Feb 26, 2020

Sea-Tac Airport

Brown

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport promoted Jeffrey Brown to aviation COO. Brown was director of Aviation Facilities and Capital Programs for the airport since June 2016. He has over 25 years of aviation industry experience and was chief infrastructure officer at Houston Airport System prior to joining the Port of Seattle. He also was a civil engineer for URS Consulting, director of engineering at KBR Consulting and a senior construction engineer for Bechtel at McCarran International Airport.

City of Sammamish

Rudat

The city of Sammamish appointed David L. Rudat as interim city manager. Rudat has four decades of leadership experience in local government and most recently was interim fire chief for Stockton, California. He also was interim city manager for the California cities of Los Alamitos and Alameda. Rudat's contract with Sammamish is for six months, with the option for a month-to-month extension.

Grown Rogue

Medford, Oregon-based cannabis company Grown Rogue International said Jacques Habra, its chief strategy officer, has resigned. Habra was with the company for three years, helping with early growth, fundraising and corporate development.

Cyrus O'Leary's Pies

Illinois-based Sara Lee Frozen Bakery inked a deal to buy Cyrus O'Leary's Pies of Spokane. Sara Lee is expanding its in-store bakery presence with Cyrus and the acquisition last year of Superior Cake Products. Cyrus O'Leary's started as a restaurant in 1981 and grew to a nationally distributed gourmet pie brand. It opened an off-site commercial bakery in 1987 with direct-to-store delivery of fresh baked pies throughout the Pacific Northwest, and now has frozen pie distribution across all 50 states and into Canada. Barclay Klingel will retain his role as CEO of Cyrus O'Leary's after the deal closes in the coming weeks.

Feb 25, 2020

Lighter Capital

Elliott

Fink

Seattle-based fintech Lighter Capital hired Kevin Fink as chief technology officer and Patricia Elliott as chief sales officer. Fink has held senior positions at several technology and media companies over the past 25 years, most recently as CTO of Seattle-based Shiftboard. Elliott has over 20 years of sales leadership experience in fintech and growing software-as-a-service companies, including Expedia, Corporate Visions and Yapta. Most recently, she was a regional vice president at Capital One. Lighter Capital provides early-stage financing to tech companies.

ZoomInfo

Vancouver-based ZoomInfo named Smartsheet CEO Mark Mader and RingCentral CFO Mitesh Dhruv as independent board directors. ZoomInfo sells access to its database of business people and companies to sales, marketing and recruiting professionals.

TrueBlue

Staffing Industry Analysts named four TrueBlue leaders to its 2020 North America Staffing 100 list: Chip Holmes, interim president of PeopleScout (a TrueBlue company); Maggie Lower, chief marketing officer; Taryn Owen, president of PeopleReady (a TrueBlue company); and Carl Schweihs, president of PeopleManagement (a TrueBlue company). The list recognizes influential people in the staffing industry. Tacoma-based TrueBlue provides specialized workforce staffing.

Private Division

New York City-based Private Division opened a development studio in the Seattle area to work on Kerbal Space Program 2, a spaceflight simulation game. The local office is led by studio head Jeremy Ables, creative director Nate Simpson and lead producer Nate Robinson, all key members of the original Kerbal team. Kerbal Space Program 2 is expected to launch early next year. Private Division, a publisher of video games, acquired Kerbal Space Program in 2017.

FreightWeb

Seattle startup FreightWeb received $3 million in a seed funding round led by Madrona Venture Group and 8VC. The money helped the company launch its partial truckload transportation service, which gives instant rate quotes and bookings for shippers that can't fill an entire truck trailer with freight. FreightWeb says that helps shippers save money and shrink their carbon footprints.