Businesses and organizations share good news about new hires, locations, promotions, accolades
Banking
Michelle Maravilla
Brian Duba
Sommer Baum
Shawna Brown
Michelle Maravilla was promoted to senior vice president, chief human resources director, after almost 20 years with Merrillville-based Centier Bank.
James Wieser retired from the board of directors of Finward Bancorp, the holding company of Peoples Bank.
Brian Duba was promoted to general counsel and secretary of 1st Source Corp. and 1st Source Bank. Duba will continue as senior vice president. John Griffith will retain his status of executive vice president and chief risk officer. Griffith previously was general counsel and secretary.
Debrielle Lane was hired as vice president, manager of credit counseling, at Notre Dame Federal Credit Union. Michael Bogdan was appointed director of retail membership growth. Sommer Baum was hired as vice president of retail sales and mission asset protection.
Horizon Bank gifted a year Michigan City Chamber of Commerce membership to Capricorn Vacations owner Marcola Ruiz. Mary Land was named vice president, senior treasury manager.
Shawna Brown was named branch manager of Goshen-based Interra Credit Union’s Plymouth office. Juan Palacios joined Interra’s preferred services private banking group as a preferred services specialist. Interra transitioned four employees to its mortgage loan adviser team: Dan Coons previously served as manager of member relations center; Karen Hale most recently was a HELOC specialist; Jackie Powell was formerly the branch manager at the Plymouth location; Joey White served as the branch manager in Shipshewana. Eric Stoneburner joined the agribusiness lending department as an agribusiness lender.
South Bend-based Everwise Credit Union named Jason Gendics its first chief banking officer.
Brad Howell and Freddie Barnard, both longtime members of the First Farmers Bank & Trust board of directors, retired. Howell, owner of Brad Howell Ford in Kokomo, joined the board in 1996. Barnard, a professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University, became a board member in 2007. Shelby Bowen was appointed to the board. In 2017, Bowen founded Rebar Development, an Indiana-based real estate firm focused on public-private partnerships.
Carlton Zesch was promoted to executive managing director and head of Yellow Cardinal M&A Services, a division of First Financial Bank.
Matt Keen was appointed chief information officer at Old National Bancorp. Most recently, he served as CIO for Bremer Bank, which became a division of Old National Bank on May 1. Keen succeeds retiring Chief Information Officer Paul Kilroy. Katie Florig was appointed a wealth adviser regional executive for the greater Chicago area.
Sean Kelleher, a Crown Point resident and managing director of First Financial Bank’s ESOP finance group, was appointed chair of the national ESOP Association’s advisory committee on finance issues for 2025-2027.
Community
Deacons Ivan Alatorre and Alex Kouris were ordained to the priesthood June 7 at the Cathedral of the Holy Angels in Gary. Seminarian William O’Donnell also was ordained as a transitional deacon.
The Valparaiso Family YMCA recognized two longtime advocates with the 2025 Changemaker Award: staff member CeCe Arocho and board member Annmarie Severson.
Construction
Jason Gendics
Sean Kelleher
Anthony Ladd
Nathan Witte
Anthony Ladd is Wightman’s new municipal services manager, a new role for the civil engineering, architecture and surveying firm. Ladd is a licensed professional engineer.
Nathan Witte joined Larson-Danielson Construction’s architectural division, Facet Architecture, as a project architect. Witte previously worked with the company from 2016 to 2022.
Aashod Rogers, a former Gary/Chicago International Airport employee, was accepted into the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 697. Rogers worked as an Indiana Plan electrician at the airport for most of 2024 via Midwestern Electric. Indiana Plan is a pre-apprenticeship program endorsed by the Indiana State Building Trades.
Economic development
Winners of the Crossroads Chamber’s fifth annual Business Excellence Awards included Rising Star: Spencer Summers, Northwest Indiana Forum; Young Entrepreneur: Chase Lowden, Lowden Financial Partners; Minority Business: Brown Family Ranch; Community Volunteer: Phil Griffith, The MAAC Foundation; Corporate Responsibility: Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana; Non-Profit: Franciscan Health Foundation; Business Success: NorthShore Health Centers; Business Leader: Bill Trowbridge, Regional Care Group; and Legacy: Franciscan Health. The chamber also celebrated its 15th anniversary.
Education
LeAnn Hughes
Dee McDonald
Carl Thompson
Jenn Remus
Jenny Fisher, a faculty member at IU Northwest, was named a 2025 E. Kika De La Garza Science Fellow by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
LeAnn Hughes was appointed the senior vice president of enrollment and marketing at Valparaiso University. Three students from the university’s College of Business were named Indiana State Champions in the Microsoft Office Suite Specialist Spring Qualifier: Douglas Newton, first place in the Excel competition; Madeline Poppe in Word, and Julia Sullivan in PowerPoint.
Mark Peterson of Chesterton High School won the Career Development Professional of the Year (High School) at the Indiana Work-Based Learning Conference in Noblesville featuring Work and Learn Indiana’s 19th annual Impact Awards.
Bret Heller, superintendent of the School Town of Munster, left his position at the end of June to become the superintendent at the Thompson School District in Colorado.
University of Notre Dame senior James Reintjes was named a 2025 Yenching Scholar. He is Notre Dame’s 12th Yenching Scholar and its ninth since 2018. Junior Alex Young was named a 2025 Truman Scholar. He is the university’s 13th Truman Scholar since 2010. Thomas Burman, the Robert M. Conway Director of the Medieval Institute and a professor of history, and Karen Graubart, a professor in the department of history, are two of the 198 scholars, scientists and artists awarded fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Carmi and Chris Murphy were presented with the 2025 Rev. Edward Frederick Sorin, C.S.C., Award in May at the Alumni Association’s annual reunion.
Magesh Chandramouli, a professor of computer graphics technology at Purdue University Northwest, was awarded second place in the 2025 GOLC Online Laboratory Award in the category virtual and augmented reality experiments for his project SPEXTRA — Specialized Process Equipment Training Using Extended Reality, which provides virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) training modules for industrial manufacturing processes. Associate Professor of Nursing Julia Rogers was named a 2025 fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.
Septo, created by Alexis Karahalios, Abby Mena and Jocelyn Aguirre of Munster High School, earned second place in the STARTedUP Foundation’s eighth annual Innovate WithIN State Finals. The team was awarded $5,000 in funding. Faith Spencer earned Alumnus of the Year for her nonprofit work starting IronWorkz based in Gary.
Jason Lewkowicz was named Mishawaka-based Bethel University’s athletic director. Dee McDonald is the university’s ninth president. He succeeds Barbara Bellefeuille, who announced her retirement in December 2024.
Entertainment
The Midwest Museum of American Art in downtown Elkhart hired Emma Marsh as the assistant curator of education, and Marissa Turner as the assistant curator of collections and exhibits.
Carl Thompson was appointed Elkhart-based The Lerner Theatre’s general manager and Robert Garcia the director of events and finance. .
Artist Bernard Williams is the Michigan City-based Lubeznik Center for the Arts’ first artist in residence, which ends Aug. 31.
Facilities
Merrillville-based Performance Plus, a commercial janitorial service company that also specializes in post-construction final cleaning, welcomed Bridgette del Real as an accounts payable clerk. Carly Degard was promoted to client service manager from payroll clerk. Joe Horst was promoted to sales manager.
Finance
Jennifer Sailor
William Lewter
HEALTH CARE
Gerald Maloney
Sinan Simsir
Jayson Johnson, a client relations manager at Harvest Wealth Partners passed his certified financial planner exam. Rebecca Grubb, a compliance manager, passed her Series 65 exam.
Tessa Doll, advisory team associate at Howard Bailey Financial’s Mishawaka location, passed the Series 65 exam. Jenn Remus was hired as an impressions specialist. Yunet Calderon joined the team as a client relationship specialist.
Mishawaka-based Indiana Trust Wealth Management announced new team members: CPA Jennifer Sailor, chief financial and operating officer; CFP Karen Nevorski, vice president, wealth adviser; Hunter Horan, investment associate; Bernard Cunningham, operations application manager; and Noelle Leszczynski, office management.
Government
Gov. Mike Braun appointed Lake County Circuit Court Referee and former Lake County Deputy Prosecutor Daniel Burke to serve on the Lake County Superior Court. Burke is from Crown Point.
William Lewter was promoted to code enforcement commissioner for the city of Hammond.
State Rep. Carolyn Jackson (D-Hammond) was appointed to the Council on State Governments’ midwestern legislative conference energy and environment committee for 2025 and 2026.
Adam Tenbarge II of Chesterton High School is the winner of the 2025 Congressional Art Competition for his artwork, “Journey Through Indiana,” which captures the varied landscapes of Northwest Indiana.
The following nominees accepted their appointments to the U.S. Military Service Academies from Indiana’s First Congressional District: Talina Cisneros of Hammond Central High School to the U.S. Naval Academy Preparatory School; Shane Conroy of Portage High School to the U.S. Naval Academy; Luke Granzow of Hobart High School to the U.S. Air Force Academy; Maverick Markos of Westville High School to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point; Brayden Mercier of Chesterton High School to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy; and Madalyn Richardson of Washington Township High School in Valparaiso to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.
Health care
Carl Risk
Chris Anderson
Andre Gammage
Paul Miceli
The Franciscan Physician Network welcomed new staff, including Nurse Practitioner Ashley Bell-Huseman at the Rensselaer Medical Center; Dr. Amit Kumar, interventional cardiologist, in Dyer and Munster; and Dr. Cynthia Grundy and Dr. Dominik Meyer, both podiatrists, in Valparaiso.
Franciscan Alliance welcomed several leaders following recent retirements: Dr. Gerald Maloney, chief medical officer; Michael Englehart, senior vice president for Franciscan Physician Network/Specialty Physicians of Illinois and Franciscan Post-Acute Services; Dr. Joseph Schnecker, chief medical information officer; and Tim Murphy, vice president of strategy.
Northwest Medical Group welcomed the following staff: Dr. Sinan Simsir, a cardiothoracic surgeon, in Valparaiso; Dr. Saad Sikanderkhel, a cardiologist in Valparaiso; Dr. Timothy Husted, general surgeon, in Valparaiso; and Dr. Jeremy Luedtke, a general surgeon in Valparaiso.
Beacon Health System appointed leaders after acquiring Ascension Southwest Michigan: Carl Risk, president of Elkhart General Hospital since 2016, is president of Borgess Hospital and integration executive for the Ascension Southwest Michigan facilities, including Borgess Hospital, Borgess Allegan Hospital, Borgess-Lee Hospital and Borgess-Pipp Hospital, along with 35 outpatient clinics and an ambulatory surgery center; and Kari Snyder is vice president of nursing of Borgess Hospital. Snyder served as executive director of nursing at Elkhart General Hospital since 2024. Michael Johnson, vice president of operations at Elkhart General Hospital, will serve as interim president.
Hospitality
Chris Anderson was named executive vice president and chief operating officer of Merrillville-based White Lodging. He previously was vice president and chief commercial officer. He joined the company in 2015. Joe Pagone, regional vice president, was promoted to senior vice president of operations. He joined White Lodging in 2022. Anne Tabakian was promoted to vice president of food and beverage. She joined the company in 2016.
Law
Andre Gammage joined South Bend-based THK Law as an of counsel. Gammage served as a magistrate judge for the St. Joseph Circuit Court for more than 12 years.
Shelice and Michael Tolbert, of Tolbert and Tolbert LLC in Gary, were honored for business leadership at the Huami Magazine Community Awards Gala in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Logistics
Mark Nuchurch was appointed the manager of safety and compliance, a new position, at Anacostia Rail Holdings, which is the parent company of Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad.
Manufacturing
Seth Woolf joined Elkhart-based THOR Industries as head of corporate development and investor relations. Woolf most recently was a portfolio manager with J. Goldman & Co.
Tristan Scoble was promoted from regional sales manager to director of sales at Urschel, a manufacturer of industrial food cutting machinery based in Chesterton. He started at the company in 2015 in Midwest sales.
Marketing
The Barbauld Agency in Valparaiso was one of seven finalists for a Shorty Award in the paid and amplification category for a campaign the agency completed for Porter-based Trailer Transit.
Media
Capital B Gary won six awards from the Indiana Society of Professional Journalists: Calvin Davis, first place, government and politics coverage, and first place, election and campaign reporting; Jenae Barnes, first place, feature writing, and second place, coverage of racial and diversity issues; Rayonna Burton-Jernigan, second place, feature writing; and best newsletter, second place.
Nonprofit
Opportunity Enterprises, based in Valparaiso, elected three board members: Jonathan Hildebrand, senior commercial loan officer at Horizon Bank; Tonya Stanley, senior director of real estate services and administration at NiSource; and Matthew Wells, president and CEO of One Region and chief engagement officer at Purdue University Northwest. Outgoing board members were Alison Boissy, Valparaiso University student and OE board intern through May; Patrick Lyp, attorney of the city of Valparaiso; and John Freyek, Horizon Bank, former OE board chair. Beth Casbon, of Komyatte & Casbon, begins her second year as OE’s board chair; Denise Conlon, who retired from NIPSCO, is board vice chair; Erin Hawkins, of Valparaiso Community Schools, is secretary; and Shannon Lee of Shannon C. Lee & Associates is treasurer.
The Duneland Exchange Club was named Club of the Year during the Exchange Clubs of Indiana convention in Fishers. Wendy Haas was named President of the Year; Maria Bachuchin received Secretary of the Year; and Mary Talbutt was honored for many years of service as state treasurer.
The Valparaiso Family YMCA inducted five new members to its board of directors: Realtor Anna Kenney, HR professional Rachel Zulich Wallace, Pastor Jared Kendall, UnitedHealthcare VP of Sales Mike Telesky and Valparaiso University student Meagan Koutsopanagos.
Craig Freyenberger was appointed CEO of the nonprofit Bringing Children Hope based in Valparaiso.
Real estate
Valparaiso-based RE/MAX Lifestyles announced sales performance awards: The Gottleber Experience (Jay and Roxanne Gottleber) earned the RE/MAX Executive Club Team Award and Top 100 Teams in the state; Minakshi Ghuman received the RE/MAX 100% Club Award and Office Top Contributor to Children’s Memorial Hospital; David Whitehead earned the RE/MAX 100% Club Award and Top 100 in the State; and the Matt Evans Team, (broker/owner Matt Evans, general manager Amy Mathews and broker associate Sarah Szczepanik) received the RE/MAX Chairman’s Club Award. The team placed third in commercial sales for the Indiana RE/MAX commercial network. They also placed among the Top 100 Teams in the state.
Small business
Valparaiso’s EarthWise, co-founded by Scott and Annmarie Severson, was named Innovative Small Business of the Year by the Indiana Small Business Development Center during Small Business Week. It’s Thriva system turns manure into fertilizer.
Jackie Scarborough opened A Court of Ink, a tattoo shop, in Michigan City.
Technology
Paul Miceli, Pulse Technology’s director of audio-visual, was named to the “Difference Maker” list by the national trade journal ENX Magazine. Miceli has been working at the company for 25 years. Miceli leads the new division, which offers conference room and audio visual as a service. Pulse, which is celebrating its 70th year, has an office in Merrillville. •
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