Lyon, Wehner Join Fidelity Board
* William Lyon and William W. Wehner have been elected to the board of directors of Fidelity National Financial Inc., an Irvine finance and real estate services company. Lyon is chairman of the board, president and chief executive of William Lyon Homes Inc. and affiliated companies, headquartered in Newport Beach. Wehner is chairman of the board, chief executive and a director of Granite Financial Inc., which merged with Fidelity National Financial Inc. in February.
* Brent Jones has joined Auto-By-Tel, an Irvine online car-buying program, as chief operating officer. He was formerly vice president of sales and marketing for Dycam Inc. Before that, Jones held various sales and marketing management positions, including director of worldwide marketing operations, at CalComp Inc.
* Victoria Blamer has been named vice president of design for Del Webb Corp. in Santa Ana. She has been with the company nine years, most recently as director of marketing.
* Harris L. Sherman has been named vice president of Pacific Southwest Financial & Insurance Services Inc., in charge of the Irvine regional office. Sherman was founding partner of Capital Analysts in Newport Beach, started the Sherman Company for Family Business in 1991 and was Orange County sales manager for Sun Financial Group.
* Richard L. Thomas has been appointed vice president of residential lending at Irvine-based Platinum Capital Group. He will be based in the Manhattan Beach office. Thomas was formerly president and chief executive of Western Region Mortgage Corp. in the South Bay.
* Taylor B. Grant has joined CT Realty Corp., a Newport Beach real estate investment and development company, as director of development. He has previously been a director of land acquisitions and a court-appointed receiver for Bank of America and Wells Fargo Bank.
* Dena Moore has been named production manager for Lawrence & Mayo Advertising in Newport Beach. She was formerly with Roberts, Mealer and Co. in Santa Ana.
* Melissa Chesney has been named regional property manager for the Festival Cos. in Costa Mesa, responsible for overseeing retail projects throughout Orange County. In addition, Gregory H. Garabedian has joined the leasing staff as senior associate. He was formerly with Commercial Brokers Inc., which merged with Daum Commercial Real Estate Services.
* Lisa Lynn Backus has been appointed director of destination management for Anaheim Marriott’s new event planning department, Destinations by Marriott. She previously owned and operated a destination management company and travel agency. Kim Simonson and Peggy Finlayson have been named destination services managers. Simonson formerly worked in the sales department of the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. Finlayson was previously project manager for Kawasaki Motors Corp., USA.
* Carol Sullivan-MacFarlane has joined Forma, a Costa Mesa land planning, landscape architecture, design and management firm, as a designer. She has 14 years of experience in landscape architecture.
Most recently, MacFarlane managed Jurassic Park at Universal Studios Hollywood, the Peninsula at Huntington Seacliff, Huntington Beach, and the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
* Peter Binaski and W. Eric Gleason have joined Prudential Securities’ Fashion Island branch as vice presidents, investment. Binaski had been an investment executive with PaineWebber in Newport Beach.
Gleason was formerly a financial consultant in Merrill Lynch’s Fashion Island office and PaineWebber’s Newport Beach office.
* David Agrela has joined Esprit Communications Inc. in Corona del Mar as director of client services. He was formerly vice president of strategic consulting at First Strategic Group Ltd. in Whittier and, before that, director of client services at Turk & Eckstrom Advertising in Ontario, Calif.
