Coast Business Credit Founder and Chairman to Retire Dec. 31

Coast Business Credit announced that its founder, Jack Baruch, will retire as of Dec. 31. Baruch founded Coast 40 years ago and has been its chairman and chief executive. Coast was acquired by Torrance-based Imperial Credit Industries in 1995 and it became a division of Imperial’s Southern Pacific Bank subsidiary. A successor to Baruch was not immediately named.

* Carlos Alberini has been named president and chief operating officer of Los Angeles-based apparel maker Guess Inc. He’s a former senior vice president and chief financial officer of Footstar Inc., a New Jersey-based footwear retailer.

* The Los Angeles office of construction and engineering firm Bovis Lend Lease has named Thomas M. Miller principal-in-charge. He most recently served as the company’s regional director for north Asia.

* Weber Distribution, a Santa Fe Springs-based third-party logistics provider, has promoted Larry Morris to the new position of special assistant to vice president, operations. William B. Wells has been hired to replace Morris as operations manager of Weber’s La Mirada’s facility.

* RE FormsNet of Los Angeles has named William Tonissen vice president, software development, a new position. Los Angeles-based RE FormsNet, a joint venture of the National Assn. of Realtors, Homestore.com Inc. and Real Estate Business Services Inc., provides real estate professionals with electronic standardized real estate forms via the Internet. Tonissen is a former director of information technology for Real Estate One Inc. in Michigan.

* Torrance-based NetHesive, an e-business company, has named Mark Winkler chief technology and information officer. The company also named Steve Henning vice president of product development. Winkler is a former partner at Catalyst Capital and Henning is formerly chief operating officer of Sserdda Inc.