BUSINESS PEOPLE: Five Star Wealth Manager Award goes to Gulfside Wealth director
Jared Motzenbecker, director of Wealth Services for Gulfside Wealth, a full-service wealth management group affiliated with Gulfside Bank, was recently awarded the Five Star Wealth Manager Award.
Five Star Professional employs a rigorous research process to identify Five Star Wealth Manager award winners in cities across the U.S. Award-winning professionals were carefully selected from among thousands of wealth managers for their knowledge, service and experience.
Five Star Professional identified award candidates based on industry data, and nominations received from industry firms and individuals (self-nominations are not accepted). Only candidates who satisfied 10 objective eligibility and evaluation criteria have been named Five Star Wealth Managers.
Motzenbecker is a Certified Financial Planner practitioner, Chartered Market Technician and Certified Private Wealth Advisor professional. He has worked in the financial services industry for more than 15 years.
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Marlene Smelko Merkle, CEO of the Venice Area Board of Realtors, is celebrating 40 years in her position. Merkle is one of the longest tenured not-for-profit CEOs in Sarasota County.
She coordinates the Multiple Listing Service, education programs, and community fundraising events for over 1200 real estate agents and affiliate members.
Merkle was recently honored as one of the Top 40 Business Professionals in Venice.
Over the years, the Venice Board has been awarded 15 Achievement and 17 Education awards from Florida Realtors. The Board was also honored as the Venice Area Chamber Business of the year.
Through its fundraising efforts, the Board has donated over $450,000 in scholarships to local graduating seniors.
Merkle earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
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The Neuro Challenge Foundation for Parkinson’s has hired Jennifer Bushinger-Ortiz as development director. She will develop and implement NCF’s strategic plan to raise funds vital to its programs and operation.
NCF, in Sarasota, helps people with Parkinson’s and their caregivers navigate the complexities of managing the disease by providing individualized support, services, programs and community resource referrals.
Bushinger-Ortiz’s previous job was vice president of philanthropy for the Loveland Center.
She has over 15 years of experience in professional theater in the performing, administrative and educational arenas. She performed in two national children’s theater tours, directed Off-Broadway and wrote/directed two original pieces for the United Nations World Religion Conference and the United Nation/National Global Organization’s International Commission on the Status of Women Summit.
Her expertise expanded to marketing and public relations work with Cirque du Soleil, Street Meet Promotions, Big Apple Circus and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.
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N. Macaire King and Meghan E. O’Connell have joined the law firm of Icard, Merrill, Cullis, Timm, Furen, and Ginsburg, P.A., as associates in the Sarasota office.
King’s practice is focused primarily in the areas of land use, land use litigation and commercial real estate. She has experience representing developers, landowners and others on issues such as rezoning, special exceptions, comprehensive plan amendments and a variety of other land-use related matters.
O’Connell is a litigation attorney practicing in the areas of personal injury and general civil litigation.
King has a J.D. from Florida State University College of Law. She actively served on three of the university’s four legal journals, including serving as the editor-in-chief of the Journal for Land Use and Environmental Law as well as serving on the executive board of the Florida State University Law Review as a notes and comments editor.
She has an undergraduate degree in history with a minor in political philosophy and economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
O’Connell has a J.D. from Stetson University College of Law, graduating magna cum laude. While in law school, she served as a senior associate for Stetson Law Review, competed on the nationally ranked Trial Team and Dispute Resolution Board, and participated in the Stetson Law Honors Program. She spent a semester as an intern for a federal magistrate judge in the Middle District of Florida in Tampa.
O’Connell has an undergraduate degree in legal studies with a concentration in advocacy from the University of Central Florida, graduating summa cum laude.
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The University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus has named two new members of its senior leadership team.
Kristi Hoskinson, has been named assistant vice president for strategy and campus initiatives. She is a veteran business and government executive with extensive experience in program management, employee training and development, marketing and communications, and consulting.
Danielle McCourt has been named director of University Communications and Marketing on the Sarasota-Manatee campus. McCourt previously served as assistant director and associate director.
Hoskinson, who joined USF in October, will work with other campus officials to shape the direction of myriad projects, including the development of the Baldwin Risk Partners School of Risk Management and Insurance and planning for a new Nursing/STEM building, a centerpiece of campus expansion efforts.
Previously, Hoskinson was vice president of CareerEdge at the Sarasota Chamber of Commerce, in charge of its workforce development program. She also has held positions with Manatee County government, the School District of Manatee County and FCCI Insurance Group.
As director of communications and marketing, McCourt will play a key role in telling the Sarasota-Manatee campus story, shaping communications strategies, overseeing university marketing and branding efforts and collaborating with others on the senior leadership team.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Professional wins Five Star Wealth Manager Award, lawyers hired
