, Bandini has overall responsibility for the development of a wide spectrum of new health plan products for the company's commercial, Medicare, individual and specialty products business lines. Bandini was most recently director of network development for Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood, where she developed and implemented a successful primary care strategy.

Hospitality

Hilton HHonors, the guest rewards program of Hilton Hotels Corp., has named Cathleen Lewis director of new business development. Lewis, formerly manager of new business development, will be responsible for developing strategic alliances to further brand objectives. Also appointed to new posts at the HHonors program were Eileen Mack, who was promoted to director, marketing communications and Cara Whitley, who was named director of North American marketing.

Law

David G. Andersen and Adam J. Thurston have been named partners at the Los Angeles office of Bryan Cave LLP. Andersen has been with the firm since 1997 and is a member of the corporate finance and securities, entrepreneurial, technology & commercial practice and transactions and corporate governance client service groups. Thurston joined the firm in 1992 and is a member of the commercial litigation and product liability client service groups.

Sherry M. Du Pont has returned as senior counsel to the law firm Cox, Castle & Nicholson LLP. She was most recently with Archon Group, a real estate subsidiary of Goldman, Sachs & Co., located in Dallas. While there, she represented Goldman, Sachs' private equity funds in numerous real estate transactions nationwide, including the acquisition and financing of several large commercial and multi-family portfolios.

Media

Steve Tello has been promoted to senior vice president for news at Fox Sports Net. He will be responsible for the merger of the "One Desk" news operations, comprised of Fox Sports Net's national and regional newsgathering operations. Tell joined FOX Sports Net in 1998 as vice president for news. Also promoted at Fox Sports Net is H. Read Jackson, who is now vice president of original programming. He will be responsible for overseeing all new programming, as well as heading up development of new series and specials. Previously, Jackson was an executive producer at Fox Sports Net.

Patrick Maes and Carol Ellerbrock have been named to the management team at Dick Clark Communications Inc. Maes, who has worked at Phase2Media and ABC Television, will be responsible for advertising, marketing, promotions and public relations. Ellerbrock was named sales coordinator and will handle business development efforts. DCC is the business communications unit of Burbank-based Dick Clark Productions.

Retail

Jimmy DeFrank has been appointed the new marketing director of California Car Cover Co., a retailer of custom-fit car covers and mail order automotive parts and accessories. He will be responsible for assisting in the day-to-day running of the company, as well as spearheading the company's Internet presence and operations.

Former U.S. Prosecutor in Defense Mode

FORMER Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc R. Greenberg has given up putting criminals behind bars to join Baker and Hostetler LLP where he will concentrate on intellectual property litigation, internal corporate investigations, business development and defense.

Greenberg, 41, who was named a partner, will work in the firm's litigation group. He said he was excited about the prospect of moving into a new area of the law after a decade with the government.

"The firm and I have a lot of synergy. We're both from Ohio and Baker and Hostetler has a history of government service," Greenberg said. "I hope to be able to help friends I know that are starting their own companies and to develop a practice that I'm as proud of as I was at the U.S. Attorney's Office."

Part of his new duties, representing clients accused of white-collar crimes, could potentially put Greenberg across the table for former colleagues with the U.S. Attorney, where he spent a decade as a highly-honored prosecutor.

Among his high-profile assignments as an assistant U.S. attorney, Greenberg prosecuted a Colombian money-laundering organization, a group of skinheads plotting to kill parishioners of the First A.M.E. Church of Los Angeles and coordinated an undercover operation that successfully targeted a gang member in a murder-for-hire plot.

"The U.S. Attorney's Office is probably one of the best jobs you can have in law," Greenberg said. "You get a lot of independence and you are able to wrap yourself in the flag, and when you go into court there's nothing like saying to the judge that you are there on behalf of the U.S. government."

Still, Greenberg acknowledged that financial considerations and increasingly unsettling threats, convinced him to make a change.

"When you cap someone out for their rest of their career, it can be real limiting," he said of salary limits at the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Greenberg, a Long Beach resident, is married and has a 3-year-old son. He earned his law degree from Capital University in 1985 and his bachelor's degree from Ohio State University in 1982.

Darrell Satzman