NEWSMAKERS

As the new corporate vice president of finance and chief financial officer for IRIS International Inc., Amin Khalifa will help lead the $100 million public company in a fast growing, fast changing industry. With more than 30 years of senior finance and corporate management experience, having served as CFO of such companies as Apria Healthcare, Beckman Coulter, and Leap Wireless, Khalifa will oversee the company’s finance, accounting, investor relations and IT functions, and help chart its growth in burgeoning fields. A manufacturer of in-vitro diagnostics based in Chatsworth, IRIS focuses on products that analyze particles and living cell forms and structures of body fluids. While the company’s core of business has been in the urinalysis market and is a worldwide provider of automated urine testing systems, IRIS is now expanding in the rapidly growing field of personalized medicine, said Khalifa. Personalized medicine, he explained, is driving diagnostic tests to become increasingly specific when it comes to determining whether a person is predisposed to a specific disease, in asserting what type of treatment an individual would be most responsive to, and in determining whether the individual is likely to relapse after surgery. “With the recent acquisition of a CLIA-certified laboratory, IRIS is entering the personalized medicine market and will have the ability to commercialize proprietary assays based on its NADIA (Nucleic Acid Detection Immunoassay) technology platform,” said Khalifa. In fact, the company has one of these diagnostic tests pending clearance from the FDA, geared specifically to determine which prostate cancer patients have a low risk of relapse after surgery, aiding in the determination of treatment post-operation. “In addition, the company’s product pipeline includes an image based hematology analyzer with expanded differentials. In the past, when you measured complete blood counts, you were more interested in the total counts, now everybody is more interested in the nature of those cells and there’s a lot more specificity that goes into the diagnostics, that’s the core of what we do.” IRIS International is projecting 12-17 percent growth for 2010, expecting more than $100 million in revenues this year. “The biggest challenge is in this area of personalized medicine; how to grow that business quickly while maintaining a good progress in our earnings. Our goal is to balance our investment with the growth expectation of our shareholders.” Khalifa is not new to the healthcare and diagnostics industry. He served as executive vice president and CFO of Apria Healthcare, the largest U.S. home healthcare company with revenues of $1.5 billion; and as vice president and CFO of Beckman Coulter, Inc. a $2 billion life science and diagnostics company. He will report directly to the chairman, president and CEO of Iris. He replaces Martin S. McDermut who served as acting chief financial officer since May 2010. – Andrea Alegria Autos Superior Industries International, Inc., based in Van Nuys, named Kerry A. Shiba as senior vice president and chief financial officer. He succeeds Emil (Bud) Fanelli, the company’s vice president and corporate controller since 1997, who had been serving as interim CFO for the last 12 months. Shiba, 55, most recently was senior vice president/chief financial & restructuring officer and president of the original equipment business unit of Remy International, Inc., a supplier of components to automobile and truck manufacturers. He previously held a number of senior management positions with Kaiser Aluminum Corporation, including senior vice president and chief financial officer, and served in senior financial management roles with The BF Goodrich Company. Shiba began his career as a Certified Public Accountant at Ernst & Ernst, now Ernst & Young, LLP. Brett Lippel has joined Peak Performance as vice president of sales. Brett was most recently the vice president of sales for Zag.com. Previously, he held the position of vice president/general manager for Enterprise Rent A Car. Peak Performance, based in Northridge, is a major national provider of measurable customer relationship management solutions to automotive dealerships. Awards Linda Hafizi received the 2010 Healthcare Leadership Award, presented by Congressman Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Santa Clarita. Hafizi has been a part of the Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Health Foundation Board of Directors for seven years and publishes The Magazine of Santa Clarita. The award highlights her volunteering and philanthropic activities including her help and contributions towards the Campaign for the Next Generation of Care in support of Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital’s new ER. Glendale Water & Power’s general manager, Glenn Steiger was awarded with one of five leadership awards from Gridweek for his vision and contributions to advancing the Smart Grid. The Leadership Awards were presented on October 20, at a celebration hosted at GridWeek 2010 in Washington, D.C. – a national conference focused on the Smart Grid’s impact on the economy, the electric utility infrastructure, consumers and the environment Steiger received the Deployment Award for overseeing and taking part in the deployment of one of the most comprehensive, multi-phase smart grid projects. Banking Justin Chamberlain has been named Wells Fargo Community Banking store manager for the El Camino Center banking store located in Woodland Hills. Chamberlain will manage a team of 15 financial services professionals at the former Wachovia bank store. He has served the local community for the past five years in various Wells Fargo retail banking positions, including store manager, service manager and teller for several banking locations. Most recently, he was the Malibu bank store manager for two years. Entertainment Sean Cocchia was named senior vice president and general manager of Radio Disney, a national network of 35 radio stations that reach 57 percent of the country with programming for children and tweens. He also has oversight of RadioDisney.com, a Sirius/XM satellite channel and applications that bring the radio station to mobile devices. He succeeds Michael Riley, who recently was named president of ABC Family. Cocchia has been an executive with Disney since 1998, most recently as senior vice president of business planning and development for Disney Channels Worldwide. Alana Russo has been named vice president, corporate communications, The CW, reporting to Paul Hewitt, senior vice president, network communications. In her new role, Russo will manage The CW’s corporate media relations and communications, including handling trade and business press relating to the network’s executives, marketing strategies, digital efforts, ad sales and ratings. She will be based in The CW’s Burbank offices. Russo joins The CW from MSNBC in New York, where she had been the senior director of media relations for the network since 2007. Law Attorney Kira S. Masteller of Michelman & Robinson, LLP was appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger to the California Prison Industry Authority Board of Directors. Masteller, chair of the firm’s Trusts & Estates Department, serves on the San Fernando Valley Bar Association as a board member and diversity committee chair. She is also a trustee of the San Fernando Valley Estate Planning Council and is the treasurer of the Trusts & Estates Executive Committee of the Los Angeles Bar Association. One of only four members appointed by the Governor, she will assist in the oversight of the California Prison Industry Authority, the agency which operates the state’s prison industries and serves as a public hearing body. She will serve a four-year term. Manufacturing Delta Scientific, a manufacturer of counter-terrorist vehicle control systems used in the United States and internationally, named Greg Hamm vice president – sales and marketing. Hamm, a five-year employee of the company, has been national sales manager for the past two years. He has played a major role in sales, project management, application engineering and corporate strategic planning. Hamm’s promotion is a result of the company’s rapid growth in delivering record numbers of vehicle access systems to customers around the globe. Technology TouchCommerce, Inc., in Agoura Hills, appointed three executives to key management positions. Tony Rodriquez joins as chief financial officer, Steve Dille as the senior vice president of marketing, and Kamal Kirpalani as the vice president for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). Rodriquez is responsible for the direction of TouchCommerce’s financial strategy. Previously, he served as a CFO Partner at Tatum LLC where he provided pre-IPO and interim financial, strategic and operating leadership for various publicly traded companies. As the former vice president of finance for ValueClick Inc., Rodriquez led more than 13 mergers and acquisitions during a period of revenue growth from $40 million in annual revenue to a $500 million annual run rate. Prior to joining TouchCommerce, Dille was the senior vice president of products for AdPortal, which was recently sold to Glam Media. He was responsible for the company’s software product strategy, engineering, and marketing. Previously, Dille served as the executive director and global head of marketing for Morgan Stanley Capital International where he also served on the operating committee. Kirpalani is based out of the TouchCommerce Paris office, and is responsible for defining and executing the EMEA go-to-market strategy. Prior to joining TouchCommerce, Kirpalani was the director of international sales for Bazaarvoice, where he was responsible for establishing the company’s European market presence. Chatsworth-based MRV Communications has named Barry R. Gorsun as president of the firm’s Optical Communications Systems (OCS) Division. Gorsun replaces Mary Jane Gruninger, who is leaving the firm after 19 years. Gorsun was most recently managing partner at BayState Capital, an investment firm, and also previously served at Summa Four, a firm he headed up and eventually sold to Cisco Systems in 1998. Gorsun reports to MRV’s CEO, Dilip Singh. MRV is a provider of optical transport equipment, optical components, and other related products.