White Castle Opens Minnesota Restaurant … And More Industry News

MANAGEMENT CHANGES

Design firm Chute Gerdeman (Columbus, Ohio) hired three new team members and promoted one individual. David Birnbaum was promoted to director of retail architecture; Gayle Morrison joins the firm as director of business development; Doug Young joins as manager of business development; and Amanda Ward joins as manager of business development.

Lighting manufacturer Hera Lighting (Norcross, Ga.) hired William Bair and Derek Bair, of Bair Marketing, as new territory managers to cover the southeastern territory consisting of North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Hera also hired Steve Ducker and Guy Thomas, of SDC Sales & Consulting, to cover Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee.

Full-service branding and public relations firm DRS and Associates (Studio City, Calif.) hired Jennifer Cash as a PR/marketing coordinator.

Lighting manufacturer Halco Lighting Technologies (Norcross, Ga.) promoted Sharon Akins to southeast regional sales manager. Akins joined the Halco team in 2003 and most recently served as account manager.

Emeryville, Calif.-based Scientific Certification Systems (SCS), a third party verifier of environmental and sustainability claims, named Shayna Prunier as marketing and communications specialist for the environmental certification services division. In her new role, Prunier will handle the company’s marketing needs related to the certification of environmental claims and life-cycle assessment studies conducted for product manufacturers and industry organizations.

Patrick Blees, one of two principals at architecture, design and planning firm CMA (Minneapolis), received his license to practice architecture as a sole proprietor in the province of British Columbia, adding to his existing registrations in Alberta and Ontario.

STORE OPENING

Fast-food chain White Castle (Columbus, Ohio) opened a restaurant in Oak Park Heights, Minn.

BUSINESS BRIEFS

Fixture and mannequin supplier ADCOGroup World (St. Hubert, QC) became the exclusive distributor of Greneker (Los Angeles) mannequins in Canada.

Philips Lighting North America (Somerset, N.J.) won the 60-watt replacement bulb category of the Bright Tomorrow Lighting Prize (L Prize) competition hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy. Launched in 2008, the L Prize challenged the lighting industry to develop high-performance, energy-saving replacements for conventional light bulbs.