Positions Taken

Steve Ryon, Sarasota branch manager, Cadence Bank Florida.

John Sackett, sales, Tidewater Preserve.

Cabot Hart, vice president and senior credit administrator, Gateway Bank of Southwest Florida.

Mary Brown, senior medical consultant, Kerkering, Barberio & Co.

Donna Holm, chief financial officer, Coastal Orthopedics & Sports Medicine.

Jeremy A. Baker, industrial engineer, Berry Plastic Manufacturing.

Richard Q. Lewis III, associate, Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick.

Mary Pedersen, human resources director, Take Care Private Duty Home Health Care.

Marie Henry, staff counsel, Gould & Lamb.

Marina D’Abreau, agriculture and extension service manager, Manatee County.

Susan Kenyon, major gifts development director, Cancer Support Community Florida Suncoast.

Jessica Snyder, senior sales representative, SouthTech Solutions.

Accolades

Josh Wynne Construction has been named a 2011 Design Excellence Award winner by Residential Design + Build magazine.

Seibert Architects won the 2011 Merit Award for Architecture by the American Institute of Architects Florida Design Awards.

Dr. Kevan Main has been selected president-elect of the Worldwide Aquaculture Organization.

Michael Long, New College of Florida student representative, has been appointed to the State University System Florida Board of Governors.

Christine Robinson, Sarasota County Commissioner, was awarded the Presidential Advocacy Award from the Florida Association of Counties.

David Whalen, general manager of Laurel Oak Country Club, has earned membership in the Club Managers Association of America’s Honor Society.

Jeannie Stathas of Wilde Honda of Sarasota was honored by American Honda Motor Company as the No. 1 ranked salesperson in the Southeastern United States for Honda customer sales satisfaction.

Sarah C. Meaker, Ph.D., was appointed Suncoast Technology Forum’s educational committee chair.

Dr. Thomas Crisp, assistant professor of reading in the college of education at USF Sarasota-Manatee, has been awarded the International Reading Association’s Elva Knight Research Grant.

The Maids won the President’s Club Award at The Maids International for outstanding achievement in franchise sales and growth during the past year.

Manatee Memorial Hospital has been named one of the Top 20 Most Beautiful Hospitals in America by Soliant Health.

Thomas J. McLaughlin has been elected a shareholder with the firm Williams, Parker, Harrison, Dietz & Getzen.

Chris Lyons, City of Sarasota finance director, was sworn in as president of the Florida Government Finance Officers Association.

 

Moving and Opening

Sarasota Fine Wine & Tastings opened in the King James shopping strip at 4333 S. Tamiami Trail, featuring boutique, cult and hard-to-find wines.

Fresenius Medical Care North America opened a dialysis clinic at 8037 Cooper Creek Blvd., University Park.

Complete Nutrition opened at 3800 S. Tamiami Trail, Suite 112, Sarasota.

Urban Accents opened at 8141 Lakewood Main St., Suite 104, Bradenton.

Prospect Riding Center opened at 34250 S.R. 70 E., Myakka City.

Haley Wielgus, 27, is the new morning and afternoon anchor for ABC 7. With a B.A. in journalism from Texas A&M and a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University, she had been a weekend anchor in a mid-sized Texas market before moving to Sarasota. When she landed here for an interview, she promptly called her family back in Tyler, Texas, exclaiming, “It’s like being on vacation every day of your life here!” But that doesn’t mean she won’t be putting in the hours. Wielgus retreats to bed around 6 p.m. and wakes up at 2:30 a.m. It’s all worth it, though. “As a child, I used to use my Fisher-Price recorder with the little microphone to record my own mini-newscasts,” she says. Wielgus sees business reporting and an M.B.A. in her future, but for now she’s eager to establish a rapport with ABC 7 viewers. “I want to show the real me, so people know me not so much as an anchor but as a person,” says Wielgus.

 

After 23 years in downtown Sarasota, Eckerd College’s Program for Experienced Learners (PEL) relocated to Lakewood Ranch to what Sarasota PEL director Linda Johnson describes as “the higher education corridor.” The new center is right off I-75 at 8031 Cooper Creek Blvd. Webster University and Keiser University are nearby, and State College of Florida and LECOM also have campuses in Lakewood Ranch. The new space also cost “significantly less” per square footage than their previous downtown campus and offers high visibility signage from I-75. Now Johnson hopes to cast a wider net to recruit adult students to the program. The adult liberal arts bachelor’s program draws students from as far north as Riverview near Tampa and as far south as Port Charlotte. With classes starting at 5:30 p.m., Johnson says, “It lessens the drive from work for more people.”