business briefs
• Aaron J. “A.J.” Heidel, AIA, has joined BarberMcMurray Architects as project architect. Lorena Martin, Jennifer Nicklas and Tony Allen have joined the firm as architectural graduates/designers. Heidel brings seven years of experience with an emphasis in commercial and educational facilities while Martin graduated magna cum laude from Universidad Iberoamericana and earned her Masters of Architecture degree from The University of Tennessee. Nicklas and Allen received their Bachelor of Architecture degrees from UT, where they minored in business administration.
• Twenty-two of Realty Executives Associates’ real estate agents and five of its teams are featured in REAL Trents’ “America’s Best Real Estate Agents” report, which ranks more than 12,600 residential real estate professionals based on their excellence in sales during 2016. To qualify an individual agent must have closed at least 50 transaction sides or $20 million in sales volume in 2016. For real estate agent teams, the minimum is 75 transaction sides or $30 million in closed sales volume.
• Mark Holder, executive vice president and chief credit office of TNBANK, has been selected as a member of Key Executive peer advisory board in Knoxville by Knoxville Vistage Worldwide Inc. He joins more than 200 senior executives, business owners and CEOs across Tennessee who are Vistage members.
• Tara Mealer has joined TIS Construction Insurance & Surety Bond Division as a senior bond account manager. Mealer worked within the surety industry at several large agencies since 2000. She holds a licensure in resident property in Tennessee and casualty and non-resident property and casualty licensure in all other states.
• Pershing Yoakley & Assoiciates, P.C, a national management consulting and accounting firm with an office in Knoxville, has been ranked as a 2017 Top 100 Firm by INSIDE Public Accounting. PYA has earned this distinction for the second year in a row. The ranking demonstrates the firm’s continued growth
and dedication to serving the needs of clients.
• Lynn Harton has been named chief executive officer of United Community Bank Inc.’s subsidiary, “the Bank.” Harton will continue as president of UCBI and the Bank and as a member of their respective boards. Jimmy Tallent will continue to serve as chairman and CEO of UCBI and chairman of the Bank.
