Nov 05, 2004

First Savings Bank

Harry A. Blencoe, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of First Savings Bank of Renton, said he will retire Jan. 1, 2005. He has been president or CEO of the bank since 1961 and will continue to be a director of the board. He will also help the bank construct a new building, set to be completed in the fall of 2005. President Victor Karpiak succeeds Blencoe as CEO and chairman of the board.

Baldwin Resource Group

Kellie Murray became an associate at Baldwin Resource Group, a company that focuses on business consulting, risk management and insurance. Murray works on human resource management and has 25 years of experience. Baldwin is located in Bellevue.

Golden Lasso

Bridget Culligan and Wendy Quesinberry, who were with The Culligan Group and Quesinberry & Associates, have teamed up to create Golden Lasso. The company works on advertising and design for the hospitality, technology, gourmet food, banking and housing industries. Golden Lasso is at 1520 Bellevue Ave. Suite 200 in Seattle. Telephone is (206) 838-3170.

Riverlake Partners and Thetford Partners

Riverlake Partners of Portland and Kirkland's Thetford Partners said they acquired assets and operations of two companies in Arizona: E-Z Messenger Attorney Service of Tucson and Hawkins and Campbell of Phoenix. The value of the joint acquisition was not disclosed. Riverlake is a private equity buy out fund that targets manufacturing, distribution and service businesses in western and midwestern states. Thetford acquires western U.S. low technology companies valued between $3 million and $20 million.

Pacific Lutheran University

The Pacific Lutheran University School of Business will improve its master's degree program with a $50,000 grant from State Farm Companies Foundation. The money will help apply new technology to classrooms in the new 53,000-square-foot Morken Center, which is scheduled to open in 2006.

Nov 04, 2004

Allyis

Bothell company Allyis, a provider of Web and technical personnel, added three to its staff. Marybeth Borgwardt is technical recruiting manager and has 14 years of experience managing and recruiting in the information technology industry. Jayna Wiesemann is a senior technical recruiter and worked at Manpower, Btek and Premiere Resources. Marci Oliveri is an associate recruiter and will work on keeping the team organized.

Columbia Bank

Columbia Bank designated new members to its commercial banking group. Senior vice presidents in retail banking are Wayne Mannie and Dan Patjens. Team leaders are senior vice president John Manolides and vice president Jim Williams. Columbia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Columbia Banking System with 34 branches in Pierce, King, Cowlitz, Kitsap and Thurston counties.

Seattle Chocolate

Tim Firorino was named vice president of sales of Seattle Chocolate Co. and will manage sales of the company's wholesale business. He was retail sales director for Oregon Chai and a regional sales manager for Oberto Sausage Co. Seattle Chocolate makes chocolate and chocolate truffles and sells items in outlets around the country and in Japan.

Insightful

Seattle-headquartered Insightful Corp., a provider of software solutions for data analysis, named Murray E. Laidley vice president of research and development. Laidley was vice president of technology for Qpass in Seattle.

Seattle Goodwill

Seattle Goodwill has opened a 44,000-square-foot outlet store, which sells surplus merchandise from 12 regional Goodwill thrift stores. It is located at 1765 Sixth Ave. S. in the former Sur La Table warehouse. Goods not sold there are baled and resold to dealers who often ship them overseas. Some items are recycled or disposed. Goodwill expects to resell or recycle eight million pounds of materials every year using the new techniques and equipment at the outlet store.