Business Notes for Oct. 13, 2024

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 emailed to businessnotes@thegazette.com.

New hires

Jonathan Fales has joined GreatAmerica Financial Services as vice president and general manager of the Connected Technology division. He has more than 40 years experience in the U.S., Europe and Asia and most recently was a former partner with The Alta Group and also was an executive with IBM Global Financing.

Anna “Annie” M. Hardin has joined the Simmons Perrine Moyer Bergman law firm in Cedar Rapids. She will specialize in business and commercial litigation, insurance defense and coverage, and personal injury defense.

Chad Crawford has joined Hills Bank as a retirement plan officer in Cedar Rapids.

GreatAmerica Financial Services has announced the following new team members: Dillon Kremer, portfolio manager; Joe Fisher, sales support specialist; and Lisa Blood, account support adviser.

Appointments

Nicole Crain has been named president of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry. She succeeds Mike Ralston, who is retiring at the end of the year after nearly two decades with the association. Crain has been with ABI for 16 years, serving as its executive vice president since 2019.

Kudos

Bike-friendly Dupaco: Dupaco Community Credit Union has been recognized as a Bike Friendly Business by the League of American Bicyclists, one of 25 such businesses in Iowa and 1,300 in the U.S. The credit union has a bike share program, secure bike parking, repair stations and shower facilities for employees who bike to work.

Dr. Vincent Reid, surgical oncologist and medical director of the Hall-Perrine Cancer Center, recently was named a 2024 Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame Laureate. The recognition goes to leaders nominated by community members for embodying five key standards — impact, integrity, community, leadership and entrepreneurial spirit.

Other news

Small business of the week: U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, last week named Salvaged Designs of Mahaska County as her small business of the week.

Throughout Jennifer Thomas-Maxwell’s childhood, she worked at her family’s waste management business, sparking a lifelong interest in sustainability. In college, she studied graphic design. She opened Salvaged Designs to sell repurposed furniture, band instruments and other products in 2016, moving the business to Oskaloosa’s Main Street in 2020.

Ernst, the ranking member on the Senate’s Small Business Committee, is naming one exceptional small business of the week in each of Iowa’s counties during this congressional session.