May 06, 2022

Lane Powell

Duffy

Sanchez

Nathanson

The attorneys and staff of the boutique health care law firm The Nathanson Group will join Lane Powell effective June 1. The Nathanson Group's team of eight attorneys collectively has over 100 years of experience handling the real estate, corporate, and finance aspects of a variety of health care transactions, with particular expertise in the long term care and senior housing industry. The Nathanson Group's founder, Randi Nathanson, will co-chair Lane Powell's newly formed Health Care Transactions Team with Lane Powell shareholder Gabriela Sanchez. The Nathanson Group's nine-person regulatory team operates under the Approvalign tradename. Approvalign is a unique service offered by The Nathanson Group to assist long term care and senior housing owners and operators throughout the U.S. in securing the regulatory authorizations needed to close a transaction. By using a proprietary database developed by The Nathanson Group known as Approvatrack, the Approvalign team is able to streamline the process of applying for and obtaining required licensure and ancillary permit approvals. Lane Powell, currently headed by Barbara Duffy, opened its doors in 1875 and has grown to be one of the largest law firms headquartered in the Pacific Northwest, with nearly 180 attorneys across more than 35 practice areas and industry groups.

Ultra Safe Nuclear

Backhaus

Ultra Safe Nuclear hired Roland Backhaus as vice president of strategic engagements. In this role, Roland will apply his commercial, legal, and technical expertise to strengthen the company's partnerships and develop new alliances. His efforts to expand the company's strategic partners will position Ultra Safe Nuclear to deploy, service, and support its Micro Modular Reactor (MMR) and Fully Ceramic Micro-capsulated (FCM) fuel initiatives across the globe. Backhaus has more than 20 years of experience in the nuclear industry, first as a nuclear submarine officer in the U.S. Navy and more recently as a nuclear energy attorney with several multinational law firms. As a Navy officer, he served on the USS FLORIDA, a nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, as the reactor control assistant and the assistant chief engineer. As an attorney, Backhaus has advised commercial entities and foreign governments on various aspects of nuclear power programs and related infrastructure issues. His expertise includes vendor procurement, agreements for the construction, operation, and fueling of nuclear power units, and the protection of sensitive technical and corporate information. He received a BS degree from the United States Naval Academy, an MA degree from George Mason University, and a JD degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Ultra Safe Nuclear is a Seattle-based global leader in the deployment of micro reactors, and a strong vertical integrator of nuclear power technologies, committed to bringing safe, commercially competitive, clean and reliable nuclear energy to markets throughout the world.

Qumulo

Seattle-based Qumulo, a data storage and management firm, announced two executive hires that will bolster customer momentum and product innovation within the expansive unstructured data market. Qumulo appointed Eric Brodersen as chief customer officer and Kiran Bhageshpur as chief technology officer. Prior to Qumulo, Brodersen served as COO and president of Impinj, leading the launch of the company's industry-first Internet of Things (IoT) platform, expanding company operations and revenue, guiding its IPO in 2016, and establishing category leadership in item-level connectivity for the IoT. Brodersen also served as the senior vice president of marketing and business development for the Isilon Storage Division of EMC from 2010 to 2013. Bhageshpur was the founder and CEO of Igneous whose unstructured data management solution was deployed across many Fortune 500 companies. Previously, Bhageshpur was an engineering leader at Isilon Systems and the VP of engineering at the Isilon Storage Division of EMC.

May 05, 2022

Independent Community Bankers of America

Wanichek

The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) announced that Craig Wanichek, CEO and president of Summit Bank, Eugene, Oregon, was elected to serve on ICBA's Legislative Issues Committee. ICBA is a national voice for community banks and is committed to its 92-year mission of creating and promoting an environment where community banks flourish. In addition to helping shape and advocate ICBA's national policy positions and programs, Wanichek's duties include engaging in grassroots activities in Oregon to promote pro-community bank policies and serving as a liaison between community banks and ICBA staff and leadership in Washington, D.C. Summit Bank has offices in Eugene, Central Oregon, and downtown Portland.

Rep. Adam Smith

Representative Adam Smith announced the departure of his longtime chief of staff, Shana Chandler, and other senior staff changes. Chandler worked for the people of Washington's 9th Congressional District for more than 25 years, starting her career with Rep. Smith as an executive assistant and rising to the role of chief of staff in 2007. In addition to Chandler's departure, the following staff changes will go into effect on May 6: Sarah Servin, currently deputy chief of staff and district director, will assume the role of chief of staff and Glenn Carpenter, currently deputy district director, will assume the role of district director.

ZoomInfo

ZoomInfo, a software, data and intelligence firm, has acquired Comparably, a recruitment marketing and employer branding platform. Comparably attracts millions of job seekers each month looking for a source of information on company cultures and employee insights. The comprehensive platform provides employers with one-of-a-kind SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) solutions to amplify and enhance their employer brand and recruitment marketing with custom content, search engine optimization, and global media recognition through Comparably's Best Places to Work Awards series, which reaches hundreds of millions of people annually. ZoomInfo plans to use Comparably's proprietary data to further build its TalentOS into a best-in-class talent platform by enriching recruiter search options and providing recruiters with access to millions of quality candidates and employer brand solutions. ZoomInfo is headquartered in Vancouver.

May 04, 2022

Golden Hills Wind Farm

Avangrid Renewables, a subsidiary of AVANGRID, Inc. announced that it has achieved commercial operation at its 200 Megawatt Golden Hills wind farm in Sherman County, Oregon. The facility, which provides enough clean, renewable electricity to Puget Sound Energy to power over 60,000 homes annually, began operations on April 29. The project will help PSE meet its goals to reduce carbon dioxide emissions while providing additional capacity to serve customers, particularly during winter periods. The project is Avangrid Renewables' seventh wind project in Sherman County, 11th in Oregon, and 14th in the Pacific Northwest. The Power Purchase Agreement for the project was signed in May 2020 as part of PSE's commitment to the environment and deep decarbonization by investing in more wind energy. The addition of the Golden Hills wind project increases PSE's owned and contracted wind fleet to over 1,150 megawatts. The project is expected to deliver over $220 million in landowner payments and local taxes over its lifetime. Avangrid Renewables acquired the Golden Hills project in September 2017 from the original developer of the project, Orion Wind Resources, a joint venture between Orion Renewable Energy Group and Eolian. Avangrid Renewables is headquartered in Portland.

Paint Recycling Program

PaintCare released the first annual report for its Washington paint recycling program. The program, which is guided by the state's paint stewardship law (SHB 1652), officially launched on April 1, 2021. In its first nine months of operation, PaintCare collected 581,363 gallons of paint, diverting most of it out of landfills and putting it to beneficial use. Now, a year into collection, PaintCare estimates that Washingtonians have dropped off approximately 842,000 gallons of unwanted paint. The paint recycling program allows people to recycle unwanted paint at a network of 210 drop-off sites across the state. PaintCare is a nonprofit organization created by the paint industry through the American Coatings Association to manage leftover paint in states that have enacted paint stewardship laws. PaintCare also offers free on-location pickup to businesses, organizations and households with 100 gallons of paint or more to recycle. The paint stewardship law includes a small fee — called the PaintCare fee — on the sale of any new paint in the state, which funds all aspects of the program including paint collection, transportation, processing and public education. Information regarding drop-off sites and the type of products accepted is available at http://www.paintcare.org/.

City of Tacoma

The Tacoma Employees' Retirement System (TERS) is seeking applications for the resident member position on the TERS Board. Applications are due May 27. This is a three-year volunteer position, with an opportunity to be reappointed, for a Tacoma resident who is not employed by the city of Tacoma. TERS Board members are responsible for maintaining the financial health of the system and high quality service to its participants. A defined benefit plan providing retirement benefits to city of Tacoma employees, TERS serves about 3,000 active members and 3,000 deferred and retired members. Retirement benefits are funded by employer and member contributions, as well as investment earnings. Application forms, submission instructions and details on the TERS plan, are available at http://www.cityoftacoma.org/retirement/.