Sep 09, 2022

Ste. Michelle Wine Estates

Ste. Michelle Wine Estates acquired A to Z Wineworks, a top-selling winery in Oregon. This is the first strategic acquisition for Ste. Michelle Wine Estates under the ownership of private equity firm Sycamore Partners. Together with Ste. Michelle's Erath Winery, the addition of the A to Z and Rex Hill brands gives Ste. Michelle a substantial presence in Oregon and the combined business will be a leading producer of the state's signature variety, pinot noir. Amy Prosenjak, president and CEO of A to Z, will join Ste. Michelle as president of Oregon brands, overseeing the company's combined operations in the state. In addition to Prosenjak, A to Z founding partners Deb Hatcher, Cheryl Francis and Sam Tannahill will join Ste. Michelle as consultants. BNP Paribas Securities served as financial advisor to A to Z. Bank of the West is continuing as the lender to both Ste. Michelle and A to Z. Kirkland & Ellis acted as legal counsel for Ste. Michelle and Tonkon Torp supported A to Z. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Ste. Michelle Wine Estates is the largest winery in the Pacific Northwest and among the largest premium wineries in the U.S. The winery now farms more than 30,000 acres across Washington, Oregon and California, and distributes its wines in over 100 countries.

Membrion

Membrion received a $1.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, Advanced Manufacturing Office, through the Small Business Innovation Research program. The Phase II Award will support a two-year project to develop, implement and optimize a machine vision system to provide real time analytics of Membrion's roll-to-roll ceramic desalination membrane production line. Membrion, a startup out of Seattle, was created to help industrial facilities recycle more of their water. Membrion's principal investigator leading the project is Dr. Olivia Lenz, a senior research engineer. Lenz guided Membrion through its Phase I SBIR project, screening 50 membrane inspection systems for quality control and inspection methods. The award includes a stipend to commercialize the technology and its integrated software.

Zeitworks

Oregon-based iGrafx, an intelligent process management firm, and Zeitworks, creators of desktop process mining and productivity analysis technologies, have partnered to bring AI-powered process intelligence to global customers. The alliance combines the process mining and business process management from iGrafx with the automated desktop data collection, AI, and real-time analytics from Zeitworks. The partnership creates a comprehensive process intelligence platform by linking process mining, task mining, discrete event simulation, and predictive analytics. Based in Seattle, Zeitworks was originally incubated inside Madrona Venture Labs and is led by technology startup veterans and co-founders Jay Bartot and Kalpana Narayanaswamy. Zeitworks has secured $6.5 million in funding from Madrona Venture Group and Jazz Venture Partners.

Sep 08, 2022

Lighthouse

Seattle-based Lighthouse, a provider of technology-enabled eDiscovery, compliance, and information governance services, appointed Ron Markezich to succeed Brian McManus as chief executive officer. Markezich, who has served as a member of the Lighthouse board since October 2019, will become CEO on Oct. 1. McManus will stay on with the company as executive vice chair. Markezich spent nearly 25 years at Microsoft, where he developed Microsoft's commercial cloud services such as Office 365 and drove cloud services in leadership roles across engineering, sales, marketing and finance. He spent over 15 years as a corporate vice president at Microsoft, and was also Microsoft's chief information officer. Lightyear Capital, a New York-based private equity firm, owns a majority stake in Lighthouse.

Qumulo

Data storage company Qumulo appointed Claire Thompson as vice president of EMEA sales operations and worldwide sales enablement, and Fabrice Gourlay as vice president of EMEA sales. Thompson joins Qumulo with more than 10 years of expertise in the region, most recently as vice president of sales strategy and planning at Tableau. Thompson led the scaling of Tableau's EMEA operations from an individual team to a software sales organization supporting the entire region. Prior to Qumulo, Gourlay was vice president of EMEA sales at Impinj. He brings more than 15 years of sales leadership in the EMEA region, and while at Impinj he guided the company's strategic selling strategy that contributed to its IPO in 2016. Previously, he was director of EMEA at Dell EMC's Isilon Storage Division, and vice president of worldwide pre-sales at Quantum. Qumulo is based in Seattle.

Parcion Private Wealth

Parcion Private Wealth, a Seattle-area wealth management firm focused on helping business owners and entrepreneurs optimize wealth events, hired Tim Bond as director of investment operations and portfolio management, and Stacee Kratovil as a senior family advisor. In his role, Bond will handle daily portfolio management, overseeing investment and trading strategies for the firm's clients. Prior to joining Parcion, Bond worked at JP Morgan Asset Management for more than 10 years and managed more than $100 billion in assets. He also served as the chief investment officer at Gripman Investment Advisors, where he managed a multi-asset strategy. Most recently, he was a private investment analyst and portfolio manager at Winthrop Capital Management. Kratovil has over 10 years of experience working within the multifamily, office and private wealth sectors. She specializes in leading individuals and families through all phases of the wealth planning process. Kratovil comes to Parcion after serving as a vice president at U.S. Bank Private Wealth Management.

Lattice Semiconductor

Hillsboro, Oregon-based Lattice Semiconductor has been named a 2022 Global Sustainability Leadership Award winner by the Business Intelligence Group for the second consecutive year. The awards honor people, teams, and organizations who have made sustainability an integral part of their business practice or overall mission. Lattice's low-power technology is used to solve customer problems across the network, from the edge to the cloud, in the communications, computing, industrial, automotive and consumer markets. The Business Intelligence Group was founded with the mission of recognizing talent and superior performance in the business world. The organization's proprietary scoring system measures performance across multiple business domains and is judged by business executives.

Sep 07, 2022

Perkins Coie

Kallon

Former federal judge Abdul Kallon joined Perkins Coie's Litigation and Labor & Employment practices as a partner in the Seattle office. Kallon joins Perkins Coie after serving as a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama for the past 12 years. Kallon will bring his experience and perspective as a practitioner and former jurist to assist clients with challenging litigation needs. He will also serve as an advisor on federal court advocacy. During his time on the bench, Kallon presided over a broad range of civil and criminal cases, including complex employment and commercial litigation and cases focused on constitutional rights. He served on the Judicial Conference Committee on Financial Disclosures, the Federal Judicial Center's Advisory Committee on District Judge Education, and as a mentor judge for newly appointed judges. Kallon was nominated to the federal bench by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2009. He started his legal career as a clerk for Judge U.W. Clemon of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. Prior to joining the bench, he was a partner with Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, where he focused on litigation and labor and employment issues during his 15 years at the firm. Kallon received his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Perkins Coie has more than 1,200 attorneys in offices across the United States and Asia.

Metropolitan Improvement District

The Metropolitan Improvement District, a program managed by the Downtown Seattle Association, unveiled a new fleet of mobile machines that will enable the Clean Team Ambassadors to address cleaning and sanitation needs in downtown. Part of MID's $15.5 million budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year, the investment in 18 cleaning “trikes” will nearly triple the current fleet. In the last fiscal year alone (ending in June), MID's Clean Team collected more than 1.4 million gallons of trash from downtown sidewalks, alleys and curb lines, in addition to cleaning biohazard materials. The MID service area consists of six downtown neighborhoods: Belltown, Denny Triangle, Pioneer Square, Retail Core, West Edge and Waterfront. This coverage area equals 285 square blocks. Established in 1958, the Downtown Seattle Association is a nonprofit membership organization whose mission is to create a healthy, vibrant downtown.

Falkon

Falkon, a go-to-market intelligence platform, announced a $16 million capital raise. The round, which brings the company's total funding to $20 million since its inception in October 2019, was led by OMERS Ventures, with participation from Greylock Partners, Trilogy Financial, Flying Fish Partners, and Madera Partners. Falkon unifies GTM data and delivers real-time operational intelligence. The Seattle-based startup will use the funding to accelerate growth and drive customer acquisition. Falkon was founded by Mona Akmal, Aakash Kambuj and Josh Zana, Seattle-based leaders of high-growth engineering and product teams. Founded in 1962, OMERS is a jointly sponsored pension plan, with 1,000 participating employers ranging from large cities to local agencies, and over half a million active, deferred and retired members. OMERS Ventures has made over 60 investments in disruptive technology companies across North America and Europe.