Corporate Report: August 30

Cutting Loose stylist named W Magazine The Artist winner
Cheyanne Clark, a stylist at Cutting Loose, has won W Magazine and Bumble and Bumble's The Artist hairdressing contest. Clark was selected from more than 500 entries, who created hairstyles using two Bumble and Bumble hair products. Of the six finalists, Clark received the majority of the Facebook votes for her looks inspired by 1940s hairstyles for men and women.

Clark flew to New York City and styled W Magazine's “Look of the month” feature for its October Generation W issue. She also received an exclusive class at Bumble and Bumble taught by Sabrina Micheals and met Laurent Philippon, a renowned French hair stylist.
Clark has been with Cutting Loose for five years as the salon's first associate since its opening in 2008.

United Insurance Holdings hires American Strategic Insurance exec
St. Petersburg-based United Insurance Holdings Corp. has appointed Deepak Menon to be its vice president of operations and business development. In the newly created cross-functional position, Menon will be responsible for driving strategic growth for UPC Insurance throughout the United States.

Menon most recently served as marketing director for American Strategic Insurance, a $1 billion premium St. Petersburg-based homeowners insurer. He is credited with coordinating American Strategic Insurance's expansion into 22 states and the District of Columbia. During his tenure starting in 2007, American Strategic Insurance grew from a small regional carrier to a national carrier ranked as the 19th largest homeowners insurance writer in the United States and Canada.

Prior to that, Menon worked as marketing director at AutoOne Insurance Company in Melville, N.Y.

Two Minor League Baseball stadiums using Sterling's Bridge payment system
Tampa-based Sterling Payment Technologies announced that its new payment solution, Bridge Business Intelligence, has been installed in the stadiums of two Minor League Baseball teams: the Brazos Valley (Texas) Bombers and the Evansville (Indiana) Otters.

Bridge Business Intelligence, combined with SAM4s electronic cash registers, allows the stadiums to sell products nearly anywhere with transactions that take roughly two seconds to complete. It also lets owners or operators change product pricing remotely and access real-time sales data from the web.

Uri Geva, CEO and owner of the Brazos Valley Bombers, purchased 13 electronic cash registers with Bridge Business Intelligence for his stadium in Bryan, Texas. Sterling Payment Technologies reports that eight home games into the season, Geva's profits from concessions and merchandise had increased 30% compared to the year before and 37% more customers were served.

“[By the third inning]...if we haven't sold any pizza, candy or hot dogs, I can reduce the price on the fly of items we can't sell the next day,” Geva says in a news release.

Roper Industries' TransCore wins $30 million Delaware DMV contract
TransCore, a unit of Sarasota-based Roper Industries, won a competitive bid process for a $30 million, three-year contract to update and expand the Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles and E-ZPass Customer Service Centers. The system will be installed parallel to the existing service center operations while the department's service center relocates to a new DMV facility in downtown Dover, Del.

The project is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2014.

The Delaware E-ZPass Customer Service Center Operations maintain and support more than 190,000 active accounts and process more than 109,700 wireless toll transactions, 1,300 calls and more than 3,000 violation transactions daily.

The new system will feature improvements to the violations processing services with an interactive voice response phone functionality and Web chat system. In addition, it calls for an expanded Delaware DMV Call Center with phone system enhancements and an improved hardware and system platform for processing and disaster recovery.

TransCore has worked with the Department of Transportation for more than 24 years.

Jones Lang LaSalle hires former Duke exec to head Florida
Commercial real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle has appointed Doug Irmscher as market director for Florida, overseeing the firm's business lines across the state. He will succeed Kurt Keaton, who has led the firm's expansion in Florida over the past three years and will now serve as Jones Lang LaSalle's East Region Sales Lead for Property Management.

Irmscher most recently served as senior vice president at Duke Realty Corp. in Central Florida, where he was responsible for the overall profitability and operations of the company's Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville commercial real estate portfolios. During his 19 years at Duke, Irmscher held a series of development, leasing and marketing roles and developed more than 3 million square feet of office and industrial projects in Florida.

In his new role, Irmscher will be responsible for continuing to drive growth and expand the firm's business lines across Florida.

Jones Lang LaSalle has a leasing and management portfolio covering more than 28.6 million square feet. The firm has about 650 employees in Florida.

Grow Financial adds 21st branch on Bruce B Downs in Wesley Chapel
Grow Financial Federal Credit Union has opened its 21st branch in Wesley Chapel. The new branch, at 2579 Bruce B Downs Blvd., features an art room, a video-conference room and an interactive teller machine. The credit union has another branch under development.

Founded in 1955 to service the military and civilian personnel of MacDill Air Force Base, Grow Financial has since expanded its membership to include employees of more than 1,100 businesses. It currently has $1.9 billion in assets.