Oct 28, 2020

Fashwire

Seattle-based Fashwire won first place in Startup Grind's inaugural global pitch battle competition, where startups from around the world competed in front of a panel of investors, mentors, and the Startup Grind community. Fashwire's global fashion platform provides its portfolio of designers consumer shopping behavior patterns on the popularity of new collections and future products. For Consumers, Fashwire's B2C shopping platform creates an interactive experience by combining immersive swipe voting with the ability to influence the designer instantly. The company has raised $2.5M to date.

Cascade Centers

Cascade Centers, headquartered in Portland, announced the reorganization of leadership roles throughout the company. Anthony Brown, the current vice president of marketing and sales has been promoted to CEO. Julie Marshall, the current vice president of operations has been named COO. Gale Castillo, president of Cascade, will remain in her role and Jerry Brown, a founder of the company, will assume the position of board chair. Cascade also announced Dave Christy, as director of clinical services; Desiree Davis, as team lead for the clinical staff; Frank Clore, as supervisor of provider relations and administration and Caitlin Plato, as senior training & organizational specialist. Anna Meiners will remain as the director of client services. Since 1975, Cascade has worked with clients to decrease employee related expenses while improving the quality of life of their employees.

Thesis

Portland-based Thesis acquired of the assets of Bonfire Marketing, a digital content marketing agency specializing in account-based marketing for technology clients. Thesis will initially contract with all seven of Bonfire Marketing's employees. Founded in 2002, Thesis, formerly eROI, is a full-service digital agency specializing in email marketing, strategy, web design, development, and social media. Thesis was named among the Portland Business Journal's Most Admired Companies in 2019 and named one of the 100 Best Companies to Work for in Oregon.

Oct 27, 2020

InvestigateWest

Mennet

Brown

InvestigateWest announced that the organization has received a $100,000 gift from local philanthropists Paul Joseph Brown and Lisa Mennet to forward their mission of supporting local nonprofit journalism focused on environment, government accountability, and public health. The donation will be used to increase local public interest reporting using new media, and to build a community engagement model to better serve readers. InvestigateWest has served the Pacific Northwest since 2009.

Nautilus

Nautilus announced that Garry Wiseman has been appointed senior vice president and chief digital officer. Wiseman will be responsible for JRNY – an AI-powered, adaptive coaching platform that creates personalized home workouts; providing direction to the e-commerce business; and helping to accelerate the company's ongoing digital transformation. Most recently, Wiseman was the senior vice president of digital customer experience for Dell Technologies. Nautilus is headquartered in Vancouver.

City of Tacoma

The Tacoma City Council is seeking applicants for the positions of mechanical engineering representative and structural engineering representative on the Board of Building Appeals, for a five-year term each. Applicants should have knowledge and/or experience in design and/or construction related to building, fire, mechanical, plumbing, and/or energy code. The Board of Building Appeals is a quasi-judicial board made up of seven members who are recommended by the Infrastructure, Planning, and Sustainability Committee and appointed by the City Council. Applications must be submitted to the clerk's Office by Nov. 5. Learn more at http://www.cityoftacoma.org/cbcapplication.

Davis Wright Tremaine

Davis Wright Tremaine has named Yusuf Zakir as its first chief diversity and inclusion officer. Zakir will report directly to the managing partner, Jeff Gray, and will work with leadership across the firm to build and strengthen diversity, equity and inclusion programs for lawyers and staff. Zakir most recently was director of diversity at Holland & Knight. Previously, he served as the manager of global diversity, recruiting and engagement at Latham & Watkins.

Oct 23, 2020

Northwest Kidney Centers

Rivara

Northwest Kidney Centers named Dr. Matthew Rivara as the new medical director of its Broadway dialysis clinic in Seattle. Rivara is a board-certified physician at the Kidney and Hypertension clinics at Harborview Medical Center, a University of Washington assistant professor of nephrology, and an investigator at the Kidney Research Institute. Northwest Kidney Centers operates 20 dialysis clinics in King, Pierce, Snohomish and Clallam counties. It was founded in Seattle in 1962.

Liberty Bank

Connor

Liberty Bank, which recently changed its name from Liberty Bay Bank, named Forterra President and CEO Michelle Connor to its board of directors. Connor has served Forterra, a real estate nonprofit dedicated to securing and preserving land in the Pacific Northwest, for 25 years. She has participated in the International Women's Forum, Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission, USDA National Urban and Community Forest Advisory Council, and the Urban Land Institute. Liberty Bank is headquartered in Poulsbo, and has an office in Bellevue.

Banner Bank

Banner Bank president and CEO Mark Grescovich announced the creation of the Banner Bank Small Business Opportunity Fund to help address social and racial injustice by helping minority-owned small businesses affected by COVID-19. Launched with an initial $1.5 million investment, the fund will assist underserved businesses with annual revenues of $1 million or less that are owned by Black, Indigenous and people of color, as well as businesses located in economically disadvantaged rural and urban communities. Banner is partnering with three community development financial institutions by making a $500,000 investment each in Rural Community Assistance, Craft3 and Lendistry. These groups will identify and administer financial assistance in the form of low-cost loans, grants and credit enhancements, generally up to $10,000, to each qualifying business.