Chamber of Commerce City Council Candidates Forum - July 18

The Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce will be presenting a free, one hour televised forum on Citycable Channel 11 to be held at 3:00pm on Wednesday, July 18, broadcast live from the City Hall Kiva and repeated three times following. Candidates for the upcoming City Council elections will discuss the issues facing Scottsdale. The Forum will air live, and repeat on Citycable Channel 11 July 22, 25, 29 at 2, 6, 9 p.m.

COUNCIL RACE

Vying for three seats on the council are incumbent Suzanne Klapp and challengers Denny Brown, Bill Crawford, Debra Komarnicki, Virginia Korte, Eric Luoma, Joe Meli, Joanne "Copper" Phillips, Guy Phillips, Chris Schaffner and Christian Serena.

-Brown is a sexton who serves on the Scottsdale Unified School District Governing Board.

-Crawford is a downtown Scottsdale business owner, resident and president of the Association to Preserve Downtown Scottsdale's Quality of Life.

-Klapp owns and manages and Fast Frame store in Scottsdale. She began her first term on the council in January 2009.

-Komarnicki is a former nurse and nursing supervisor. She recently opened a small assisted living home in Scottsdale.

-Korte served as president and chief executive of the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce. She is now president and CEO of Scottsdale Training and Rehabilitation Services (STARS), which provides programs and work opportunities for individuals with developmental disabilities.

-Luoma is president and owner of Scottsdale-based Cactus Flower Florists and Flowershop.com.

-Meli, a Chicago native, has been in sales and marketing for 30 years.

-Joanne "Copper" Phillips is the former deputy associate superintendent of special education for Arizona. Upon retirement, she opened her own educational consulting firm, Arizona Education Cadre.

-Guy Phillips (no relation to Joanne) owns an A/C contracting business.

-Schaffner an account manager for Milliken & Co., a textile and chemical manufacturer based in South Carolina.

-Serena has been an account executive at Swiss America Trading Corp. He was captain of the Saguaro High School football team.

EVENT DETAILS:

Where: Scottsdale City Hall Kiva,

3939 N. Drinkwater Blvd, Scottsdale 85251

When: Wednesday, July 18th, 2012

Time: 3:00 to 4:00pm

Cost: Free and open to the public

Tesla Shows off Model S at New Scottsdale Fashion Square Dealership

Tesla Motors, a high-end electric car company, will open its first Arizona location tomorrow (July 13) at Scottsdale Fashion Square mall. The company has more than 10,000 reservations for its Model S, its premium electric sedan, which sells for a starting price of $57,400. The company’s Scottsdale location has touch-screen monitors that allow visitors to customize a Model S to be displayed on a large flatscreen in the back of the store.

George Blankenship, Tesla’s vice president, said today from the new Scottsdale dealership that the car differentiates itself from other electric cars on the market because of its design, performance and style. He said the car will go about 265 miles per charge, while most other electric cars go about 75 miles.

The Scottsdale location is Tesla’s 23rd location worldwide and 13th in North America. The company uses analytics to strategically select locations for new stores.

“We have a bunch of reservations in Phoenix,” Blankenship said. “So we put a store where we already have a lot of reservations.”

Read the FULL ARTICLE HERE.

Scottsdale Fashion Square has been a proud member of the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce since 1983.

Mayo Clinic Hospital Named One of the 10 Safest Hospitals in the US

Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix has been named to Consumer Reports magazine’s list of the 10 safest hospitals in the U.S., landing at No. 7. The magazine rated 1,159 hospitals nationwide for safety. These ratings are based on six categories of patient safety: hospital-acquired infections, readmissions, communication about new medications and discharge, overuse CT scanning, complications and mortality.

The data comes from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, state governments, and the Leapfrog Group, an independent nonprofit organization that collects data on hospital safety.

Mayo Clinic has been a proud member of the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce since 2000.

Read the full article HERE.

Scottsdale Chamber Announces New Officers, Executive Committee and Board Members

The Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce elected Eric Larson of AVB Development Partners Chair of the Board of Directors at its June 26 Board meeting. Mr. Larson was elected with a slate of officers and the Executive Committee for 2012-2013.

                            

At the same meeting, several new Board members were elected. Rebecca Grossman, President/CEO of the Scottsdale Association of Realtors; Don Couvillion, representing the ASU Foundation; Shawn Thiele, Deputy CEO of Magellan Heath Systems; and Pam Kelly, Owner of Pro One Media were unanimously elected to serve on the Board of Directors for three-year terms beginning July 1, 2012.

Erik Pederson of AXA Advisors, Jim Walker of DataPreserve, Kevin Wilson of Farmers Insurance, Brad Beller of Signs By Tomorrow, Todd Peterson of the Scottsdale Charros and a yet-to-be named representative from the Board of Scottsdale Leadership will be joining the Board of Directors for one-year terms coinciding with their committee leadership within the Chamber or as representatives of two of the organizations which sprang originally from the Chamber but which are now independent.  

The new Executive Committee of the Chamber is as follows:

Eric Larson, AVB Development Partners - Chair

Bryce Lloyd, FirstBank - Vice-Chair

Rick Kidder, Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce -Secretary

Geoff Beer, Crescent Bay Holdings – Treasurer

Kurt Zitzer, Partener, Meagher and Geer - Immediate Past Chair

Kevin Sellers, First Fidelity Bank - Partner Council Chair

Steve Helm,

Scottsdale Fashion Square

- Public Policy Chair

Don Couvillion, ASU Foundation - Economic Development Chair

Pam Kelly, ProOne Media - Membership Value Chair

Bill Heckman, Heckman Marketing - Emerging Issues Chair

Kurt Brueckner, Titus Brueckner and Levine -At Large

Angela Creedon, Arizona State University - At Large

Jennifer Bongiovanni-Karas, The Karas Group - At Large

Dale Fingersh, The Right Direction - At Large

The Chamber, representing more than 1000 business members in and around Scottsdale, is in its 65^th year of serving the business community.

The Valley of the Sun - Where Americans are Moving This Year!

Moving is exhausting, time-consuming and tedious, and can be frustrating, especially if you’re moving to a new city or state. But once you’re moved in, living in the city you’ve always wanted to call home makes it worth the hassle.

10 US cities were chosen as the most popular moving destinations from January to March of 2012 based on inbound shipments, according to the American Moving and Storage Association.

While Metro Phoenix was hit hard by the housing crash and is only beginning to rebound. Rental rates and home values have followed a similar trend, falling hard from 2008 to 2010, but they’ve slowly started to climb in the last two years. Of course, that means if you’re one of those moving to Arizona, there’s plenty of affordable real estate to choose from, whether you’re buying or renting.

The Valley is a great place to move if you have experience in the tourism or manufacturing industries. The trade, transportation and utilities sectors employ much of the population, but education, health and business services are also popular industries.

Read the full list HERE.

NEJM hails new skin cancer drug as ‘greatest advance yet’

Vismodegib, a new skin cancer drug for patients with advanced basal cell carcinoma used for the first time in the world at the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center at Scottsdale Healthcare, is hailed as “the greatest advance in therapy yet seen” for advanced basal cell carcinoma in an editorial in today’s New England Journal of Medicine.

Vismodegib (Erivedge) was administered for the first time in the world Jan. 23, 2007 in a phase I clinical trial at Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center Clinical Trials at Scottsdale Healthcare, a partnership with the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen). Vismodegib received FDA approval on Jan. 30, 2012.

The successful Phase I study at Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center Clinical Trials led to the broader follow-up study, which validated the researchers’ work and was published in the current New England Journal of Medicine. The drug blocks the Hedgehog signaling pathway and was approved for treatment of locally advanced and metastatic basal cell carcinomas. Additional research noted encouraging results for patients with basal cell nevus syndrome.

“It is a landmark day for patients with basal cell carcinoma and all those involved in their care,” said the NEJM editorial. However the editors cautioned that additional study of Hedgehog pathway inhibitors like Vismodegib warrant further study so a larger number of patients may benefit.

The drug is the first to receive FDA approval to treat inoperable basal cell carcinoma. Successful early trial results led to a broader subsequent study sponsored by Genentech. The drug is being marketed under the name Erivedge.

This is the first drug tested under the Scottsdale Healthcare-TGen partnership to receive FDA approval.

FDA approval in five years is a remarkable achievement because clinical trials progress through three phases and can take up to 15 years or more to successfully complete, according to Mark Slater, PhD, vice president of research at Scottsdale Healthcare.

“The first patient put on this drug had advanced basal cell cancer, so we suspected that the tumor had the mutation this drug is targeted against,” said Ramesh K. Ramanathan, MD, medical director at Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center Clinical Trials. “And our partnership with Dr. Ronald Korn and his team who did advanced PET imaging helped to really demonstrate the drug's efficacy for Genentech to continue pursuing the additional study.”

Most instances of basal cell cancer can be effectively treated, but in some cases, the cancer cells spread and develop an aggressive form of the cancer that does not respond to standard surgical treatment.

“In some patients there is progression to life-threatening, locally advanced or metastatic tumors. Approved as a pill to be taken once a day, we believe this new drug represents an opportunity to improve quality of life for these patients,” said Glen Weiss, MD, director of Thoracic Oncology at Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center Clinical Trials and assistant professor of TGen’s Cancer and Cell Biology Division.

San Francisco-based Genentech developed Vismodegib. Successful results of early clinical trials at the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center at Scottsdale Healthcare, Johns Hopkins University and Karmanos Cancer Institute were published in the Sept. 17, 2009 New England Journal of Medicine and led to interest in increased access to the drug.

Individuals seeking information about eligibility to participate in clinical trials at the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center at Scottsdale Healthcare may contact the cancer care coordinator at 480-323-1339; toll free at 1-877-273-3713 or via email at clinicaltrials@shc.org.

Press Contact:
Keith Jones

Public Relations Director, Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center
480-323-1383kjones@shc.org

W. P. Carey School of Business and SRP Present Small Business Leadership Academy

The Small Business Leadership Academy is an intensive executive education program designed to strengthen the business acumen of small business leaders in Arizona. The program was jointly developed by the W. P. Carey School of Business and the Salt River Project (SRP), the program's founding sponsor. SRP has generously provided scholarships to the principals of a number of its key suppliers.

The program, now in its fifth year, has been expanded to allow for the inclusion of self-funded individuals as well as additional sponsoring companies who wish to support the Arizona small business community. Please use the links below or to the left to access more information about the program.

This is a great opportunity for both Sponsors and Participants! CLICK HERE to learn more!