North Bay Business Journal

Bank of Marin Chief Financial Officer Christina Cook is leaving the bank. …

American AgCredit returned the largest dividend in its history to its members in 2012, the agriculture cooperative’s first year of positive loan growth since 2009. …

Citing an increase in income-generating assets and new loans, Summit State Bank (NASDAQ: SSBI) reported a 64 percent increase in net income for the first three months of 2013 and declared a larger quarterly dividend. …

AltaPacific Bank’s assets have grown steadily in the year since completing its merger with a Southern California-based bank, ending the first quarter 4.1 percent higher. …

NORTH BAY — At a time of reduced state funding for public education in California, some of the North Bay’s largest and most influential employers are launching and supporting initiatives that seek to bolster programs for students from elementary school through the college level.

Gary Heck, owner and president of Korbel Champagne Cellars and Kenwood Vineyards, became an honorary inductee of the Sonoma State University chapter of the Beta Gamma Sigma business honor society last month. …

Amid the rising popularity of a for-credit “Banking and Finance Academy” program operated in partnership with Santa Rosa City Schools, Redwood Credit Union recent took part in a new “Bite of Reality” financial literacy program in San Rafael. …

Dominican University’s Venture Greenhouse incubator and accelerator program will host a “Marinnovation” showcase for innovators and entrepreneurs from Marin County on May 15, with Netflix co-founder and Mill Valley resident Mitch Lowe as keynote. …

On May 10, College of Marin will host a celebration for its recently opened Science, Math and Nursing building at the school’s Kentfield Campus, featuring a lecture by alumnus Adam Steltzner from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Mars Rover “Curiosity” expedition. …

Stephen Olson, long-time agriculture instructor at Santa Rosa Junior College and a major force behind the college’s Shone Farm programs, has been selected to receive one of the school’s highest honors for staff, the President’s Medallion of Honor. …

Allen Wine Group, LLP, a Calistoga-based wine industry business advisory service and CPA firm, now offers bookkeeping services. …

Nine Marin County communities recently qualified for national “Green Power Community” recognition by the Environmental Protection Agency due to the countywide switch to renewable electric service from Marin Clean Energy. …

Rohnert Park-based sheet metal engineering and fabricator ASM Precision, Inc., purchased and installed a new AMADA EMLK 3610NT punch and laser combination machine. …

Zap Jonway Automobile (ZAAP), manufacturer of electric vehicles and other new energy vehicles with operations in Santa Rosa and China, is exhibiting at the 15th International Shanghai Automobile & Manufacturing Technology Exhibition. …

The city of Santa Rosa earned the highest achievement for its economic development programming — the Award of Excellence — from the California Association of Local Economic Development. …

Healdsburg’s SHED, a multifaceted market, café, coffee bar, fermentation bar and “modern Grange” event center is now open to the public. …

Commercial real estate leases and sales in the north San Francisco Bay Area

Massage Envy Spa’s Santa Rosa location hired a certified massage therapist in March, Susan Losinski. …

The Meritage Resort and Spa in Napa hired an additional group sales manager, Mary Jo Baird. …

Jen Birmingham, a sales associate in Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage’s Petaluma office, has been awarded membership in the company’s International Sterling Society, an honor bestowed upon the top Coldwell Banker sales associates worldwide. …

Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage announced that Gary Sumner, a sales associate in its Santa Rosa office, earned membership in the company’s International Diamond Society. …

Sonoma-based marketing agency V2 Wine Group appointed industry veteran Ken Meyerson director of national retail accounts. …

Kaiser Permanente employees in California, including about 4,700 in the North Bay, voted to stay with their current trade union, rather than switching, according to results announced Thursday afternoon by the National Labor Relations Board.

MILL VALLEY — Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE: RWT) today announced net income of $61 million for the first quarter of 2013, equivalent to 69 cents per diluted share and up 45.2 percent versus earnings in the first three months of last year.

NOVATO — Bank of Marin Chief Financial Officer Christina Cook to is leaving the bank to join Petaluma-based First California Mortgage Company. Bank of Marin has nearly doubled in size since Ms. Cook joined the bank as CFO and executive vice president in August of 2004, growing from $737 million in assets at the end of 2004 to $1.43 billion in assets as of March 31 of this year. The 35-year-old First California Mortgage has funded more than $200 billion in residential loans across the United States throughout its history.

NOVATO — Raptor Pharmaceutical Corp. (Nasdaq: RPTP) today said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its drug designed for the treatment of nephropathic cystinosis, a rare and possibly life-threatening metabolic disorder.

It’s the first FDA-approved product for Raptor, started in 2005 by former executives and researchers of Novato-based BioMarin Pharmaceutical, itself a developer of treatments for rare diseases.

U.S. commercial launch is expected by July. FDA approval triggers the second of two $25 million payments to Raptor.

After returning from the annual executive conference for Western Independent Bankers, a community bank trade group, Russell Colombo, president and CEO of Bank of Marin, said that leaders in the industry are starting to express greater optimism after a historically challenging economic period. …

Loans and deposits have grown at Bank of Napa, N.A., with net assets growing 8.2 percent over the course of a year and approaching $150 million as of March 31. …

The Northern California Center for Well Being is expanding its wellness services into Petaluma. …

Sausalito-based Sanovas Inc. announced the launch of MicroCam, its micro imaging platform for endoscopic device applications. …

Rick Jones of Jones Family Vineyard and the E. Richard Jones Family Foundation joined the board of directors at Clinic Ole in Napa. …

St. Helena Hospital Napa Valley was recognized by Becker’s Hospital Review with the fifth-lowest rate of serious blood clots after surgery of over 4,000 Medicare-certified hospitals in the U.S. …

Ukiah Valley Medical Center’s Family Birth Center has received the IBCLC Care Award by the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners and the International Lactation Consultant Association. …

Santa Rosa-based REACH Air Medical Services announced it received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to use its own GPS approaches and routes, directly to hospitals and landing sites in Western Oregon. …

The “Top Deals and the People Who Made Them Happen” represent the top leases and sales in Marin, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties. They are based on submissions by brokerages and Business Journal research.

Commercial real estate leases and sales in the north San Francisco Bay Area

Melissa Bastianon and Cathy Miller are the newest members of Frank Howard Allen Realtors’ Sebastopol office. …

Michael Moffett, a Coldwell Banker Commercial Brokers of the Valley agent in Napa, earned a spot in the company’s Bronze Level Circle of Distinction. …

Jeanette Ditter, a sales associate in Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage’s Santa Rosa office, earned membership in the company’s International Diamond Society. …

Petaluma-based Cyan appointed Joe Cumello chief marketing officer. …

Sonoma County Tourism certified its 500th “tourism ambassador”: Randy Johnson, owner of Getaway Adventures. …

Marin Clean Energy unveiled a new, free energy savings tool available to homeowners in the Marin County and Richmond. … Novato City Council voted unanimously for the city become a customer of Marin Clean Energy ….

Restoration Hardware Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: RH), based in Corte Madera, reported net revenues increased 25 percent for its 2012–2013 fiscal year. …

Town Center Corte Madera (shopttowncenter.com) recently completed a renovation of the center’s office building, whose lobby now has what’s possibly Marin County’s first indoor “living wall.” …

North Bay Leadership Council is gearing up for the third year of its Algebra Academy program this summer in San Rafael and Novato. …

AT&T expanded its high-speed 4G LTE cell phone network to include areas of the North Bay. …

Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE: MDT), whose Cardio and Vascular division is based in Santa Rosa, announced Food and Drug Administration 510(k) clearance and the first U.S. clinical uses of its new Affinity Fusion oxygenation system. …

April 6, 2013: Hospice by the Bay honored during its annual Mary Taverna Quality of Life Reception

NOVATO — Bank of Marin Bancorp (NASDAQ: BMRC), parent company of Bank of Marin, today reported net income in the first three months of 2013 increased from the prior quarter and was level with income a year before.

The bank realized a net recovery on troubled loans for the first time in several years.

SANTA ROSA — To help strengthen local business access to global markets, keep jobs at home and provide North Bay companies with information they can use to expand and facilitate foreign trade, the Sonoma County Economic Development Board and the U.S. Department of Commerce plan to co-host a first-of-its-kind export seminar in Petaluma on May 9.

In other import-export news, a proposed expansion of the existing Foreign Trade Zone No. 3 to encompass much of the North Bay has moved closer to completion.

Exchange Bank announced its after-tax income for the first three months this year was 9 percent higher than a year before, partly attributed to improvements in efficiency and loan quality. …

A low interest rate environment a fierce competition for loans was cited for a decline in first quarter earnings for San Rafael-based Westamerica Bank, with parent company Westamerica Bancorporation announcing net income had fallen 17.6 percent versus the same period last year. …

Terry Davis has joined Santa Rosa’s SAFE-BIDCO as chief financial officer, his latest leadership role in a long history as a North Bay banking executive. …

Kimberly Kaselionis, who served as CEO of the former Circle Bank, has joined her mother, Kit Cole, as an inductee in the Marin Women’s Hall of Fame. …