Byline: The Register-Guard
OnPoint credit union opening three Vancouver, Wash., branches
OnPoint Community Credit Union, Oregon's largest with 186,000 members and $2.6 billion in assets, is in the process of opening three new Vancouver, Wash., branches.
All three branches
A number of new technology features, including deposit automation ATMs and instant issue debit cards, also will be offered to the credit union's members.
The branches are the first to open since OnPoint announced its charter expansion into Washington state in the fall of 2007.
The charter expansion allows anyone who lives or works in Clark and Skamania counties to become a member.
Interim director of OSU business program gets job permanently
CORVALLIS - Robin Klemm has been named the director of Oregon State University's Austin Family Business Program.
Klemm, who has worked in the position on an interim basis since August 2007, previously had been a private consultant in Seattle since 2005.
Prior to that, she spent 12 years as the CEO and co-founder of Optimus Consulting, a family-owned business that specialized in business economics and strategy.
As interim director of the Austin Family Business Program, Klemm has worked at expanding services to family businesses.
The OSU program is a resource to help family businesses with day-to-day problems, succession and other challenges and opportunities.
The program has been holding regular workshops on topics such as marketing in an uncertain economy and on strategic planning.
The program is named for Ken and Joan Austin, who donated $1 million to help endow the program. Other funding comes from grants, individuals and businesses.
Hillsboro semiconductor firm shuts down core operations
HILLSBORO - The semiconductor firm MathStar announced May 27 that it was shutting down most of its operations.
The company said that it was discontinuing its field programmable object array chip development and its board-level system development business.
MathStar said it took this step "to preserve the company's assets while it considers strategic alternatives."
MathStar previously said it had hired an investment banker to explore these alternatives, which often means a company is considering options that include selling the business.
The company, which trades under the ticker symbol MATHD on the Nasdaq exchange, reported a net loss of $5.39 million or 12 cents a share, in the most recent quarter.
Portland-Corvallis firm collects construction awards
Greenberry Industrial, which has offices in Portland and Corvallis, captured two of the three 2008 Top Project honors in construction awards given out by the Daily Journal of Commerce in the $15.1 million to $50 million private renovation category.
Greenberry took home a second-place honor for its work transforming the old Portland Alumina unloading facility along the Willamette River into Ash Grove Cement Company's new processing complex.
Greenberry also picked up a third-place prize for expanding Xerox's solid color ink production site in Wilsonville.
In addition, the company's fabrication and installation of a new chip wood chip storage and feed system for Weyerhaeuser in Springfield was identified as one of two finalists.
Greenberry is an industrial general contractor and fabricator that provides many services in industrial construction, including boiler-making, concrete, heavy rigging, millwright and equipment setting, pipe spooling and steel erection.
Umpqua Bank expands into San Francisco area
Umpqua Bank, a subsidiary of Umpqua Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: UMPQ), has added six commercial lenders in the San Francisco area, expanding the company's commercial banking services in the greater San Francisco Bay area.
The new officers will focus on commercial loans in the San Francisco area as well as the company's growing wine industry business in Napa and Solano counties of Northern California.
Mark Brody, senior vice president and manager for Umpqua Bank, and five other officers make up the new unit for Umpqua.
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