Sep 14, 2022

Standard Insurance

Werkman

Portland-based Standard Insurance (The Standard) announced that Gary Werkman has been hired as assistant vice president of corporate tax. Werkman will develop and lead a team of tax professionals who work with the company's financial reporting and operations personnel to achieve efficiencies in The Standard's tax compliance, planning and information reporting requirements. Werkman joins The Standard after more than 22 years of corporate tax experience with Transamerica, most recently as senior director of tax. Previously, he managed statutory tax accounting for Transamerica's largest life insurance company. In business since 1906, The Standard is a family of companies providing financial protection products and services for employers and individuals. The Standard is the marketing name for StanCorp Financial Group, and its subsidiaries: Standard Insurance, The Standard Life Insurance Company of New York, Standard Retirement Services, StanCorp Mortgage Investors, StanCorp Investment Advisers, StanCorp Real Estate, and StanCorp Equities.

City of Tacoma

Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards announced a new partnership with Comcast to invest in and support families, students, and small businesses owned by people of color in the region. A total of $300,000 in new funding will be awarded by Comcast to Boys & Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound, Goodwill of the Olympics and Rainier Region, Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce for the Thrive Tacoma Business Fund, and TeamWrk. The contributions are part of Project UP, Comcast's $1 billion commitment to reach tens of millions of people over the next 10 years by providing the tools, resources, and skills needed to succeed in a digital world.

NuScale Power

NuScale Power and Habboush Group (HG) have entered into an agreement forming a strategic alliance that establishes a “one-stop-shop” for the financing, investment, development, execution, and management of NuScale-powered projects and opportunities. This new globally-oriented, strategic alliance between NuScale and HG – along with energy transition platform ENTRA1 – aims to provide integrated capabilities for financing, investment, development, management and execution of large-scale assets and projects in connection with global demand for NuScale's clean energy solutions. NuScale Power has developed small modular reactor nuclear technology to supply energy for electrical generation, district heating, desalination, commercial-scale hydrogen production, and other process heat applications. Founded in 2007, NuScale is headquartered in Portland, and has offices in Corvallis, Ore.; Rockville, Md.; Charlotte, N.C.; Richland, Wash.; and London, UK. ENTRA1 is a private investment platform purpose-built to create value by addressing global transformations. Habboush Group is an international private asset management firm focused on developing, managing, operating and financing proprietary opportunities predominantly in energy and infrastructure sectors.

Sep 13, 2022

Puget Sound Kidney Centers

DeBord

Kelly

Puget Sound Kidney Centers President and CEO Harold Kelly announced he plans to retire in 2023. Under Kelly's leadership, PSKC grew from a small, community-based, nonprofit provider of dialysis to a regional health care organization operating 11 centers in six counties with five more kidney center projects pending throughout western Washington. Kelly led the creation and introduction of PSKC's Chronic Kidney Disease patient education program, and established the PSKC Foundation, an organization that assists in fund-raising for the PSKC patients in need. To succeed Kelly, the board has hired Thomas DeBord as the incoming president and CEO. DeBord has served as chief operating officer of Overlake Medical Center since 2015. In this capacity he has overseen the day-to-day operations of the hospital, including numerous patient care services, and regulatory compliance. Also, DeBord has had primary responsibility for the planning and implementation of Project FutureCare, Overlake's major campus renewal project that was announced in early 2016.

King County

The King County Department of Community and Human Services hired Simon Foster as the new division director for housing, homelessness, and community development. Foster led teams among a range of industries, including behavioral health, transportation, homelessness and federal and state funding programs. Foster most recently led operations for the Salvation Army Northwest Division during the pandemic and oversaw outreach, social service programs, and domestic violence outreach services. In this role, Foster will oversee the Housing, Homelessness, and Community Development Division within DCHS. This division's work includes the Health Through Housing Initiative, a regional approach to address chronic homelessness at a county-wide scale, oversees implementation of anti-displacement strategies for the Skyway-West Hill and North Highline neighborhoods, staffs the Affordable Housing Committee, and manages the transit-oriented affordable housing bond program.

Hecla Mining

Hecla Mining, headquartered in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, completed its acquisition of Alexco Resource. Founded in 1891, Hecla is the largest silver producer in the U.S. In addition to operating mines in Alaska, Idaho and Quebec, Canada, the company owns a number of exploration properties and pre-development projects in silver and gold mining districts throughout North America. Alexco operates the Keno Hill Silver District in Canada's Yukon Territory. As part of the acquisition, Hecla issued 18 million shares of its common stock to Alexco shareholders for a total consideration of about $69 million; the silver streaming interest at Alexco's Keno Hill property held by Wheaton Precious Metals was terminated in exchange for $135 million of Hecla common stock; and Hecla provided Alexco with a $30 million secured loan facility, of which $25 million was drawn when the transaction closed.

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.