People in the News

STOCKTON
July 11, 2008 12:01am

• Sarah Jimenez has been hired as communications coordinator for the California State Association of Counties.

Ms. Jimenez brings five years of media experience to the position. She most recently served as public relations manager for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Sacramento and Northeastern California. Prior to that, she was a reporter for the Fresno Bee and covered county issues for nearly three years. She also spent a year as a producer for KGPE-TV, the CBS affiliate in Fresno.

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• Roberto Silva has been appointed regional manager for Latin America for Nvision of Grass Valley, a maker of broadcast television equipment.

Mr. Silva has more than 20 years experience in broadcast technologies and related fields, working for such companies as Philips, Barco, Telefonica, and DivX.

He joins Nvision following his senior management position at DivX, where he was responsible for successfully structuring the company’s start-up operations in South America.

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• Judith Neal, professor emerita of education at California State University, Fresno, has been appointed president of the Reading Recovery Council of North America, an 8,000-member international association dedicated to helping first graders who have extreme difficulty learning to read.

Ms. Neal is the former director of Fresno State’s Central California Reading Recovery Project. She supervised teacher training sites in five Western states and taught graduate-level courses for Reading Recovery teacher leaders.

Ms. Neal is founding editor of “The Journal of Reading Recovery” and served as its editor-in-chief from 2001 to 2006. She also edited “The Running Record: A Review of Theory and Practice for Reading Recovery Teachers” from 1997 to 2001.

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• Allen Lagarbo has been appointed Modesto’s deputy director of public works, overseeing the water services division.

Mr. Lagarbo has more than 27 years of service with the city of Modesto, most recently as the water division superintendent for ten years. Prior to that assignment, he held the position of city arborist for 14 years.

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• Steven Marshall, 41, of Wilton, has been appointed to the state Corrections Standards Authority. He has worked for the California Department of Corrections as a parole agent in Sacramento since 2006, parole agent for the Stockton Parole Unit #2 from 2000 to 2006, correctional sergeant at Mule Creek State Prison from 1998 to 2000 and correctional officer at Mule Creek State Prison from 1990 to 1998.

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• Ted Puntillo, 61, of Davis, has been appointed as deputy secretary for veteran services for the California Department of Veterans Affairs. Since 2002, he has served as a veteran's service officer for Yolo County Veteran’s Service Office.

From 2002 to 2006, Mr. Puntillo served on the Davis City Council and, from 1969 to 2001, he worked in a variety of positions for the U.S. Postal Service.

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• Lisa Cooley, 39, of Rancho Cordova, has been appointed to the State Council on Developmental Disabilities. She has served on the council since 2006. In 2006, Ms. Cooley worked as a resource counselor and career center assistant for Francis House. In 2005, she was a protection and advocacy contract associate and a protection and advocacy consultant for the Developmental Disabilities Peer Self Advocacy Unit.

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• Loreen McMahon, 51, of El Dorado Hills, has been appointed associate public adviser for the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission. Since 2007, she has served as an energy industry analyst for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

From 1991 to 2006, Ms. McMahon worked for the U.S. Department of Energy for the Western Area Power Administration as an environmental protection specialist, a project manager, National Environmental Policy Act compliance officer and document manager, Native American point of contact and contracting officer’s representative.

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• Peter Darbee has been named chief executive officer of Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

Mr. Darbee will retain his current titles of chairman, CEO and president of the utility’s parent company, PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG).

He replaces William Morrow, who quit.

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• Christi Skibbins has been hired as executive director of the Davis Chamber of Commerce.

Ms. Skibbins began her business career in St. Helena where she was founding director of Cherrystone Child Care Center. In 1999, she was named executive administrator for COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts.

Most recently, she was sales coordinator for Donsuemor, Inc, a manufacturer of Madeleine cookies located in Alameda that distributes gourmet cookies nationwide.

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• Gil Llacuna has been named vice president and corporate controller of Schilling Robotics Inc., of Davis, and,

• Sally Larocca has become its first vice president of human resources.

Mr. llacuna’s resume includes posts with VeriFone, GE, and Arthur Andersen.

Ms. Larocca has experience at companies in the Davis-Sacramento area, including EdFund, Yamas Controls Incorporated, and Intel Corporation.

Schilling makes deep-ocean robitic equipment.