Nathan Palmer
Palmer becomes a Bear
Nathan Palmer’s new NFL home is with the Chicago Bears.
The Elkhart, Ind., native reported to the Bears Oct. 13 as part of the team’s practice squad.
Palmer was recently released by the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots, but received offers from the Bears and the San Diego Chargers last week.
Since signing as an undrafted free agent by San Francisco in 2012, Palmer has played for Indianapolis and Miami.
During the offseason, he spends time in Chicago honing a music career.
The NIU alumnus was a wide receiver for NIU from 2008 until 2011.
PetSmart appoints Anderson as senior VP and CFO
PetSmart Inc. has named Rob Anderson to the position of senior vice president and chief financial officer.
Anderson brings more than 25 years of financial experience to PetSmart, serving most recently as the chief financial officer for Save-A-Lot, a discount grocery chain.
Before joining Save-A-Lot, Anderson served as the principal accounting officer, controller and executive director of finance for Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant for five years. From 2003 to 2005, he worked at the Career Education Corp. as vice president and chief financial officer for the American InterContinental University. From 1991 to 2003, he held global leadership positions with McDonald’s Corp.
Anderson, a certified public accountant, earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Northern Illinois University and a master’s degree in business administration from DePaul University.
Jeremy Nauman
Nauman joins Moss & Barnett law firm
The Minneapolis-based Moss & Barnett law firm recently hired attorney Jeremy J. Nauman to work in its national multifamily agency lending practice group.
Nauman received his Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Northern Illinois University and his bachelor’s dgree, cum laude, from Winona State University.
Charles Rice
K-State’s Rice tapped for National Academies of Sciences post
Kansas State University’s Charles “Chuck” Rice, a distinguished professor of agronomy, has been named to chair the Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources, a major program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, starting Jan. 1, 2016.
Rice, a university distinguished professor of soil microbiology, will serve three years in the role.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources addresses issues of agricultural production and related matters of natural resource development, including forestry, fisheries, wildlife, and land and water use. Rice served two three-year terms on the board before being named board chair.
In his most recent work at K-State, Rice has focused on soil and global climate change. As part of that work, he was a member of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which received the Nobel Prize in 2007.
Rice earned an undergraduate degree from Northern Illinois University and a doctorate from the University of Kentucky. He joined the K-State faculty in 1988.
Rockford Swears in Frisbie and Barron
Among eight new Rockford police recruits are Adam Frisbie of Esmond, Ill., and Jacoby Barron of Chicago.
The recruits must undergo 12 weeks of basic law enforcement training at the Police Training Institute in Champaign-Urbana, seven weeks of training in Rockford and 20 weeks with a field-training officer.
Frisbie graduated from Byron High School in 2005 and received a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Northern Illinois University in 2010. He previously worked as a General Nutrition Center store manager.
Barron received a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Northern Illinois University in 2014 and was working as a student service adviser at DeVry Education Group.
Coppedge named associate judge
The Twenty-Second Judicial Circuit judges voted to select Michael E. Coppedge as an associate judge of the Twenty-Second Judicial Circuit.
Coppedge received his undergraduate degree in 1984 from the College of St. Francis in Joliet, Ill., and his Juris Doctor in 1987 from Northern Illinois University.
He is currently affiliated with Cowlin, Naughton, Curran & Coppedge in Crystal Lake, Ill.
Michael Harner
Harner in charge of finance at UIC College of Dentistry
Michael D. Harner has moved to the College of Dentistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he has taken on the role of associate dean of finance and administration.
Harner previously worked as the director of financial affairs for the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford and is the former chief financial officer for Shappert Engineering Co. in Rockford. He also previously worked in financial positions for Boeke & Associates, Rhenberg Jacobson Manufacturing, Colorgraphics, Miller Transportation and McGladrey & Pullen.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and accounting from the University of Iowa, an MBA from Rockford College, a master’s degree in international relations from Boston University and a doctorate in adult and higher education from Northern Illinois University.
Gross promoted to president of Crestmark’s lending division
Steven Gross has been promoted to president of Crestmark’s small-business lending division.
He was serving as senior vice president and national underwriting manager for Crestmark. His career in finance spans 30 years. He first joined Crestmark in 2011 as vice president and an underwriter in Chicago. Prior to joining Crestmark, he was managing director for the Chicago-based Bridge Finance Group. Earlier, he held regional positions at J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, GE Capital Commercial Finance and Fremont Financial.
Gross received a bachelor’s degree in finance in 1984 from Northern Illinois University.
Susan Lucas
Lucas takes on new counseling position
Susan Lucas is the new guidance counselor for Hall High School in Spring Valley, Ill.
Lucas comes to Hall from the Princeton school district, where she was a counselor. She taught in the Oglesby public school system before becoming a school counselor.
Her undergraduate degree is from Illinois State University and she has a master’s degree in counseling from Northern Illinois University.
DeSantis joins Schaumburg law firm
The Schaumburg, Ill., law firm Gardi & Haught Ltd. has added attorney Michael DeSantis to its staff.
DeSantis will be Gardi & Haught’s main representative in landlord and tenant rights cases. He has been practicing law since 2013, with a concentration in mortgage foreclosure. He comes to Gardi & Haught from the law offices of Brian Radke P.C. in Des Plaines, where he served as an associate attorney and provided legal analysis in family law and real estate cases. He has also held positions as a law clerk for Schwartz & Kanyock LLC and as a mortgage foreclosure judicial extern for Circuit Judge Daniel Brennan.
DeSantis obtained a bachelor’s degree in political science from Northern Illinois University and his J.D. from The John Marshall Law School.
Attorney Michael E. Coppedge of Crystal Lake, Ill., has been selected to fill one of two vacancies on the local bench.
Coppedge will fill an opening for an associate judge position that was left by the retirement of Judge Robert Bearderstadt.
Coppedge, a partner in the law firm Cowlin, Naughton, Curran and Coppedge, was selected from a field of 18 candidates.
A second associate judge vacancy in the 22nd Judicial Circuit remains, and it is unclear when the name of the person selected for that position will be announced.
Coppedge graduated from the College of St. Francis in Joliet and earned a law degree from Northern Illinois University. He was admitted to the bar in 1987.
Arrangements for Coppedge’s formal installation and courtroom assignment still have not been announced.
Vernon Abel
Abel named president of Bushwick Metals
Bushwick Metals of Bridgeport, Conn., has named Vernon Abel as its new president.
Abel has more than 25 years of experience in the steel industry at both the distribution and mill level, along with expertise in executive strategic planning, profit and loss management, operations, purchasing, sales and marketing.
He holds an MBA from the University of Notre Dame and a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Northern Illinois University.
O’Brien launches marketing agency
Shaun O’Brien has launched Access Strategies, a new sales and marketing agency focused exclusively on the convenience class of trade.
The Chicago-based company acts as an integrated sales solution provider to manufacturers in the consumable, supply, service and equipment categories.
“We are fully – and only – committed to the convenience channel, which makes us different from your typical broker,” said O’Brien, president of Access Strategies.
Since its inception, Access Strategies has already partnered with several manufacturers that are well known in the convenience channel and is providing sales coverage for the central U.S. and a select group of national retailers and wholesalers.
O’Brien is a long-time food broker and worked at his company Carlin O’Brien for nearly 15 years prior to starting Access Strategies.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in management in 2002 from Northern Illinois University and an MBA in 2013 from the University of Notre Dame.
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