SBWire

New product with enhanced security, CAN interface, MQTT protocol that can be used in a wide range of remote sensors monitoring, industrial automation projects

Amy Shair, a Realtor covering Cary, Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill, was named the No. 1 agent for home sales in North Carolina in March 2016.

Royal Oaks Building Group, LLC in conjunction with the Holly Springs Chamber of Commerce, held a ribbon cutting Oct. 11 for Forest Springs, a new residential community located off U.S. Highway 55 in Holly Springs, N.C. Homes start from the $190s and include floorplans that include from ranch homes, first-floor owner’s suites, homes with basements and three-story homes. Included in each property are granite kitchen tops, stainless steel appliances and luxurious baths, and all are Energy Star Certified. The community will feature a swimming pool, coming summer of 2012, and offers easy access to most points in the Triangle, which is just minutes away in driving to Interstate 40, U.S. Highway 64 and U.S. 1, among other main thoroughfares.

Patty Briguglio, president of MMI Public Relations, a Raleigh-based full-service public relations firm, has announced that the company is sponsoring the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce Connected Women of North Carolina Event, taking place Friday, Nov. 18 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the North Ridge Country Club located at 6612 Falls of Neuse Rd in Raleigh. The event, focusing on teaching women how to best utilize their personal value within the workplace, is an exciting chance to connect with other professional women in the Triangle, develop personal and professional skills and support a local charity. It will feature Katty Kay, lead anchor of BBC World News America and co-author of the New York Times bestseller, “Womenomics: Write Your Own Rules for Success,” as the keynote speaker.

Dean Ogan, owner of Rocky Top Hospitality, has announced that The Twisted Fork Restaurant & Bakery will provide customers free pumpkin pies with each whole dessert purchased from the bakery for the Thanksgiving holiday season. All dessert orders must be placed by Monday. Nov. 21 at 5 p.m. An award-winning bakery, recognized by Independent Weekly, City Search and Metro Magazine, The Twisted Fork serves a range of desserts, including cheesecakes, pies, handmade truffles, tortes and specialty cakes.

Bruce Clarke, president and CEO of CAI, a human resource management firm that helps organizations maximize employee engagement while minimizing employer liability, has announced the firm’s newly renovated company blog, Workplace Insights. Operating since April 2010, Workplace Insights offers human resource professionals, leadership teams and business executives weekly advice and practical information regarding employee development, engagement, compliance, workplace communications and functionality, and the overall human resource industry. With the user-friendly additions, readers can now subscribe to the blog for consistent updates on recently published content, easily search specific topics through the redesigned archive section and directly link to social media platforms, including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Deborah Todd, president of STATE Contracting, Inc., has announced that she will be speaking to high school women about potential careers in the contracting side of transportation as part of the Transportation YOU Program on Thursday, Nov. 17 at 6 p.m. at the Institute for Technology and Research Education on NC State University’s campus. Transportation YOU is a joint initiative of the North Carolina Triangle chapter of the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) and the U.S Department of Education that is designed to pair young women ages 13-18 with professionals in the transportation industry who serve as role models and resources. Through the program, WTS chapters offer programs and activities to young girls that will spark their interest in all modes of transportation, including introducing these girls to women who have been successful in their careers in transportation.

Bayer CropScience, one of the world’s top innovative crop science companies in the areas of crop protection, non-agricultural pest control, seeds and traits, has announced that it has made another three-year commitment to supporting the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina’s BackPack Program. The mission of the BackPack Program is to help the Food Bank meet the nutritional needs of children at risk of hunger during non-school hours over weekends and holidays. The program provides these children with backpacks of nutritional food that they can eat during non-school hours.

Don Walston, founder and executive chairman of Coldwell Banker Howard Perry and Walston, a full-service real estate firm, has announced that the firm has provided its more than 600 real estate agents with personal iPads, marking it the first real estate company in the United States to provide such services for all company agents. To accommodate the needs of the largest real estate company in North Carolina, Coldwell Banker Howard Perry and Walston opened a four-hour Apple store with representatives from both Apple and Verizon Wireless onsite to set up initial iPad services and train staff on general iPad functionality and usage at the Raleigh Regional Association of REALTORS® headquarters at 111 Realtors Way in Cary, N.C. on Tuesday, Nov. 15. The program is designed to provide the firm’s agents with 24/7 access to any information customers need, as well as the latest tools to optimize presentations and related items.

Laura A. Schoppe, president of Fuentek, LLC, a local technology consulting firm that provides intellectual property (IP) and technology transfer services, has announced that the firm has partnered with Knowledge Investors, a company headquartered in Vigo, Spain, to provide joint consulting and training services to the company’s clients in Europe. Knowledge Investors collaborates with universities, companies and investors to generate and develop business opportunities within the fields of science and technology, with the goal of increasing the return on investment in research and development (R&D) through technology transfer. Fuentek will begin by providing a series of webinars to Knowledge Investors’ clients on various tech transfer topics, including technology screening/triage, open innovation, and proactive IP management.

David Finch, president and CEO of ATCOM Business Technology Solutions, a communications solutions provider, has announced that Mike Moody has joined the firm as customer support representative to serve as the customer’s liaison to ATCOM’s service team by connecting calls to either the help desk or the field. Prior to his position with ATCOM, Moody was an electronic technician, and through the technician and engineering assistant series, he worked his way up to become an electrical engineer. He has additional experience working as a technical support engineer, where he provided pre-sales information and customer technical support via phone and email.

William Peace University, a private four-year university located in downtown Raleigh, has announced that Korrel Kanoy will serve as the university’s director of institutional research, where she will administer student assessments, both on the national and local level, to assist in the evaluation of academic progress. Through analysis of both academia and public opinion, Kanoy will use campus research collected for overall university improvements. With more than 30 years of service with William Peace University, beginning her career with the university as a psychology professor, Kanoy previously served as an assessment coordinator and associate dean for the university’s academic program evaluation.

MMI Public Relations, a Raleigh-based, full-service public relations firm, has announced that Emily Packard has joined the firm as an assistant account executive. In this position, Packard will leverage both traditional and emerging media to gain positive results for clients in a wide range of industries, including real estate, engineering, the arts, law, printing and more. Prior to joining MMI, Packard worked at a local marketing services company in Wake Forest, N.C. She earned bachelor’s degrees in journalism and mass communication, as well as political science, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, then completed a master’s degree in communication at NC State University.

Cherry, Bekaert & Holland, L.L.P. has announced that the firm will present and sponsor international roundtable series on structuring for U.S. multinationals in Atlanta, GA and Raleigh and Charlotte, N.C. from Nov. 15-17. A group of five panelists representing Dubai, Singapore, Luxembourg and Netherlands as well as CB&H will visit each of the three cities and explore various structuring best practices that can make the management of intellectual, human and financial capital more efficient. These discussions will focus on companies of all sizes that are developing paths to global markets and supply chains that reach across continents. The roundtables will be held at the following times, dates and locations.

Sponsorship Of Local Financial Advisory Firm To Benefit Artists, Educational Programming And Community Outreach

Joy Stroud Ruhmann, president of Level Up Leadership, a Raleigh-based management consulting firm that positions companies for success through values assessments, strategic execution management, and the strengthening of executive and organizational culture, has announced the release of a podcast on the topic of cultural tools. In the podcast, Ruhmann discusses how cultural values assessments can help leadership teams create employee development programs to increase morale, decrease negative cultural influences and promote positive organizational values. These values surveys also give management direction in building a strong culture while increasing productivity and profitability.

Gabrielle Settle, branch sales manager at the 1155 Kildaire Farm Road location of Crescent State Bank (http://www.crescentstatebank.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of Crescent Financial Corporation, (NASDAQ Global MarketSM), has announced that the branch will host a Fall Festival Hot Dog and Shred Day on Thursday, Nov. 17 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. To promote the bank’s Facebook page, bank representatives will enter everyone who “likes” the page into a raffle drawing for a $100 VISA gift card that will be given away at the Fall Festival event as well.

Rich Van Tassel, president of Royal Oaks Building Group, LLC, has announced that Jennifer Erwin has joined the company as a closing coordinator, a position in which she will supervise the closings of residential properties handled by the homebuilder. She has six years of experience in architecture and residential construction as an office manager, marketing manager and director of operations, and she is a licensed real estate broker for North Carolina. A native of Henderson, N.C., Erwin resides with her husband, Michael, in Youngsville, N.C.

Jeff Hatley, vice president of sales at Excel Moving & Storage (http://www.excelms.com), a moving and storage company with locations in Raleigh and Greensboro, N.C., and Charleston, S.C., has announced that the company will sponsor the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce’s “The Great Talent Search” event on Thursday, Nov. 10 from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at the Marbles Kids Museum located at 201 E. Hargett St. The event, presented in partnership with the Wake County Economic Development Program, will feature millennial panelists from Allscripts, Biogen IDEC, Cisco Systems, Inc. and MMI Public Relations. They will speak on the values millennials hold and why these workers are important to the local economy.

The upswing in the number of people seeking out winning opportunities in sweepstakes and contests is noticeable since the economic slump settled on the country and that kind of activity is a win-win for entrants and sponsors.

History was made at Campbell University’s Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law on Nov. 8 when the first all-North Carolina Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals panel of judges heard oral arguments at the school. 2010 marked the first year since the Court’s establishment in 1891 that North Carolina has had three judges sitting simultaneously on the court. Hearing cases in insurance law, civil rights and civil matters, Judges Albert Diaz, Allyson Duncan, and James Wynn Jr. represented the Fourth Circuit, which consists of Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, at the North Carolina Business Court at Campbell Law. More than 75 Campbell Law students, staff, faculty and federal officials attended the event.

Local Internet Marketing Consultant Randy Goins to Present Search Engine Marketing & Optimization Basics for Lawyers at NC Bar CLE Conference.

Triangle Business Journal awards Strategic Connections for the third year in a row as one of the Triangle’s fifty fastest growing private companies.

Conducted by the North Carolina Military Business Center (NCMBC), The Defense Contractor Academy offers training to businesses to further their success in the federal marketplace.

Nancy McFarlane, president of MedPro Rx, Inc. has announced that Ron McFarlane, chief operating officer for MedPro Rx, Inc., a Raleigh-based specialty pharmaceutical company, has been named a board member for the North Carolina League of Conservative Voters (formerly Conservation Council of NC), a pragmatic, non-partisan advocacy organization working statewide to protect, preserve, and enhance the quality of life for North Carolina citizens.

Justin Elliott, president of Harrison College’s Elkhart Campus, has announced that the College will offer a bachelor of science degree in business management at its Elkhart Campus beginning in January 2012. The program is designed for people who have already attained an associate’s degree in business management. Harrison College’s degree program is unique due to its flexible schedule where students are required to attend class only once every two weeks – a two-hour block every other Saturday – while the remaining coursework is completed online. Instructors are available to tutor students every Saturday. Most students will be able to complete the degree program in two years (seven quarters).

Eb Moore, CEO of Coldwell Banker Howard Perry and Walston, a full-service real estate firm, has announced that the firm has partnered with ZipRealty Inc., an Internet real estate search company. The partnership between the two real estate brands will provide both current and prospective clients with access to improved technology services, including a mobile application that will virtually enhance the real estate search process for Triangle residents. The web technology developed by ZipRealty, along with a collection of their tech-savvy real estate agents, will provide Coldwell Banker Howard Perry and Walston with an additional online sales channel to better serve the local market.