Awards The Valley Industry and Commerce Association announced its first Excellence in Business Awards June 7. Recipients included Toolshed Inc. of Northridge for Start-Up Entrepreneurial Company of the Year; Meet Each Need With Dignity of Pacoima for Not-for-Profit Organization of the Year; Precision Dynamics Corp. of San Fernando for VICA Member Company of the Year; the San Fernando Valley Business Journal for Small Business of the Year; and Irwin Rosenberg, vice president for Laidlaw Transit Services of Sherman Oaks for Executive of the Year. VICA award recipients were selected through a secret ballot distributed to VICA members and tabulated by the independent auditing firm of Grant Thornton LLP. Ron Bension of Sega Gameworks LLC in Glendale won the 2001 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the entertainment/communications category. Monty Fu of Syncor International Corp., headquartered in Woodland Hills, won in the health sciences category. Errol Ginsberg of Ixia in Calabasas won the award in the technology category. Insurance Health Net of California has promoted Gary Jenkins to senior vice president and chief sales officer. In his new capacity, Jenkins is responsible for commercial sales activity throughout California. He is based at the company’s Northern California headquarters in Oakland. Lance Lang, M.D. has been named vice president and senior medical director of quality improvement and medical informatics for Health Net of California. Most recently, Lang was chief medical officer for CareAssured.com, an Internet-based health plan, where he developed the delivery system models for health care provider contracting, reimbursement, care management and quality improvement. Carl Romstadt has been promoted to vice president of labor and trust for Health Net of California. He will be responsible for the development, administration and management of the sales functions for product lines benefiting members in labor and trust organizations. Internet/Technology Westlake Village-based Diodes Inc., a semiconductor manufacturer and supplier, primarily to the communications, computing, electronics and automotive industries, has named Keh-Shew Lu to its board of directors. Lu has been senior vice president of Texas Instruments and manager of its Worldwide Mixed-Signal Products Semiconductor Group since June 1998. Oliver Woyke is Diodes’ new European sales manager. Woyke’s responsibilities will include the development and management of Diodes’ manufacturers’ representative network. Westlake Village-based engineering service provider Aprisa Inc. announced that Mitchell Mondry, co-founder of the Michigan-based private investment firm M Group Inc., has joined Aprisa’s board of directors. M Group was a participant in Aprisa’s second round of funding in February 2000. As vice president of M Group, which specializes in high-tech businesses, Mondry currently sits on the boards of several of the firm’s portfolio companies including Crystallize, KnowledgeLINKS, Paramount Bank, Batteries.com and Stoneage.com. Jim Noonan has been named to the newly created position of senior vice president and general manager, Warner Bros. Online. Noonan will oversee the day-to-day operations of Warner Bros. Online and its Web site, www.warnerbros.com, including production, sales, marketing, legal and business affairs, technology and original programming. Douglas T. Parrish has been named senior vice president, technology and chief information officer for the Walt Disney Internet Group. Parrish will be responsible for overseeing the technology platform, infrastructure and applications for The Walt Disney Co.’s Internet properties. Medical/Pharmaceutical North American Scientific Inc. announced that Robert Morgan has been appointed vice president, regulatory affairs of its subsidiary Theseus Imaging Corp. In this newly created position, Morgan will be responsible for developing and implementing regulatory and drug development strategies in support of Theseus’ development programs in the areas of cardiology and oncology. Research Financial consultant Ken Cafferty was appointed to Pollution Research and Control Corp’s board of directors. Cafferty will serve on a three-man audit committee as an independent, enabling the Glendale company to conform to NASDAQ-small cap audit committee composition requirements. Small Business The United Chambers of Commerce has announced its 2001 Small Business Award honorees. The honorees are: Jim Rule, Acorn Newspaper; Dorothy Barnett, Barnett Notary Public; A.J. Scola, Secural Services Corporation; Sandy Sanderson, Dependable Dodge; Bill Lanting, Radisson Hotel Chatsworth; Gilda Cohen, Gilda R. Cohen, a Law Corp.; Jake Parunian, Kenn Cleaners; Thomas H. Fry, Crown Disposal; Marty Laff, Edward Jones Investments; Joyce Williams, Phoenix House; Stephen L.A. Callahan and Millicent G. Callahan, Thomas F. White Co. Inc. Investment Brokers; Matthew Hunter, Hunter Communications; Mike Berns, Good Swartz Brown & Berns; Bill Slater, Apex Electronics; Mary Lee Tiernan, Snoop’s Desktop Publishing; Bonnie Bernard, Bonnie Bernard Flowers 4U; Paul Lawlor, Farmers Insurance Company; Paul Jacobs, Professional Stationers, Inc.; Lorraine Hasson, Mr. B’s Flowers; Michael J. Miller, State Farm Insurance; and Bob Caine, Caine & Weiner. Telecommunications Chatsworth-based Pacific Coast Cabling has appointed key personnel to management positions. General Manager Tim McManus is overseeing all company sales and operations. McManus has been at Pacific Coast Cabling 10 years and served as the company’s project operations manager since 1991. Human Resources Director Carol Wieser is overseeing the direction of the company’s human resources department. Wieser previously worked as vice president of human resources.