Traverse City : Innovation + Job News

Living Light Massage has two new massage therapists now available for appointments at its Traverse City center.

Kirsten Grimm and Dawn Ross have joined the group of massage therapists at Living Light this spring.

Grimm came to Living Light in March, and is a nationally-certified therapist with 12 years of experience. Her specialties include deep tissue, relaxation, hot stone, pregnancy massage, and polarity therapy. She also is a licensed esthetician and certified yoga instructor.

Ross joined the team in April, and has been in the massage therapy and spa industry for the last four years. She specializes in deep tissue, sports, relaxation, hot stone and pregnancy massage.

Located at 134 West State Street in downtown Traverse City, Living Light Massage is open seven days a week with six treatment rooms.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Living Light Massage

Floor Covering Brokers in Traverse City has a new designer on staff.

Elizabeth McAllister has more than ten years of interior design experience, including working with architects, builders and homeowners. She holds a degree in interior design from Michigan State University.

McAllister will be part of Floor Covering Brokers' sales team at its Traverse City store, and also is available for design and consultation on flooring and window treatments.

Floor Covering Brokers specializes in the design and installation of all types of flooring, as well as window treatments. They also offer carpet cleaning services and complete residential and commercial flooring projects.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Floor Covering Brokers

Each year, companies across Michigan that are in the second stage of development and poised to grow and succeed are chosen for the 50 Companies to Watch awards.

This year, there are a significant number of them located in northwest Michigan, which says only good things about the direction our regional economy is headed.

All together, the 50 companies honored this year had $937 million in revenue and added 728 employees from 2009 through 2012.

Traverse City is home to six of the 50 businesses. They are Altus Brands, LLC, a specialty brand manufacturer founded in 2007; Cherry Capital Foods, a agricultural distributor which is expected to add up to 38 jobs in the next few years; Critter Control, headed by Kevin Clark, which will bring as many as 25 jobs to the state in the next few years; Grand Traverse Distillery, founded in 2006, a craft liquor manufacturer; retailer M22, founded in 2003 by Keegan Myers; and Moomers Homemade Ice Cream, which will add about 30 jobs in the next couple of years.

In Reed City, H&H Wildlife Design and Fur Dressing, Inc., headed by Mark Marlette and founded in 2002, was also on the 50 Companies to Watch list, as was manufacturer Cadillac Culvert, Inc. in Cadillac, founded in 2012 and owned by Donald Aldrich.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Michigan Economic Development Corp.

Members Credit Union in Traverse City has a new president and CEO, Andrew Kempf.

Kempf brings 20 years of experience in the credit union and finance industry to the TC-headquartered financial institution. He most recently was the manager and CEO of Preferred Federal Credit Union.

Members Credit Union has several Traverse City offices, along with  branches in Mancelona, Kalkaska and Manistee. It serves customers in Antrim, Benzie, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Leelanau and Manistee counties.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Members Credit Union

Missed appointments at the doctor's, hair salon or garage might be a thing of the past with a new smartphone and tablet app designed by a Kingsley resident.

Schedg-It is an app available for download that connects service providers with their customers to confirm, remind, cancel or reschedule appointments, with their Apple or Android phone or tablet.

The creation of Alexa Bach, Schedg-it was inspired by missing a dentist appointment. Bach thought it would be helpful if the dentist could have sent the appointment information to her phone, and from there, she worked with family members and friends to create the app.

Service professionals like the dentist can enter appointments and send reminder alerts to clients through the app itself, text message, or email. Schedg-it also syncs with other calendars on the client's mobile device to avoid double-booking. Clients can use it to confirm, cancel or reschedule the appointment, with phone numbers for the service provider included and stored.

Bach has a business degree from the University of Findlay and is now operating and running a company backing the app from Kingsley, her hometown.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Schedg-It

It looks like Ann Bollinger will have a new title and a few more responsibilities at Traverse City State Bank while Dan Druskovich will settle into the role of newly-hired vice president.

TC State Bank announced that Bollinger was recently promoted to president of the financial institution, while Druskovich is a new senior vice president with the commercial lending team.

Bollinger will not only have a new role and new responsibilities, but she will continue her duties as the bank's chief financial officer and TCSB board member as well.

Bollinger has been with the bank since 2009 and has helped lead the team to profitable years in 2010, 2011 and it's most profitable year ever in 2012.

Bollinger has more than three decades of experience in banking, including positions in strategic planning and global strategy for large, multi-national institutions. She is a graduate of Eastern Michigan University and is currently finishing up her master's degree in business administration.

Druskovich was recently hired as a senior vice president for Traverse City State Bank and has more than 25 years of lending experience. He was recently a vice president in commercial loans for another local bank.

Druskovich is a graduate from the University of Notre Dame where he earned his master's in business administration.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Traverse City State Bank

Several northwest Michigan businesses were among those honored as "Stars" of the state tourism industry in April.

The Michigan Lodging and Tourism Association hands out "Star of the Year" awards each year at the Pure Michigan Governor's Conference, and this year our area was well-represented, with award recipients from Acme, Bellaire, Gaylord and Traverse City.

Aaron McIntyre of Treetops Resort in Gaylord was awarded Seasonal Star of the Year for 2013. He's the assistant manager for the resort's golf and ski shop, and has worked there since 2005. He won the award for his personal initiative to improve the golf shop and willingness to take on any task.

Doug Cook is the kids' experience coordinator at Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City, and oversees the resort's childrens' club. He won the 2013 Attraction Star of the Year award and also recently won the hotel's employee of the year award for the regard in which Cook's fellow employees and happy customers hold him.

The 2013 Sales and Marketing Star of the Year was Chris Hale at Shanty Creek Resorts in Bellaire. Hale is VP of the resort and oversees all departments that produce traffic and revenue. His marketing efforts for Shanty Creek's fiftieth anniversary included extending the brand message with a statewide campaign, new resort-wide campaigns and launching a custom print publication called "Traditions."

The Grand Traverse Resort and Spa in Acme received the Good Earth Keeping Award for 2013, accepted by general manager Tim Norman. It's not the first time the resort's environmental efforts have gained notice; it won the Northern Michigan Environment Action Council award in 2011. Among its achievements: in the first year of a new green program, the resort composted more than 100 tons of food waste, diverted more than 40 cubic yards of plastics from landfills, and reduced overall waste by more than 40 percent.

Other award recipients came from Birmingham, Dearborn, Detroit, East Lansing, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Sault Ste. Marie.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Michigan Lodging and Tourism Association

Northwestern Bank in Traverse City has a new VP, Scot Zimmerman. Zimmerman will be head of commercial lending as well as the bank's chief lending officer.

He comes to Northwestern Bank with more than 20 years of business and banking experience, previously serving as senior VP at another local financial institution.

Zimmerman is a TC native and got his undergrad degree at Central Michigan University, going on to earn a MBA degree from Pace University in New York. He's also the founding chair of the Northwestern Michigan Tooling Coalition and serves on the board of Grand Traverse Industries in Traverse City.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Northwestern Bank

Century 21 Northland just keeps growing and growing, and it needs to keep up with that growth through the addition of new sales agents.

That's why it hired on it's newest employees, Matt Geib and Steve Scheppe, at it's main Traverse City office.

Geib brings with him a strong background, having earned the title of Rookie of the Year 2011 by the Traverse Area Association of Realtors while working in sales of lakefront, riverfront and all-season recreational properties. He has nearly three years of experience and is a graduate of Central Michigan University.

Scheppe knows what it's like to be the Rookie of the Year, too, having earned the distinction from the Traverse Area Association of Realtors in 2012. He previously has been involved in construction management as well as property management and is a graduate of Central Michigan University.

Century 21 Northland now has more than 35 realtors serving Northwest Michigan.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Century 21 Northland

There are two new faces at Springfield Inc. with the announcement by the company that they have hired a new director of operations and brought in a business development manager.

Springfield announced Nick Jacqmain was promoted to Director of Operations and named Mitch Roman to the newly-created position of business development manager.

Jacqmain has been with Springfield since 2009 when he joined the company as a project manager. He holds a bachelor's degree in business administration and sports management from Central Michigan University. In his new role he will be responsible for working with the management teams and overseeing daily operations.

Roman, who has a bachelor's in marketing management from Hillsdale College, returned to his home region here in Northwest Michigan to take the business development manager position with Springfield. He has experience in both human resources and sales.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Springfield Inc.

Max Bott and Mike Flaugher will have a few more responsibilities following their promotions at Team Elmer's, based in Traverse City.

Bott and Flaugher, who are both long-time employees of the company, have been promoted to division manager. Bott has been promoted to West Side Divisional Manager for excavation while Flaugher has been promoted to East Side Divisional Manager for excavation.

Bott, who has been with Team Elmer's excavation division for nearly 17 years, brings 25 years of site development experience to the position. He will now coordinate and optimize bidding schedules, project schedules, and equipment usage and will continue to serve as project manager to estimate and manage contracts from small residential and commercial site work to large commercial and industrial projects, state work and subdivision developments.

Flaugher has almost 19 years in with Team Elmer's and has been in the heavy construction industry for more than 27 years. He will oversee operations at the Hillman office and Alpena pit location as well as coordinate and optimize bidding schedules, project schedules, and equipment usage. He will also continue to serve as project manager.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Team Elmer's

Autumn Soltysiak has taken on a new position with Sagemark Consulting. She comes to the role as private wealth advisor from Wells Fargo Advisors, where she has been a financial advisor for the past 10 years.

Sagemark is part of Lincoln Financial Advisors Corp., and has offices in Traverse City and Southfield. It offers securities and insurance consulting in several states.

Soltysiak, a certified financial planner, will provide retirement, estate planning, business planning and related investment services to returning and new clients in the Traverse City area.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Sagemark Consulting

Cherry product company Shoreline Fruit is making serious changes at the top lately. The fruit company announced it has a new chief financial officer, Corey Geer.

Geer will provide strategic leadership for the Traverse City-based company, overseeing accounting, finance, IT and continuous improvement initiatives. He has a degree from the University of Michigan and a background in financial services.

In January, the company appointed new CEO John Sommavilla to replace longtime leader Ken Swanson, who retired after many years in the cherry business in northern Michigan.

Shoreline combines fruit growing, fruit product manufacturing, delivery and transport, sales and works with retailers and wholesalers to offer cherry, juice, dried fruit and natural health products.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Shoreline Fruit

The Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce recently announced that Mary Jo Barck has been named as the new economic assistant.

Barck's arrival in Traverse City comes after two decades in Sault Ste. Marie, where she worked several positions over the years with War Memorial Hospital. She worked as an executive assistant as well as director of community relations and fund development.

"We are fortunate to have someone of Mary Jo’s background and experience in this important position," says Laura Galbraith, the chamber’s vice president of administration. "She will be our main contact to CONNECT businesses with the appropriate resource when starting or growing their business through a number of programs available from the Chamber and its partners, whether assisting a business owner with tax abatements or identifying financing programs that best fit their needs."

Barck originally hails from mid-Michigan's Alma. She studied accounting at Central Michigan University and Northwestern Michigan College.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: TC Area Chamber of Commerce

Three employees were recently promoted within the ranks of The Bank of Northern Michigan.

The company, which has offices in both Traverse City and Petoskey, announced that it has promoted Linda Reynolds, Betsy Van Orman and Michele Doucette.

Reynolds is the newest private banker for the company. She was promoted from her previous position of client services manager. Doucette is now a personal banker, having earned a promotion from deposit operations clerk. Van Orman, who was the previous personal banker, was promoted to the position of client services manager.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: The Bank of Northern Michigan