Frank Noey of Fremont has joined Sacramento’s largest law firm, Downey Brand LLP, in the firm’s litigation practice group.

Paula Kravitz of Burlingame has been named marketing director and Sandy Herz of Menlo Park has been named as senior advancement officer, a new position, at the Skoll Foundation in Palo Alto. Also, Skoll Foundation named Daniel Crisafulli senior program officer, Lakshmi Karan program officer, Bridget McNamer program officer, Katie Kalemba investment analyst and Laura Vais vice president of marketing.

Ingrid Lamirault, chief executive of Alameda Alliance for Health, has been named to a one-year term as board chair of the Local Health Plans Association, a statewide association.

Luis Gomez, co-owner of the Alameda Auto Lab, was elected president of the Business Builders Network, a local business organization.

Brian Healy has been appointed executive chef and Craig Boon has been appointed executive sous chef of The Parc 55 Hotel in San Francisco.

Dr. Tillman Pearce has joined KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Palo Alto as chief medical officer. Carmen Betancourt has joined the company as senior vice president of regulatory affairs, quality and project management.

Elizabeth Valente has been named the new associate director of publications and media relations at Samuel Merritt College in Oakland.

Kevin Brown has been named president, chief executive and member of the board of directors at Kidaro, an enterprise desktop virtualization vendor in Redwood City.

Melissa Miller has been promoted to account executive at Visual Resource in San Francisco. She will manage marketing activity for the Stanford Graduate School of Business account.

William Rhodes III, president of cell analysis for BD Biosciences, and Edward Barnholt, chairman of KLA-Tencor Corp., have been appointed to the board of directors of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. HONORS – Marilou E. Manuel of Union City, a Modern Woodmen of America representative, has attained the Fraternal Insurance Counsellor designation, a title that can be earned by career life insurance representatives associated with fraternal insurance societies.

Lori Whitney, financial adviser and senior vice president of wealth management with the San Mateo office of Smith Barney, was ranked in a nationwide survey identifying the “Top 100 Women Financial Advisers.” The list was published in the June 9 issue of Barron’s weekly financial magazine.

Dennis FitzPatrick of FitzPatrick Chevrolet Buick Hummer in Concord received the Jack Smith Leadership Award for being one of the GM Dealers of the Year.

KTGY Group Inc. won a design award for College Vista, a 44-unit apartment complex in San Mateo. It received the grand award in the 2007 Gold Nugget Awards competition in the “Best Affordable Project – Under 30 DU/AC.” Thompson Dorfman Partners of Sausalito was the developer and Devcon Construction Inc. of Milpitas was the builder.