Five finalists are being interviewed today for an opening on the Idaho State Board of Education, and one of them is Tommy Ahlquist, chief operating officer of Gardner Company, an emergency room physician, Idaho State University Foundation board member, founder of a Boise-based defibrillator company and more. Ahlquist is the head of Gardner Co.’s Idaho operations, which include the newly constructed, 18-story 8^th & Main Building in downtown Boise, and the City Center Plaza project, for which ground was broken today. The five being interviewed today are finalists for the board seat being vacated this month by longtime board member Milford Terrell.

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter already has interviewed four finalists for an earlier board opening, created when then-board member Ken Edmunds became Otter’s new state Department of Labor director. Otter confirmed that one of those four is former state Rep. Wendy Jaquet, but declined to name the other finalists for either of the two positions.