PEOPLE.

Newsmakers

Advertising & P.R.

Randy Brewer has been promoted to senior vice president at The Grizzard Agency, a marketing services group. He will be based out of the firm's Los Angeles office and will be providing strategic counsel and marketing direction for fund-raising and new business initiatives within the company. Previously, he was the company's vice president.

Rutely Conde has been promoted to senior account executive at Valencia, Perez & Echeveste, a Hispanic public relations agency in Pasadena. Conde will manage the AT&T, Disney California Adventure, and Foundation Consortium accounts.

Stephen Esbin has been hired as a vice president at Rogers & Associates, a public relations firm in Los Angeles. Esbin will provide strategic services counsel to the firm and its clients, which operate in the technology, health care, communications, packaged goods and automotive sectors. Prior to joining. Rogers & Associates, he served as director of marketing and communications for Metzmedia, a Great Britain-based Internet and international marketing services company.

Dan Osborn has been named partner in charge of the Los Angeles office of Porter Novelli Public Relations. He will be responsible for building consumer, technology and business-to-business marketing, along with handling additional work in the entertainment, new media and corporate communications sectors. Osborn is currently head of the Osborn Co., an independent public relations firm in Tennessee.

Aerospace

Chris Stephens Jr. and William Ballhaus have been appointed to top management positions at Boeing Satellite Systems Inc. in El Segundo. Stephens has been named vice president and chief financial officer and will be responsible for all financial management activities of BSS and its Electron Dynamic Devices and Spectrolab companies. He was vice president of finance-operations prior to his promotion. Ballhaus has been named general manager of Boeing Electron Dynamic Devices and is responsible for leading the unit as a strategic core business for BSS. He was most recently director of integrated satellite factory operations at BSS.

Architecture

Steve Tuchman has joined Los Angeles-based Nadel Architects Inc. as vice president of finance. Under direction of the CEO and COO, Tuchman will handle the financial aspects of the firm's architectural practice. Most recently, he was director of finance for Tate & Snyder Architects in Las Vegas.

Banking & Finance

Jonathan J. Spees has been appointed managing director of the Los Angeles office of Duff & Phelps LLC. His primary focus will be to provide financial advisory services to clients involved in mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining, he was managing director of Shamrock Holdings. Also, Todd A. Kaltman and Kenneth A. Nofziger have been named vice presidents. Kaltman will provide valuations and related advisory services with respect to business entities and intangible assets. Nofziger advises corporations, business owners, accountants and attorneys on issues related to determining, increasing and realizing value.

Education

JoAnn McLin Ortiz has been named Santa Monica College's director of institutional advancement and will oversee the college's fund-raising and development activities, including a $24.8 million capital campaign. Previously, Ortiz served as vice president for development at the Santa Monica Center for Healthy Aging.

Entertainment

Adam W. Rosen has been hired as senior vice president of business affairs and general counsel for RKO Pictures Inc. in Los Angeles. In his new position, Rosen will oversee RKO's business and legal affairs as well as structure and supervise transactions for production business development, and corporate and financing activities. He went to RKO from Warner Bros., where he most recently served as vice president of legal and business affairs for international television production.

High Tech

Philippe Courteaux has been named the U.S. director of business development for wireless applications at Oberthur Card Systems, a supplier of smart cards. He is based in Los Angeles and is responsible for overseeing development of value-added applications and mass production of chip cards that enable secure transactions of wireless users. Courteaux has been with the company since 1998, and for the last three years was a manager of export sales, southern region, which includes the Balkans, Turkey, India, Israel, the Middle East and Africa.

International Trade

Sid Robinson has been appointed director of property management at the Port of Los Angeles. Robinson will work with other port divisions to plan the development of 7,500 acres of port property while administering leases, permits and acquisitions involving a wide variety of commercial and industrial land and water properties. Robinson has served as interim director since April.

Douglas A. Thiessen has been named chief harbor engineer for the Port of Long Beach. He will head all port engineering and construction projects, with responsibility for design, project and contract management, surveying and mapping, and construction inspection. He has been the acting chief harbor engineer since August.

Law

Ronald S. Barak has been named of counsel in the real estate department of Silver & Freedman, a Century City law firm. His practice will focus on leasing, financing, development and joint ventures. Barak was a partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips prior to joining Silver & Freedman.

Christina J. Imre has joined Crosby Heafey Roach & May's appellate practice group as a director in its Los Angeles office. Prior to joining that firm, she was the first female partner with the appellate firm of Horvitz & Levy, where she specialized in insurance and institutional issues.

Pamela S. Schmidt has been named a partner in the Los Angeles-based land use, environment and energy department of Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro. She will negotiate development agreements, among other matters. Previously, Schmidt was with Berger & Norton.

Media

George Hung has been named to the newly created position of director of sales for WorldLink International. He will be responsible for developing and executing new sales strategies, and for increasing overall presence in the worldwide direct response television business. Most recently, Hung was director of international business development for the Frederiksen Group Inc.

New Media

Mark Gorjestani has been hired as director of strategic business development at Belief, a broadcast design and production studio in Santa Monica. He will be in charge of pursuing new business opportunities in broadband and new-media markets. He also will participate in network redesign and corporate identity projects. Previously, he was account supervisor at TBWA Chiat/Day.

Nonprofits

Lori Starr has been named vice president of external affairs at the Skirball Cultural Center. In her new post, Starr will establish and maintain relationships between the center and a variety of educational, cultural, philanthropic and community organizations, along with providing leadership for press and media relations, marketing, grant proposals and publications. Previously, she was director of public affairs and communications for the J. Paul Getty Trust.

Personnel

John T. Wasley has joined recruiting firm Russell Reynolds Associates as executive director of its Los Angeles office. He will specialize in serving a range of industrial manufacturing and distribution clients.

Real Estate

Ronald W. Wade has joined the Los Angeles real estate advisory firm of Kosmont Partners as a senior financial analyst specializing in public agency real estate. Currently, Wade is also a planning commissioner for the city of Lakewood and a real estate broker.

Kwalwasser Taking Over Legal Duties for the LAUSD 

FOR tackling his new job as general counsel of the Los Angeles Unified School District, Harold Kwalwasser has a five-pronged plan. And the general theme of that plan is fuller disclosure.

"The public needs to know what we're doing, and what we're doing is right," Kwalwasser said. "The citizens of the city should not only have information available when they inquire, but we should be more forward (about disseminating information) and do it as a normal course of business."

Most recently employed as deputy general counsel for the U.S. Department of Defense, the 53-year-old Kwalwasser said details of his plan will come later, but its five areas of concentration will be: the district as a corporation, human resources, general governance questions, the schools as individual entities and special education.

Kwalwasser, who will be paid $225,000 a year, said he doesn't know enough about the Belmont Learning Center environmental fiasco to comment on how he would have handled it differently. He said most of the future decisions to be made surrounding Belmont will be political, not legal.

"Assuming you want to go forward with Belmont, common sense dictates you try to address potential liability issues," he said.

As the district embarks on its aggressive construction campaign, Kwalwasser said he will provide leadership that ensures all properties acquired meet environmental guidelines.

He said his department will work closely with construction teams to keep schedules and budgets on track.

Kwalwasser, who met LAUSED Superintendent Roy Romer while working on Romer's campaign for a third term as Colorado governor, said he brings considerable government-access experience to the job.

"I could make a lot more (money elsewhere)," he acknowledged. "The kick about coming here is a chance to turn this school district into the California economic miracle."

Christopher Keough