Executive Appointments: 19 October 2009

Mayor names public safety assistant, Lipscomb lures Pepperdine administrator, and more... [From our print edition featured in Monday's City Paper]

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Allen joins Barge Waggoner

Tommy Allen has joined the Nashville office of Barge Waggoner Sumner & Cannon Inc. as mechanical group manager. Allen specializes in the design of process systems, remote power production systems, and green power production.

Allen possesses over 30 years of experience, most recently as director of engineering for Energy Developments Inc. of Nashville. His experience also includes more than 10 years with I.C. Thomasson as a senior mechanical engineer.

Mayor appoints attorney special assistant

Mayor Karl Dean has named Diane Lance, a former assistant district attorney and active community volunteer, a special assistant in his office. Lance will work on policy research and on projects related to public safety and community issues.

Most recently, Lance worked as a private attorney and as general counsel for a locally based real estate investment firm. Before that, she served for five years in the district attorney’s office, mainly prosecuting crimes against children.

BMI promotes Clary

Broadcast Music Inc. has promoted Kay Clary to senior director of media relations. Based in BMI’s Nashville office, Clary was most recently director of media relations. She joined BMI in 2005 after having run her own PR firm, Commotion PR, for three years.

Prior to that, Clary worked for AristoMedia and Front Page Publicity. Clary attended the University of Wisconsin and graduated from Belmont University with a bachelor’s in business administration/music business.

Anderson joins Wade & Egbert Insurance as partner

Insurance agency Wade & Egbert has added George Anderson as a partner. Anderson most recently served as president of First Horizon Insurance and began his career in 1986 with Aetna Property & Casualty Insurance Co. before joining Polk & Sullivan/Sedgwick James, as a commercial lines broker.

In 1993, he was promoted to executive vice president of Polk & Sullivan Group Inc. and later helped form Synaxis Group, which was acquired by First Horizon National Corp. in 2001. In 2004, he was promoted to president of First Horizon Insurance. Anderson is a graduate of the University of North Carolina in 1985.

Mortgage banker joins Franklin Synergy

Mortgage banker Shane Smith has joined Franklin Synergy Bank as a mortgage loan officer. Smith has nine years of mortgage experience, most recently with Bluestar Mortgage, where he held the position of mortgage loan officer. He also served as branch manager at Acceptance Capital Mortgage Corp.

Pepperdine adminstrator joins Lipscomb

Pepperdine University administrator Dr. Nancy Magnusson Durham has been appointed senior vice president at Lipscomb University, effective Jan. 1. Durham is currently senior vice president for planning, information and technology at Pepperdine, which is located in Malibu, Calif. She will join Lipscomb's senior leadership team and will focus on strategic planning and technology growth among other initiatives.

Durham began her career in 1979 as an assistant professor of psychology at Pepperdine's Seaver College. She has taught undergraduate psychology at Seaver College and has also served as president of the faculty organization, assistant dean of Seaver and interim provost of the university.

VUMC taps Dittus for new public health position

Robert Dittus has been appointed to the newly created post of assistant vice chancellor for public health at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and associate dean for population health sciences in the School of Medicine.

Dittus, who joined Vanderbilt in 1997, is chief of the Division of General Medicine and Public Health, director of the Institute for Medicine and Public Health, director of the Center for Health Services Research and the Albert and Bernard Werthan Professor of Medicine.