Mar 04, 2022

Taqtile

Brillon

Tim Brillon joins Taqtile, the Seattle-based maker of the Manifest AR-enabled work instruction platform for deskless workers, as CFO. Brillon is a 20-year veteran of the Seattle start-up and investment community. His expertise includes accounting and finance, risk management, and deployment of back-office systems that increase overall operational efficiencies and accountability. At Taqtile, Brillon will manage the company's finances, positioning the organization for employee and customer growth, and continued investment in its augmented reality enabled work-instruction platform. Over his career, Brillon has worked with both public and private technology companies, and spent time in the venture capital and private equity industries. Previously, he served as the CFO and chief compliance officer at private-equity firm Evergreen Pacific Partners and was interim CFO for a number of portfolio companies.

SanMar

SanMar, a supplier of wholesale accessories and apparel, announced two new IT leaders who have joined SanMar's executive team. David Smith was named vice president, technology, and Mark Szkudlarek was named vice president, IT operations. Smith's IT career spans nearly three decades. Most recently, he served as vice president of enterprise applications at Koch Business Solutions, leading strategy and development for applications that powered integrated services across the company's many divisions. Before that, he spent more than seven years at T-Mobile as director of enterprise systems development. Smith received his master's degree in business and bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Washington. Szkudlarek has more than 30 years of experience in IT infrastructure and operations. Most recently, he served as vice president of IT strategy at Novelis, where he led tech innovation and enterprise architecture. He also spent seven years leading global IT infrastructure, operations and governance functions at Aleris. Szkudlarek graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in management information systems. He also served four years as a field artillery officer in the U.S. Army, stationed in Germany. A family-owned and operated business since 1971, SanMar is based in Issaquah, with eight distribution centers nationwide.

City of Tacoma

As part of efforts to alleviate ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Tacoma's small business community, Mayor Victoria Woodards announced the availability of $300,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding, establishing a Window Replacement Grant Program to offset costs incurred replacing windows broken at their business location. Program details, informed by input from the City Council's Economic Development Committee, were developed by the city of Tacoma's Community and Economic Development Department. Eligible small businesses based in Tacoma, with no more than 15 full-time equivalent employees, may submit an application starting March 7, 2022 at 8 AM for a Window Replacement Grant. The deadline for submitting a grant application is March 28, 2022 at 11:59 PM. Grant recipients will be selected via random lottery and notified on April 6, 2022. The online grant application will be available at makeittacoma.com. Questions, or requests to receive information in alternate formats, can be directed to windowreplacement@cityoftacoma.org or (253) 591-5208.

Columbia Bank

Columbia Bank announced it was recognized as the leading Small Business Administration (SBA) lender by the SBA's Portland and Seattle area district offices. The rankings cover the federal fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2021 and are based on the number of loans made by each bank during the period. During the past year, Columbia Bank provided 186 loans to small businesses in the Seattle region and moved up a spot from a year earlier to become the No. 1 ranked SBA lender in the district. In the Portland district, Columbia Bank made 191 SBA loans. This is the fourth consecutive year the bank has been ranked first by the SBA's Portland District Office. Nationally, Columbia Bank now ranks 18. Headquartered in Tacoma, Columbia Banking System is the holding company of Columbia Bank, a Washington state-chartered full-service commercial bank with locations throughout Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

Mar 03, 2022

Everett Community College

Five Everett Community College Aviation Maintenance students have been offered post-graduation jobs and up to $12,330 in stipends by Horizon Air through the company's new maintenance development program. Aviation Maintenance students Anthony Provart, Ernest Muriuki, Christian Wise, Connor Reusser and Andrew Springer were selected for the program, which offers a $5,000 stipend during their first year studying aviation maintenance, $5,500 their second year and up to $1,800 for Airframe & Powerplant (A&P) testing. After graduation and A&P certification, the students are guaranteed a job as an aircraft mechanic with Horizon Air at one of Horizon's maintenance bases at Paine Field in Everett, Seattle, Spokane, Boise, Portland or Redmond, Oregon. To apply for the Horizon program, students must be enrolled in one of Horizon's partner aviation maintenance programs like the one offered at EvCC's Aviation Maintenance Technician School. For more information, visit EverettCC.edu/Aviation. EvCC's FAA-Approved Part 147 Aviation Maintenance Technician School, located at Paine Field, has been providing training for more than 50 years.

Goldfinch Partners

Goldfinch Partners and The Baupost Group announced they reached a major milestone with its initial closing in the acquisition of Western Union Business Solutions (WUBS) for $910 million. WUBS will be renamed Convera. Patrick Gauthier, who was most recently the global head of Amazon Pay, will serve as Convera's CEO. Convera is the largest non-bank fintech in global B2B payments and has a global reach with capabilities in over 140 currencies. Convera's customers include more than 30,000 small and medium-sized businesses, educational institutions, financial institutions, law firms and NGOs. Convera will add several veteran fintech professionals to its leadership team with experience at companies including Amazon, BCG, BCG Digital Ventures, PayPal and Visa. These include Jodi Krause (chief people officer), Dharmesh Syal (chief technology officer), Jody Visser (chief transformation officer) and Drew Weinstein (chief commercial officer). They are joining the existing WUBS leadership team including Michel Foricher (head of operations), Andrew Summerill (chief financial officer) and Tristan van der Vijver (chief compliance and risk officer). Goldfinch Partners is headquartered in Seattle, and has investment professionals in the Bay Area and New York City. The Baupost Group is a Boston-based investment manager firm.

D.A. Davidson

D.A. Davidson & Co., a subsidiary of D.A. Davidson Companies, has hired Matt Lower as a managing director in the firm's Institutional Sales Group. Lower joins D.A. Davidson with over 13 years of institutional sales experience, most recently serving as a director with Northcoast Research. He holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from John Carroll University. D.A. Davidson's Equity Capital Markets group provides capital markets services and products that include investment banking, institutional sales, trading, research and corporate services. Founded in 1935 with corporate headquarters in Great Falls, Montana, and regional headquarters in Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Omaha and Seattle, D.A. Davidson Companies has approximately 1,475 employees and offices in 28 states.

Mar 02, 2022

Visit Seattle

Visit Seattle has hired Kelly Amig as national account director, Midwest. In this role, Amig will be responsible for promoting and selling Seattle and the region as a convention and meeting destination for associations and corporations by generating approved leads for the Washington State Convention Center and hotel bookings from assigned Midwest market segments. She will be responsible for generating and managing sales leads and presenting competitive bids to clients. Amig will be responsible for creating and maintaining a client base through relationship building and networks with association and corporate meeting clients. With 30 years of experience as sales professional, Amig recently served as the senior sales manager at Hyatt Regency Seattle. She has served as senior sales manager at Grand Hyatt Seattle/Hyatt Olive 8, account director at the Westin Seattle, and national account sales manager at the Doubletree Seattle Airport. Amig joins Visit Seattle as the organization continues to focus on tourism recovery by encouraging domestic and international visitors. She will work with Visit Seattle's convention sales and services team to create and maintain a client base in the Midwest market by attending tradeshows, sales missions, client events, networking meetings and local meetings. Visit Seattle has served as the official destination marketing organization for Seattle and King County for more than 50 years.

Itron

Dresser Utility Solutions and Itron announced the successful closing on the sale of Itron's European commercial & industrial (C&I) mechanical gas meter business, gas stations meter and pressure regulation business and global gas regulator business to Dresser Utility Solutions. As part of the sale, Itron employees supporting European mechanical gas C&I meters and stations and global gas regulators become employees of Dresser Utility Solutions. Itron will continue to develop and offer electricity, gas and water devices in Europe and globally. For more than a century, Dresser Utility Solutions has been a worldwide manufacturer of engineered products for critical infrastructure in the global utility and industrial sectors. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Dresser Utility Solutions has a global presence with approximately 750 employees and a sales presence in over 100 countries. Itron, based in Liberty Lake, Wash., enables utilities and cities to safely, securely and reliably deliver critical infrastructure solutions to communities in more than 100 countries.

Remitly

Remitly Global, a digital financial services provider for immigrants and their families, announced the appointment of Ankur Sinha as its new chief technology officer. In this role, Sinha will be responsible for leading Remitly's technology strategy with a focus on optimization of current platforms as well as ongoing innovation. Sinha brings more than 20 years of technology and leadership experience to Remitly, having worked on high-scale, high-performance products and transformative technologies in senior engineering and technology leadership roles at Google and Microsoft. Current chief technology officer Karim Meghji will transition into an executive advisory role. Remitly is headquartered in Seattle and has offices around the world, including London, Kraków, Manila and Managua.