Corporate report

Paramedics Plus promotes two execs
Paramedics Plus, parent company of Largo-based Sunstar Paramedics, promoted two executives. Debbie Vass, Sunstar Paramedics' chief administrative officer, was named director of quality initiatives for Paramedics Plus, and John Peterson was named chief administrative officer for Sunstar Paramedics.

Vass is the first female executive in Paramedics Plus' 17-year history. As director of quality initiatives, she will oversee corporate strategic planning, quality objectives and implementation and the vision for the Tyler, Texas-based parent company. She will continue to work from Sunstar's Largo headquarters.

Vass joined Sunstar Paramedics as an emergency medical technician in 1986 and has worked as a paramedic, registered nurse and director of clinical services for the organization. She was named “Nurse of the Year” by state officials in 2008.

Peterson, who previously worked as director of operations and administrative supervisor, will oversee Sunstar Paramedics' daily operations and 550 employees. He began his career with Sunstar Paramedics in 2003.

Sunstar is the contracted 911-ambulance transportation service for Pinellas County. It signed a new 11-year service contract with the county in May.

Hospital names new operations official
Chris Loftus was appointed chief operating officer for Lakewood Ranch Medical Center.

Loftus previously worked at Bayfront Health Punta Gorda, where he was associate administrator and interim CEO from April to August 2014. Prior to that, Loftus was an assistant administrator at Venice Regional Medical Center. Loftus has a master's degree in health service administration from the University of Evansville.

Wesco Turf wins industry excellence award
Wesco Turf, a Sarasota-based distributor of irrigation, golf and grounds equipment, was awarded The Toro Co.'s Distributor of Excellence Award. The award is considered Toro's top honor for a distributor and is based on Wesco Turf's performance, financial health and customer care and satisfaction. The award is presented each year to a single company in four global geographic areas: United States, Europe/Middle East/Africa, Asia Pacific and Canada/Latin America.

Wesco Turf was also awarded Toro's Residential Landscape Contract Partners in Excellence award.

The Toro Co. has more than 50 domestic and 100 foreign distributors in at least 90 countries.

Tampa's No Mo Nausea wins Venture Hive pitch
Tampa firm No Mo Nausea won the annual Miami Venture Hive business pitch competition through Funding Post. More than 100 early stage companies competed in the forum for attention from venture capitalists. No Mo Nausea's CEO, Jacqueline Darna, was chosen for her presentation on the anti-nausea product.

The product, the No Mo Nausea Band, is a waterproof wristband that uses peppermint aromatherapy and acupressure for nausea relief.

NetDirector provides services to mortgage firm
NetDirector, a Tampa cloud-based data and document exchange company, has expanded into loan origination through an agreement with Mortgage Machine Services.
Addison, Texas-based Mortgage Machine provides mortgage-lending process software systems and services. A big reason for the agreement: Mortgage Machine Services has to meet new disclosure requirements from the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau.

“Ensuring compliance is our top priority,” Mortgage Machine President Jeff Bode says in a press release. “In order to accomplish this, we needed to enhance our capability to communicate and collaborate with our service providers. NetDirector's data exchange hub was the logical choice to connect us to all of our trading partners with their proven record in the mortgage banking industry.”

Walter Investment Management approves poison pill
The board of directors of Walter Investment Management Corp. adopted a one-year shareholder rights plan. The poison pill plan is designed to stave off a hostile takeover.
The plan is triggered if any group or person controls 20% or more of the company's common stock. It gives all current shareholders, except for the person or group that reached the 20% or above limit, the right to one preferred share of stock for each share of common stock they hold.

The plan will expire June 29, 2016.