Apr 23, 2020

Silverback Therapeutics

Dr. Laura Shawver is the new president and CEO of Silverback Therapeutics, a Seattle-based private biopharmaceutical company. Shawver has over 25 years of experience as a scientist, biotech leader and patient advocate. She was CEO and director of Synthorx from 2017 until its acquisition by Sanofi in January. She also was CEO and director of Cleave Biosciences, entrepreneur-in-residence for 5AM Ventures, CEO and director at Phenomix and president of Sugen. At Silverback, she also is on the board. Silverback is developing ways to eradicate solid tumors.

Amazon

As part of its plan to be net-zero carbon by 2040, Amazon is allocating $10 million to restore and conserve 4 million acres of forest in the Appalachians and other U.S. regions. The funding will initially support projects in Pennsylvania and Vermont that will help family forest owners sequester carbon, and support expansion across the Appalachians in a network of climate-resilient forests that scientists at The Nature Conservancy have identified as most able to thrive in the face of climate change. This is the first project from Amazon's $100 million Right Now Climate Fund, an initiative to remove carbon from the atmosphere through the restoration and conservation of forests, wetlands, grasslands and peatlands around the world.

Spaceflight

Seattle-based Spaceflight signed a launch agreement with Firefly Aerospace for a majority of the payload aboard a Firefly rocket scheduled to lift off in 2021 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Spaceflight provides launch capacity procurement, integration and mission management services. Cedar Park, Texas-based Firefly provides launch vehicles, spacecraft and in-space services.

IxDA Seattle

IxDA Seattle, the local chapter of the Interaction Design Association, is organizing creative volunteers to help local small businesses and organizations affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The volunteers can help with customer experience, communication strategies and implementation. Examples include updating websites, building simple websites for businesses without a web presence, graphic design, social media strategy/outreach and email campaigns. All projects should be short-term (about two weeks) and be COVID-19 related. More information is at https://ixdaseattle.org/action. IxDA is an international organization dedicated to interaction design.

DESC

The United Health Foundation committed $1 million to assist Seattle residents experiencing homelessness as they face additional hardships during the COVID-19 pandemic. The foundation is working with the Downtown Emergency Service Center on the program. The donation will purchase personal protective equipment, hire relief workers and support ill employees, as well as help DESC provide food and temporary housing to many of the 8,000 homeless and formerly homeless individuals it serves.

Apr 22, 2020

The Standard

Willson

Portland-based Standard Insurance Co. (The Standard) promoted Kelli Wilson to assistant vice president of infrastructure and operations, a role where she is responsible for delivery of IT infrastructure services. Wilson was senior director of the Transition Management Office, and had served in several IT leadership positions at the company. Prior to joining The Standard in 2012, she was an IT service delivery manager at Atos and a technical integrator for Computer Science Corp.

Critical Process Systems Group

Dmitry Shashkov is the new CEO of Critical Process Systems Group in Boise, Idaho. Shashkov has over 20 years of experience in the semiconductor and life science industries, most recently as president and CEO of Exogenesis, a nanotechnology startup focused on novel medical devices. Prior to that, he was president and CEO of HC Starck, a supplier of refractory metals to the semiconductor industry. Shashkov replaces Paul Frascoia, who is pursuing other opportunities but remains a senior adviser to the company. CPS, part of Wynnchurch Capital of Rosemont, Illinois, is a group of manufacturing and design companies providing products to the semiconductor, life science, chemical processing, gas systems and wastewater industries.

Excel Fabrication

Phoenix-based Alpine 4 Technologies bought Excel Fabrication of Twin Falls, Idaho. Terms of the deal, which has closed, were not disclosed. Excel makes and installs sanitary process piping and steam, condensate return, air, mechanical and utility lines, as well as waste water systems. It also provides maintenance, shutdown work, turnarounds, millwright work for equipment removal and installations, project management and general contracting. Alpine 4 has businesses in software, automotive technologies, electronics manufacturing, energy services and fabrication.

Battelle

Battelle is giving away its decontamination system services for N95 respirator masks to health care providers. The company developed a system that uses hydrogen peroxide vapors to decontaminate biological contaminates in used masks. It has systems operating in the states of Washington, Ohio and New York, and has a federal contract of up to $415 million to fund systems in 60 locations. The system is based on research that Battelle performed for the FDA in 2015 to assess the feasibility to decontaminate N95 respirator masks in the event of a shortage resulting from a pandemic.