Sep 29, 2021

Cloud Security Alliance

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) announced the recipients of its Ron Knode Service Award, recognizing CSA members from the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and EMEA regions for their excellence in volunteerism. The honorees were selected by the CSA executive team and chosen based on their valuable contributions towards fulfilling CSA's mission of promoting best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment. Ron Knode was an information security expert who passed away in May 2012. Established in 2012, the Ron Knode Service Award is awarded annually to CSA members whose contributions reflect Ron's passion for volunteerism and embody the spirit for which this award was established. This year's recipients are: Dr. Ricci Ieong, principal consultant of eWalker Consulting; Claudius Lam, marketing manager for Trend Micro; Juan-Pablo Perez-Etchegoyen, chief technology officer of Onapsis; Shawn Harris, managing principal security architect at Starbucks Coffee; Paul Rich, executive director, data management and protection for JPMorgan Chase; and Michael Roza, a risk, audit, control and compliance professional with 20-plus years of experience. The Cloud Security Alliance is headquartered in Seattle.

Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services announced the general availability of Amazon QuickSight Q, a new capability in Amazon QuickSight that gives anyone in an organization the ability to ask business questions using natural language and receive accurate answers with relevant visualizations that help them gain insights from the data. Amazon QuickSight Q does not depend on prebuilt dashboards or reports to deliver visualizations, which removes the need for business intelligence analysts to update a dashboard every time a new business question arises, so anyone can ask their questions and receive visual answers in seconds. Customers can refine the way Amazon QuickSight Q understands questions with an editor, which removes the need for complex data preparation before users can ask questions of data in natural language. There are no upfront commitments to use Amazon QuickSight Q, and customers only pay for the number of users or queries. Amazon QuickSight Q currently supports questions in English and is generally available today to customers running Amazon QuickSight in US East (Ohio), US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Europe (Frankfurt), Europe (Ireland), and Europe (London), with availability in additional AWS Regions coming soon.

T-Mobile

Bellevue-based T-Mobile announced the 25 small towns winning Hometown Grants to jumpstart community development projects to re-energize these towns and build upon what makes them unique. Hometown Grants are part of T-Mobile's commitment to bring 5G to rural America. Over the next five years, T-Mobile plans to hire 7,500 new employees in small towns and rural communities and provide $25 million in grants for community development projects. Northwest winners are: Fruitland, Idaho, purchase and install youth playground equipment in a new city park; Aumsville, OR, create space for small businesses to use for Saturday Market Days and to support park use with a community gathering space; Talent, OR, revitalize space in Depot Building to help it be a focal point of gathering, collaboration and innovation for decades to come; Toledo, OR, transform rural Toledo's Main Street through business beautifications and murals; and Moses Lake, WA, set up a creative community incubator that will have art, live music, events, a lounge and maker space to inspire creativity. T-Mobile partnered with Main Street America and Smart Growth America, two consulting partners with a combined experience of more than 60 years working to help build stronger, more prosperous small towns and rural communities. Together, they determined the grant recipients based on detail and fullness of the submission, community impact, viability of the project among other factors. Recipients are selected and awarded on a quarterly basis, so towns with populations less than 50,000 are still eligible to apply. For full details on how to submit a proposal for Hometown Grants, visit https://www.t-mobile.com/brand/hometown-grants.

Sep 28, 2021

Paway App

Paway has expanded its community and is now available in Seattle with a pet-friendly app. Paway is a free dog walking companion app that helps pet owners and dog caregivers find dog-friendly routes and get live alerts to keep dogs safe. Paway was created by professional dog walkers, and uses real-time crowd sourced data to map out a neighborhood while connecting with other dogs and humans along the way. Paway puts dog and owner safety first and includes features that allow other caretakers to follow along on walks, find lost dogs and check their pet's “report card.” Jason Meltzer is the founder of Paway and first CEO of Wag!

Johnstone Supply

Johnstone Supply's members approved a conversion agreement with Redwood Capital Investments that will provide the capital for Johnstone to convert its business structure from an Oregon cooperative into a Delaware limited liability company operating under the name Johnstone Supply LLC. Johnstone Supply will continue to operate as a wholesale distributor based in Portland, providing products and services to the former members of the Johnstone Cooperative. The 90-plus individual Johnstone business owners are expected to execute exclusive territory distribution agreements with Johnstone Supply, and will remain significant equity holders in the new entity. The conversion agreement is subject to regulatory approval and the deal is expected to close later this year. Wells Fargo Securities served as financial advisor to Johnstone, with K&L Gates as the legal advisor. Kirkland & Ellis was the legal counsel to Redwood. Johnstone Supply Cooperative is a North American HVACR brand with over $3 billion in annual sales generated by over 450 independently owned stores across the U.S. and Canada.

Petabyte Consortium

Unavets, a European platform for veterinary centers with over 43 practices across Spain and Portugal, is partnering with Bellevue-based Petabyte Technology, a veterinary software company, to join the new Petabyte Consortium, which is focused on cleaning and standardizing data to improve veterinary practices. Petabyte patient management solutions for veterinary hospitals offer a suite of software solutions, including Rhapsody, a cloud-based practice information management system; Petabyte Analytics, an enterprise-level analytics platform; and Boop, a mobile application simplifying the pet care experience for pet owners. Founded in 2019, Petabyte's mission is to give veterinary health care practitioners greater understanding and control over their business using cloud-based technology. Michael Hyman is the co-founder and CEO of Petabyte. Unavets is the third group to join the Petabyte Consortium.

Sep 24, 2021

Business Impact NW

Victor Saldanha has joined the loan department of Business Impact NW as chief lending officer. He will anchor the department from Oregon, one of four states that Business Impact NW serves. Previously, Saldanha was the Business Banking Center manager at KeyBank Beaverton. He brings nearly 20 years of banking experience. Saldanha is president of the Hispanic-Latino Key Business Impact networking group and a graduate of Business & HR Management from Portland State University. He will be responsible for SBA, 7a, USDA, CDFI, and investor-funded loans, and work with the technical assistance programs within the organization to deliver coaching and capital to underserved small business owners. Business Impact NW is a nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) dedicated to serving BIPOC, women, Veteran, immigrant, refugee, LGBTQ+, and low-income entrepreneurs in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska through financial services, business coaching and training.

City of Tacoma

October 2021 marks the 20th anniversary of Tacoma Arts Month, 31 days dedicated to celebrating the arts in the Tacoma community. The month is full of virtual and in-person arts and culture programs, including: music, dance and theater performances; visual art exhibits; literary readings; lectures; workshops; film screenings and cultural events. Tacoma-based artists and organizations are hosting a wide range of arts and culture programs, both virtual and in-person. Visit tacomaartsmonth.org/events for a calendar of current programming. Over 90 Tacoma artists, working in all artistic disciplines and mediums are holding an “Arts in the Armory” event at the Tacoma Armory for an interactive arts experience on Oct. 16 and Oct. 17, from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Artists will be sharing their work and attendees will have an opportunity to learn about the artistic process, ask questions, and make purchases. This event is free and is sponsored by Tacoma Arts Live. Also, community members are invited to submit an honoree for an AMOCAT Arts Award, which recognizes the people and organizations who positively impact the community with their passion, innovation, and commitment to the arts. Additional information is available at TacomaArtsMonth.org/amocat-artsawards.

Seyfarth Shaw

Lisa Schaures has joined Seyfarth Shaw's Seattle office as a partner in its corporate department. Schaures is the fourth partner Seyfarth has added in Seattle in the past five months. Seyfarth's Seattle office was launched in 2020, and now has 24 lawyers from a cross-section of the firm's practices. Schaures counsels privately-held companies, startups, social ventures, and nonprofit organizations, as well as boards of directors, across industries, and through every stage of growth. She advises clients on corporate structures, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, corporate conversions, and develops strategies for complex tax concerns, deferred compensation, and potential conflicts of interest. In addition, Schaures assists nonprofit organizations on governance, tax exempt compliance, lobbying restrictions, fundraising law, and collaboration with other nonprofits and for-profit corporations. Schaures was most recently a shareholder and technology industry group leader at Pacific Northwest law firm Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt. She is also an adjunct professor at the Seattle University School of Law. With more than 900 lawyers across 17 offices, Seyfarth Shaw provides advisory, litigation, and transactional legal services to clients worldwide.

Albertsons

Boise-based Albertsons Companies received the Safer Choice Partner of the Year Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the company's efforts to provide products that use safer chemicals. The company was recognized in the “Retailer” category for launching new Safer Choice-certified Own Brands products, raising awareness of the Safer Choice certification, and helping to identify opportunities for educating consumers to make informed buying decisions. Since the inception of the EPA program in 2015, Albertsons has received the award four times. Consumers can identify products made with chemicals that are safer for human health and the environment by the Safer Choice label that appears on the product. This label means the EPA has evaluated the product's ingredients and determined they meet the necessary criteria. The company's exclusive Open Nature line was introduced in 2011 and offers products that are free from 110 additives with no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives.