Business Notes: April 17, 2022

The Gazette’s Business Notes is a compendium of the week’s promotions, new hires, certifications, added business lines and business events, among other items, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and the rest of the Corridor.

Information and photos can be submitted to Business Notes by email to businessnotes@thegazette.com, or on our site at thegazette.com/businessnotes.

New Hires

Jackie Lee joined Community Savings Bank as business development officer.

Nicole Wilt, an advanced registered nurse practitioner, joined the Mercy Pulmonology Clinic at Mercy Cedar Rapids.

Skywalk Group in Cedar Rapids hired Nancy Beadle as a recruiter II.

Great America in Cedar Rapids hired Josh Becker, Ashley Doser, Maddy Lewis and Sean Salemink as service desk-triage specialists; Jason Jones, program manager; Tina Ebnet, account executive; Elijah Cox, service desk intern; Haley Batcheller, talent acquisition specialist; Dustin Abner and Stone McNamara, account support advisers; and Karen Vaske, software QA tester.

Karl Cassell joined Iowa Plumbing and Heating Wholesale as divisional vice president.

The United Way of Johnson and Washington counties has named Mary Westbrook as interim president and CEO.

Promotions

Morgan Finnegan was promoted to youth and education director, officer with Hills Bank in its Hills office.

Acquisitions and Expansions

Shive-Hattery acquired WSM Architects, a 13-person architecture firm in Tucson, Ariz. The acquisition expands Shive-Hattery’s reach to the Southwest and broadens its design capabilities in the corporate workplace, government, education and health care markets.

OPN Architects has opened an office in Minneapolis with three architects. This is the Cedar Rapids-based design firm’s fifth office.

Eye care business My Eyelab, a retail brand of Palm Springs, Fla.-based Now Optics, will open a franchise office in Cedar Rapids in October with up to six employees.

Meetings

Monthly in-person networking and informative breakfasts sponsored by SCORE are held at Scott's Family Restaurant in Cedar Rapids. Small business owners and those looking at options are invited to attend at 7:30 a.m. on the fourth Thursday of each month through October. The next event will be April 28. Ruth Paarman will present "The Link Between Website Copy and SEO.” Go to scorecr.org for more information.

INSIGHTS

The first Gazette Business Breakfast panel discussion for 2022, “Doing Business in Pandemic Year 3: How businesses can gain traction,” can be viewed at https://bit.ly/38lBaYb. Panelists are Jessica Dunker, Iowa Restaurant Association; Michele Miller, Wells Enterprises; Chad Simmons, Iowa Black Wall Street Investment Group; and Denny Van Zanten, Pella Corp. Also, the first installment of the “Gazette Spotlight on …” series of video interviews recognizing organizations and individuals who’ve successfully adapted to these changing times can be seen at business.thegazette.com. Those interviewed are Pat Airy of Goodwill of the Heartland, Chris Skog-man of Skogman Realty and Marty Stoll of Shuttleworth and Ingersoll.