Newsmakers.

Accounting

Michael E. Wilford has been named partner at King, King, Alleman & Jensen in Burbank. He specializes in tax, audit and quality control matters. Wilford was previously an associate.

Advertising & P.R.

Peter Bemis has been promoted to partner and chief executive at Frankfurt Balkind West, a Los Angeles-based agency specializing in entertainment advertising, identity and branding. He will oversee all day-to-day operations. Bemis was previously president and creative director.

Carolyn Rae Cole has been named vice president of business development at Century DR, an advertising and marketing firm in Santa Monica. She will be responsible for developing new business. Cole was most recently vice president of marketing and general counsel at MaxCell Bioscience Inc.

Mitchell Rubenstein has been promoted to president of the interactive division at the Cimarron Group, a Hollywood-based provider of advertising and marketing for the entertainment industry. He will oversee the strategic and fiscal direction of the division. Rubenstein was previously vice president and executive producer.

Architecture

Charles Warner Oakley has been named associate partner at Altoon & Porter in Los Angeles. He will be responsible for expanding the institutional and university client roster. Oakley was previously campus architect at UCLA.

Banking & Finance

Brian J. McCarthy has been named managing director and general counsel at Pacific Capital Group, a private merchant banking firm in Los Angeles. He specializes in mergers and acquisitions. McCarthy was most recently a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

Construction

Tony Perez has been named vice president and director of estimating services at Oltmans Construction Co. in Whittier. He will oversee all estimating, budgeting and value engineering. Perez was most recently chief estimator. Also, Dan Schlothan has been appointed vice president. He will oversee all accounting efforts. Schlothan was most recently controller.

Entertainment

Robb Dalton has been named president of Fireworks Television USA in Los Angeles. He will oversee all day-to-day operations. Dalton was most recently senior vice president of CBS Enterprises. Also, Daniel Tibbets was named vice president of entertainment. He will oversee all development efforts. Tibbets was previously vice president at Papazian Hirsch Entertainment.

Michael Riley has been named vice president of marketing at Sony Pictures Consumer Products in Culver City. He will oversee worldwide development, implementation and management of marketing and brand planning. Riley was most recently director of marketing for the licensed and character brands division at Mattel. Also, Paige Brown was named director of marketing. She will be responsible for marketing all theatrical and syndicated television properties worldwide. Brown was previously product manager of licensed brands at Mattel.

Andrea Taylor has been named senior vice president of on-air promotions and interstitials at Disney/ABC Cable Networks. She will oversee development and production of all on-air promotions and packaging for Disney Channel, Toon Disney, SoapNet and One Saturday Morning. Taylor was most recently senior vice president of creative services at TNT. Also, Wendell Foster was appointed vice president of scheduling and planning. He will be responsible for day-today scheduling functions and long-form programming of the Disney Channel. Foster was most recently executive director of program planning and scheduling at ABC Entertainment. In addition, Lou Fazio has been named director of scheduling and planning. He will oversee scheduling and long-range planning for Toon Disney and the planning of future network launches. Fazio was previously director of program acquisitions at USA Networks.

Health Care

David Arpin has been appointed executive director of the consulting division at IPC, a hospitalist company in North Hollywood. He will be responsible for day-to-day operations and all marketing efforts. Arpin was previously senior vice president at First Health Associates.

High Tech

Henio Arcangelli has been named chief executive at How2TV, a Los Angeles-based company that produces interactive mixed-media packages that show consumers how to operate, assemble or install recently purchased products. He will oversee all aspects of strategic development, marketing, sales, finance and production. Arcangelli was most recently vice president and general manager at Yamaha Corp. of America.

Danna Campbell has been appointed president and chief executive at iMammogram.com, a Westlake Village-based provider of computer-aided detection technology for mammograms. Campbell was most recently chief executive and chief operations officer at Capital Golf Group Inc.

Charles Nobles has been appointed chief operating officer at Pazanga, a Los Angeles-based fusion services firm that provides online and in-store commerce solutions for large retailers. He will oversee and manage all day-to-day operations and will be responsible for new business development, strategic planning and fund-raising. Nobles was most recently owner of ASD and Capri Entertainment.

Stuart Richman has been named chief information officer at DES, a media technology solutions company in Los Angeles. He will oversee day-to-day Internet functions and ensure efficient operations of software applications and platforms. Richman was most recently a partner at Arthur Andersen Business Consulting.

Post Production

Joseph Melody has been named chief executive at Pacifica Sound Group, the Burbank-based television post-production sound division of Pacifica Media Affiliates. He will oversee the sound packaging business and Echo Sound London. Melody was previously president of Echo Sound Services. Also, G. Michael Graham has been appointed president. He will oversee all editorial and stage operations and crews and will continue to serve as sound supervisor. Graham was most recently president of Echo Sound Services. In addition, Sue Jesse was named vice president. She will oversee all scheduling and packaging operations. Jesse was most recently vice president at Echo Sound. Wayne Gordon was appointed senior vice president of studio facilities. He will be responsible for the daily operation of all stage facilities and scheduling. Gordon was most recently vice president and sound director at Wilshire Stages. Timothy J. Borquez has been named president at Pacifica/Digital, another division of Pacifica Media Affiliates. He will be responsible for growth in the direct-to-video and feature animation markets. Borquez was most recently senior sound supervisor and lead mixer at Horta Editorial and Sound. Richard Ellis and Matt Preble have been named vice presidents of sales and marketing. Ellis will oversee sales growth in the area of sitcoms, animation, syndication and cable programming. He was previously vice president of sales at the Post Group. Preble will be responsible for the sales effort in the area of format television programming. He was most recently director of sales and marketing at Echo Sound.

Real Estate

Richard Davis has been appointed chief operating officer of the Southern California division at Trammell Crow Co., a commercial real estate firm in Los Angeles. He will be responsible for strategic and tactical decisions, identification of product line expansion and diversification, and overall financial targets. Davis was most recently senior managing director at Cushman & Wakefield.

Jason Frank has been promoted to vice president/controller at Western Pacific Housing in Los Angeles. He will oversee all Los Angeles and Ventura project accounting operations, create budgets and provide financial data to executive management. Frank was previously accounting manager. Also, Brent Reed has been promoted to director of forward planning. He will oversee all new Ventura and L.A. County planned housing community projects, review project conditions and feasibility studies, acquire permits and prepare all land development fee budgets. Reed was previously planning manager.

Gigg Takes Wheel of Fast-Growing Web Firm Xdrive

PAUL Gigg knows about rapid growth -- and that should come in handy in his new role as president and chief operating officer at Xdrive, a privately held Santa Monica company that provides online file management and storage space for client companies.

Since its July launch, Xdrive has gone from five employees to more than 200 while acquiring more than 5 million registered users. It has also raised more than $75 million in investments.

Gigg, a veteran of fast-growing Internet firms, wants to keep the hot tech company on the fast track.

"We've been filling out our engineering team and will be expanding our reach outside the U.S. in the future," Gigg said. "We will look to expand through acquisition."

Gigg was previously chief operating officer at San Francisco-based Critical Path, a global provider of business-to-business messaging solutions that earlier this year was named by Forbes ASAP magazine as the "best managed, fastest-growing technology company in the world."

He also served as president and chief executive at ISOCOR, a publicly traded supplier of Internet messaging and directory software solutions.

"Those companies were primarily targeting larger enterprises, which is obviously a focus for Xdrive," Gigg said. "We want to be a leader in this field with a global presence. Our focus is to provide solutions for large enterprises. We expect to go public in the next year."

Gigg said one challenge he faces at Xdrive is internal.

"It is a challenge to keep people focused and at the right level of knowledge," he said. "We are hiring people at a very rapid rate,, and it's important to help them understand where we are so that they can contribute to the overall pace."

For now, Xdrive's growth strategy is to expand domestically, with international expansion as the ultimate goal. -- Kristin Wilder