business briefs

• Lane E. McCarty, office of general counsel for Tennessee Valley Authority, has been named to East Tennessee Community Design Center’s new board of directors. McCarty is the granddaughter of East Tennessee Community Design Center founder Bruce McCarty and daughter of Doug McCarty, emeritus board director for ETCDC. The center is a 501[c] 3 non-profit organization that brings professional design and planning assistance to communities and organizations that lack resources.

• Alicia Griego Gast, private relationship manager with First Tennessee Bank, Dwayne Dishner, Dishner Design and Mary Beth Robinson, Place Synergy, have been named to East Tennessee Community Design Center’s new board of directors. The center is a 501[c] 3 non-profit organization that brings professional design and planning assistance to communities and organizations that lack resources.

• Kelley Cook has accepted a new position as loan officer with Mortgage Investors Group in Knoxville. Cook began serving MIG clients as a mortgage loan officer at the start of 2017 after having worked as a mortgage loan assistant in the company’s main Knoxville branch for a year-and-a-half.

• United Community Banks Inc. has announced strong fourth-quarter results with solid loan growth, effective expense management, sound credit quality and improvement in nearly every other performance measure. The bank reported a loan growth of $196 million from the third quarter, or 12 percent annualized. Core transaction deposits were up $62.4 million from the third quarter, and it had an efficiency ratio of 57.7 percent.

• Dennis Rowe, corporate leader at Priority Ambulance has been elected president of the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians. He acts s the chief executive officer and oversees all aspects of the association’s operations.

• Pellissippi State Foundation has selected Aneisa McDonald as its new executive director to lead its fundraising efforts. McDonald, an experienced local fundraising professional, began her tenure as executive director in January.