North Bay Business Journal

Construction

Jerry Novak

Firma Design Group announced Jerry Novak, P.E., has joined its team in Novato. He has over 30 years experience, the last 26 with the city of Novato where he was principal civil engineer in charge of managing project designs for the city’s Capital Improvement Program and construction management section, as well as acting public works director during vacancies and vacations. With Firma Design Group, he will be heading up the engineering management and design for public works projects. 

Energy

Enphase Energy, Inc. announced the hiring of several new executives: Ciaran Fox is the new vice president of quality and reliability for Enphase. Mr. Fox previously held key quality and product positions at Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and IBM, and he holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in material science and engineering from Stanford University; Martin Rogers has been appointed vice president of customer service and support. Mr. Rogers comes to Enphase with over 20 years experience, having previously worked for Schneider Electric and in renewables at Power-One; Steve Lapointe has been appointed vice president of human resources. He has 20 plus years of human resources experience leading global teams. He joins Enphase from his most recent senior human resources position at Cadence Design Systems. Enphase also announced the departure of Vice President of Engineering Dennis Hollenbeck, who retired at the end of November. A search for his replacement is currently under way.

Wine

Pamela Jessup-Carter

Napa Valley’s Arrow&Branch Estate Vineyard named Pamela Jessup-Carter as director of sales. A resident of Sonoma, Ms. Jessup-Carter has worked as a vintner with Jessup Cellars and opened the first tasting room in Yountville in 2004. She most recently was director of sales at Porthos, an Internet-based wine retailer, and a member of the Wine Insiders tasting panel.

Miljenko “Mike” Grgich was among several California winemakers represented when the Smithsonian National Museum of American History opened its first major exhibition on food history — “FOOD: Transforming the American Table 1950–2000” on Nov. 20. A major section of the exhibition focuses on the revolution in American wine in the second half of the 20^th-Century and the exhibition features the 1973 chardonnay Mr. Grgich made that won the 1976 Paris Tasting. The 89-year-old, Croatia-born Mr. Grgich has 55 Napa Valley harvests under his belt. Violet Grgich represented her father at the exhibit’s opening reception on November 18^th and presented Grgich Hills Estate Chardonnay.