May 10, 2019

Port of Seattle

Gheisar

The Port of Seattle hired Bookda Gheisar as senior director for equity, diversity and inclusion. Gheisar was policy advisor for King County's Office of Equity and Social Justice. When she starts at the port on June 12, Gheisar also will lead the port's first ever Equity Department.

F5 Networks

In Seattle, F5 Networks completed its acquisition of San Francisco-based Nginx, an open source leader in application delivery. The combined companies will provide multi-cloud application services.

Builders Capital

Oakland-based 1Sharpe Capital closed a strategic partnership with Seattle-based Builders Capital to buy construction loans from Builders Capital. The multi-year deal brings together Builders Capital's regional construction lending expertise and 1Sharpe's assets and structured credit expertise.

Neu

Seattle-based Neu, a cleaning service for Airbnb hosts, won a bronze prize in the FedEx Small Business Grant Contest. Neu was one of 10 winners that received a $15,000 grant and $1,000 in FedEx Office services.

May 09, 2019

DreamBox Learning

Bellevue-based DreamBox Learning hired Alicia Shankland as senior vice president of people. Shankland has worked at tech companies for 20 years, lastly as chief people officer and vice president at Inrix, a provider of connected car services. Before that, she was global chief human resource officer at Razorfish. DreamBox developed a K-8 digital math program that adapts to students' answers and how they solve problems.

Avalara

Seattle-based business tax software developer Avalara appointed Alessandra Almeida as managing director of Brazil and Latin America. Almeida will be based in Avalara's Sao Paulo office. She has over 30 years of experience in banking, technology and services, most recently as COO for the Americas at TMG Group, a European-based provider of business services.

Smartsheet

Bellevue-based Smartsheet acquired 10,000ft, a Seattle developer of project planning and resource management software. Smartsheet is a cloud-based platform for work execution.

Bellevue Chamber

Bellevue Chamber of Commerce and Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust formed a partnership called Greenway Corporate Champions. The collaboration encourages Bellevue companies and their employees to preserve and enhance green spaces in their communities. Some of the partners are Quadrant Homes, AAA Washington and Puget Sound Energy.