North Bay Business Journal

SANTA ROSA — Star Staffing announced that it has opened a new office near the Sonoma County airport in Santa Rosa, marking the Petaluma-based staffing company’s fourth office in Northern California.

NAPA — From a farmer of thousands of North Coast acres of winegrapes to producers of Napa Valley’s most prestigious wine brands to a broker of industry mergers and acquisitions, the speaker lineup for the Business Journal’s Impact Napa conference later this month includes major figures in Napa County’s wine industry.

The Napa Valley faces three paths towards its economic future, options that Beacon Economics Founding Principal Chris Thornberg said should have a common starting point for policy makers: early planning and clear vision to build on the strength that wine and tourism have brought to the region.

Homebuilder-turned-vintner Bart Araujo and his wife, Daphne, purchased the acclaimed 39-acre Eisele Vineyard just east of Calistoga in 1990.

Mr. Araujo will be a panelist at the Impact Napa 2012 conference the morning of Aug. 30. He spoke with the Business Journal about the challenges and opportunities facing a high-end, small-production Napa Valley winery.

Since starting his quest for the ultimate Napa Valley expression of a Bordeaux wine blend in the early 1980s, Jayson Pahlmeyer has provided a stage for several rising winemaker stars, such as Randy Dunn and Helen Turley.

Mr. Pahlmeyer will be a panelist at the Impact Napa 2012 conference the morning of Aug. 30. He and winery President Brian Hilliard spoke with the Business Journal about the tough business climate in the past three years and opportunities for increasing demand from the next generation of fine-wine lovers.

Real estate and corporate attorney Mario Zepponi started Zepponi & Company as a wine industry mergers and acquisitions consulting practice.

Mr. Zepponi will be part of a panel discussion at the Impact Napa 2012 conference the morning of Aug. 30. He spoke with the Business Journal about the rapidly changing landscape for wine M & A.

Andy Beckstoffer was trained as an engineer, but he’s been training North Coast vines to produce world-class wines for four decades. He acquired what is now Beckstoffer Vineyards in 1973.

Mr. Beckstoffer will be a panelist at the Impact Napa 2012 conference the morning of Aug. 30. He spoke with the Business Journal about how the 2012 crop has been faring, whether or not the North Coast has a shortage of winegrapes and the impact of any crimp in supply on grape and wine prices.

ROHNERT PARK — Sonoma State University welcomed the first group of students into its newly revamped part-time MBA program last week, the newest iteration of a 25-year-old program that was developed to include the latest teaching methods and input from the North Bay business community.

Welcome to the North Bay Business Journal’s inaugural survey of wealth managers serving the North Bay. This section brings together a very broad range of wealth management advisers representing many approaches and sizes.

It includes a list of managers who chose to participate in and passed the rigorous survey testing of the National Association of Board Certified Advisory Practices.

The Business Journal also contacted a wide range of advisers across the North Bay to seek their insights into the current conditions of the investment markets.

The Business Journal surveyed wealth management advisers across the North Bay on three questions related to the investment climate today and long term.

Wealth managers surveyed were Colleen Supran of Bingham, Osborn & Scarborough, Charles Root of Double Eagle Financial, Steven Jenkins of Exchange Bank, Brian Pon of Financial Connections, James Burleson of Greenleaf & Burleson Wealth Management, Neil Hennessy of Hennessy Funds, Noah Jacobson of Jacobson & Breen Wealth Strategies, James Demmert of Main Street Research, Montgomery Taylor of Montgomery Taylor & Company, John Whiting of Moss Adams Wealth Advisors, Greg Friedman of Private Ocean, Clark Jorgensen of Private Wealth Partners, Michael Gradl of Redwood Credit Union, Michael Schmitz of Schmitz Capital Partners, Eric Aanes of Titus Wealth Management, Jon Mallon of UBS Financial Services, Evan Oliver of VERITY Wealth Advisors, Henry Pilger of Vista Wealth Management, Irv Rothenberg of Wealth Management Consultants, Bruce Dzieza of Willow Creek Financial Services and Alice King of Wine Country Wealth Management.

Health care Cotati-based medical transportation provider ProTransport-1 has received an undisclosed investment from Boston’s New Heritage Capital, one that the company said will help bolster ambitious growth initiatives. Sapheon Inc. in Santa Rosa announced one year data in a 38-patient clinical study of the VenaSeal Sapheon Closure System, an advanced approach to the treatment of [...]

Banking and Finance Bank of America Merrill Lynch announced the following staff additions: Mark Mokelke joined the office in Santa Rosa as a senior client manager and senior vice president.  A graduate of the University of San Francisco, Mr. Mokelke has been with Bank of America Merrill Lynch for the past 13 years, working in [...]

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

North San Francisco Bay Area events of interest to the business community

You probably know how much revenue or income you produced last month. You probably have a figure in mind for sales over the next few years. But if you’re like most businesses, you’ve never done the exercise to determine your current capacity to reach these targets.

Armed with findings from the group’s recently completed “100 in 100″ initiative, BEST will use concerns gathered from more than 100 Sonoma County executives to guide their focus in the coming months, specifically in respect to efforts related to business retention and expansion.

SANTA ROSA — Recent trends in technology have influenced the continuing evolution of both instruction and infrastructure at the Empire College School of Law, with a library that increasingly leans towards digital options and a newly developed course to consider emerging legal questions.