Business briefs: The Boys & Girls Clubs announced new board of directors [Ventura County Star, Calif.]

June 15--AGOURA HILLS

Boys & Girls Clubs put two on board

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Conejo Valley has announced the newest members to its board of directors.

The new members include Richelle Blanken, the 17-year owner of Alpine Adventures, a ski and adventure travel company. Blanken was on the 1992 Winter Olympics skiing team. She has a bachelor of arts degree in public relations from the University of Utah and three sons, age 11, 9 and 4.

Rick Helfman also joins the board of directors. He has worked in the insurance business for the past 37 years and owns Helfman Insurance Services. He specializes in commercial business insurance. Helfman has a 14-year-old son at Colina Middle School in Thousand Oaks.

For more information about the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Conejo Valley, visit http://www.bgcconejo.org or call 818-706-0905.

CAMARILLO

Home selling team hires employee

Rudy Campos announced a new addition to The Rudy Campos Home Selling Team: Doina Florescu. She brings management, accounting and customer service experience of more than 30 years to this team.

For more information, call 485-2616 or visit http://www.rudycampos.com.

OXNARD

Chamber to honor award recipients

The Oxnard Chamber of Commerce announced the recipients of the Community & Business Awards.

The award recipients are the following:

Bill and Dale Belcher, Distinguished Citizens of the Year;

Steve Buenger, Man of the Year;

Dotty Massa, Woman of the Year;

Mission Produce, Large Business of the Year;

County Commerce Bank, Small Business of the Year;

Martin Luther King Jr. Committee of Ventura County, Service Organization of the Year;

Izzy Otani's Fish Market, Downtown Business of the Year; and

Duda Farm Fresh Foods, Innovative Business of the Year.

The Community & Business Awards lunch will be June 28 at the Courtyard by Marriott. Reservations are required and can be made at http://OxnardChamber.org or by calling 983-6118.

VENTURA

Anderson Kill hires division head

Nancy Kierstyn Schreiner has joined Anderson Kill California LLP, the West Coast office of Anderson Kill & Olick P.C., as a shareholder and will lead the firm's new Government Affairs Group.

A former assistant attorney for the city of Thousand Oaks, Schreiner represents corporations, landowners, developers, nonprofits and public agencies in regulatory, compliance, zoning, employment and contractual matters. She comes to Anderson Kill from Nordman Cormany Hair & Compton LLP, where she was a senior partner and leader of the Real Estate and Land Use Group and Public Law Group.

Schreiner negotiates and documents transactions on behalf of her clients, including corporate and real estate purchases and sales, exchanges, commercial, industrial, office and agricultural leases and construction and permanent financing devices.

Schreiner also serves as general counsel and legal counsel to public entities and nonprofits. Drawing on her 15 years of experience in the Thousand Oaks City Attorney's Office, she offered advice on matters including land use, zoning, environmental law, employment and labor negotiations, redevelopment, special districts, financing, Mello-Roos, constitutional matters, telecommunications, public contracting, conflicts of interest, public meeting laws, disabled access, bankruptcy and risk management, County Organized Health Systems and Medi-Cal laws and regulations.

Before working with the city of Thousand Oaks she was corporate counsel for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Company.

Schreiner holds a bachelor of arts degree from UC Irvine and a juris doctor from Pepperdine University School of Law. She has been a member of the Ventura County Bar Assocation and the Tri-Counties Local Government Attorneys' Association since 1988. She also serves as general counsel for the Economic Development Collaborative of Ventura County.

Anderson Kill, based in New York City, has an office in Ventura.

Marketing expert joins ZestNet

Larry Oliver has joined ZestNet Inc., a Ventura-based design and marketing firm.

Oliver has 15 years' experience drafting marketing and Internet strategies, most recently as founder of 805 Web Designs. Oliver's background includes work for the beach and surf apparel line Gotcha Clothing. He was the segment producer and lead motions graphics designer for the site's weekly half-hour series "Surf the Planet."

His work got him a promotion to content producer for Bluetorch, a multimedia sports network owned by Broadcom Corp. At Bluetorch, Oliver oversaw production of the sports segments for TV and the Internet. He produced a streaming broadcast of the Quicksilver Pro, a surf contest off the coast of Fiji.

After his time at Bluetorch, Oliver developed multimedia and marketing campaigns at AspenMedia, a boutique media and digital firm in Orange County. He left in 2005 to start Larry Oliver Graphic Design.

Oliver and his family moved from Long Beach to Ventura County in 2008, prompting him to rename his company to 805 Web Designs. As his client base grew, he saw the need for greater creative resources and joined ZestNet in May.

A graduate of St. Mary's College and the Platt College of Graphic and Multimedia Design, Oliver lives in Camarillo with his wife, Jennifer, and their three children.

For more information, call 643-8232, email ric@zest.net or visit http://www.zest.net or by calling 983-6118.

Ventura County

County Commerce receives awards

County Commerce Bank recently received awards because of 2012 financial performance.

The bank was rated a Super Premier Performing Bank for the fifth time by The Findley Reports. It was the only bank with headquarters in Ventura County that received this rating for its 2012 performance. The Findley Reports publishes comprehensive financial institution analysis of California's banking industry.

County Commerce was recognized by American Banker magazine as one of the Top 200 community banks ranked by three-year average return on equity. It was the only bank with headquarters in Ventura County on the list and had a return on average equity of 9.6 percent over the past three years.

The bank also was voted Small Business of the Year by the Oxnard Chamber of Commerce. Recognized its improvement of the Oxnard community, the bank supports the community, with employees serving on boards in the area and donating time.

In addition, the bank received the highest rating for the 32nd consecutive quarter from BauerFinancial Inc., which indicates the bank is one of the safest in the United States. County Commerce is the only bank in the tri-counties to have received five stars for the fourth quarter of 2012. BauerFinancial provides independent bank and credit union ratings.

Financial Management Consulting Group, a financial industry rating company that publishes bank performance reports, rated County Commerce Bank as the top bank in the tri-counties area and 36th best performing bank in California. The report's rankings for 229 banks in the state are based on earnings, asset quality, efficiency, margin management and fee analysis.

For more information, visit http://www.CountyCommerceBank.com.

Water agency leader gets liaison position

The Calleguas Municipal Water District has become a liaison to the board of directors of the Economic Development Collaborative of Ventura County.

General Manager Susan Mulligan will be the 60-year-old district's representative at the meetings. Mulligan will help increase communication between collaborative and the public agency.

The water district's addition follows the board's top priorities of having representation from government or municipal organizations that affect the region's economic sectors.

Mulligan has been with Calleguas since 1993. A registered professional engineer, she also is a Grade 5 water treatment plant operator. Mulligan obtained her bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Stanford University and Master's of Business Administration from UCLA.

For more information, visit http://www.edc-vc.com.

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