Oct 18, 2022

Avalara

Avalara, a provider of tax compliance automation for businesses of all sizes, announced that its shareholders voted to approve the pending transaction with Vista Equity Partners at the company's Special Meeting of Shareholders. Approximately 80% of outstanding shares were represented at the meeting with 84% of those shares voting in favor of the proposed merger resulting in 66% of total outstanding shares in favor of the merger. Avalara will file the final vote results, as certified by the independent Inspector of Election, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Under the terms of the transaction, Vista will acquire all outstanding shares of Avalara common stock for $93.50 per share in cash. The transaction is expected to close on Oct. 19, subject to the satisfaction of all closing conditions. The company will continue to operate under the Avalara name and brand. Headquartered in Seattle, Avalara has offices across the U.S. and around the world in Brazil, Europe, and India.

Alaska Communications

Alaska Communications is collaborating with Oregon State University's College of Engineering to allow wave activity data to be collected from the ocean floor via the company's subsea fiber optic cable. This project will support continued learning about wave interaction which could potentially improve or provide warnings for coastal communities in the event of dangerous wave activity, like sneaker waves. Meagan Wengrove, Oregon State assistant professor of coastal engineering, and her team traveled to Alaska Communications' landing station in Florence, Oregon, in September to attach a DAS interrogator (distributed acoustic sensing) to the company's fiber. The instrument measures strain applied to the cable and reports data back to the research team. In addition, the team has radar on the surface of the ocean and two moorings on the ocean floor which contribute to the research. This is the first telecom cable the Oregon State team has used to aid its wave study. Alaska Communications, an affiliate of ATN International, is a provider of advanced broadband and managed IT services in Alaska. The company operates a statewide data network, as well as an undersea fiber optic system connecting Alaska to the contiguous U.S.

Sinclair Broadcast Group

Sinclair Broadcast Group named Valerie Koonce vice president/general manager of KBOI/CBS and KYUU/CW in Boise. Koonce, who most recently served as marketing sales manager for KUTV, Sinclair's Salt Lake City television station, will return to Boise, where from 2014-2018 she was the station's general sales manager. Throughout her career, Koonce has held several sales roles including director of sales at Neuhoff Communications, senior account executive at KSTU/FOX 13 in Salt Lake City and local sales manager at ABC4 and CW30 in Salt Lake City. She began her media career as a new business account executive at KUTV, then owned by Vicacom. Koonce holds a degree from the University of Utah and currently serves as president of the Magic Valley Advertising Federation in Idaho. Sinclair Broadcast Group is a diversified media company and provider of local news and sports. The company owns, operates and/or provides services to 185 television stations in 86 markets.

Oct 14, 2022

Summit Bank

Moreland

Jenny Bennett, market president for Summit Bank, announced that Megan Moreland has joined the Eugene & Springfield Lending team as a business client advisor. Moreland is a native of Alaska and comes to Summit from SELCO Community Credit Union, where she had eight years of experience in commercial banking. Prior to SELCO, she was a personal banker with Chase Bank for three years. Moreland graduated from the University of Oregon. She serves on the board of directors of Kids FIRST, the Springfield Twin Rivers Rotary Club, and is a past board member of the Eugene Active 2030 Club. Summit Bank has offices in Eugene, Central Oregon, and downtown Portland.

SirionLabs

Seattle-based SirionLabs, a global provider of AI-powered contract lifecycle management, announced the expansion of its Customer Success team as it positions itself to scale operations for its accelerated growth plans following its recent infusion of $85 million in funding. The new members of the executive team will report directly to Sirion COO Madhukar Yarra. Naveen Mehta has come on board as senior vice president and will be responsible for EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) portfolio growth. Mehta has 25 years of experience spanning technology, product and business operations. Most recently he was vice president and head of sales for Europe and Asia at Conduent. Manish Chhabra joins Sirion as vice president. He brings experience as a global leader in customer success and analytics at organizations including Sprinklr, Amazon, Dell and Accenture. Stephen Brickley joins as vice president for key accounts in North America. Brickley is a growth-oriented SaaS executive with over 20 years of experience leading customer success teams in privately funded enterprise SaaS companies, including iRise and Blueprint Software Systems. Sirion also brought in key members to both its business strategy and its marketing teams. Executive veteran Gordon Thompson has come on board as executive vice president of pre-sales & business strategy. Thompson brings more than 25 years of experience in enterprise software and SaaS applications, most recently as senior vice president of pre-sales & business transformation at Mindtickle. Spearheading the company's global marketing initiative, Hiro Notaney joined Sirion earlier this year as chief marketing officer. Notaney has over twenty years of experience with industry leaders such as Oracle and Deloitte, and more than five in contract management.

Building Transparency

Building Transparency announced a new influx of pilot partners and that Stacy Smedley is joining the organization full-time as executive director. Building Transparency's latest pilot partners are in the manufacturing and architecture, engineering, and construction sectors and are committed to material transparency and clean procurement. Building Transparency's latest partners include: American Wood Council, Softwood Lumber Board, The Tile Council of North America, TK Elevator and WoodWorks. As partners, these organizations are driving the continued support and development of EC3, a tool that allows benchmarking, assessment, and reductions in embodied carbon and focuses on the upfront supply chain emissions of construction materials. The partnership enables companies to support material transparency, while also improving carbon accounting efforts to make it easier to set and achieve emission reduction targets. Prior to serving in a full-time capacity, Smedley served in two roles, her position at Building Transparency and as senior sustainability director at Skanska, one of the companies responsible for co-conceiving, funding and piloting the EC3 tool. In addition, Steve Clem, senior vice president of project planning services and head of green function at Skanska, will join Building Transparency as a board member and treasurer. Building Transparency is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that provides open access data and tools that support action across the building industry in addressing embodied carbon's role in climate change. Formed in 2020, Building Transparency is headquartered in Seattle.

Oct 13, 2022

F5

Budnik

F5 appointed Marianne Budnik to its board of directors. Budnik has extensive marketing and cybersecurity expertise, as well as more than 25 years of operating experience in the technology sector. Budnik currently serves as chief marketing officer for Talon Cyber Security. Previously, she served as chief marketing officer for CrowdStrike, where she also oversaw the company's diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Budnik's prior roles include chief marketing officer for CyberArk, as well as leadership roles with SimpliVity, Acme Packet, CA Technologies, and EMC Corp. Budnik earned an M.B.A. from Boston University and currently serves on the board of directors for Cerence, Inc. With Budnik's appointment, F5's board expands to 12 members, 11 of whom are independent. Headquartered in Seattle, F5 is a multi-cloud application services and security company.

The Beer Institute

Crawford

The Beer Institute, one of the nation's oldest trade associations representing brewers, beer importers and beer industry suppliers, appointed Brian Crawford as president and chief executive officer of the trade association. Crawford joins the Beer Institute from the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA), where he is executive vice president of government affairs. The position of president and chief executive officer has been vacant since May, after the departure of Jim McGreevy. Celebrating its 160th anniversary, Crawford will lead and represent the Beer Institute before lawmakers, regulators, news media and in public forums. Crawford came to AHLA following eight years in the U.S. House of Representatives, having served five as chief of staff to U.S. Congressman Tom Rooney. He previously served as the deputy chief of staff for Florida Congressman Ric Keller, and held senior roles in other national trade associations.

Genuine Auto Glass

Safelite Group, owner of Safelite AutoGlass, announced an agreement to acquire the assets of Genuine Auto Glass in Seattle. Genuine Auto Glass will leverage Safelite's operational systems, safety system recalibration expertise, distribution network, global purchasing power and insurance and commercial relationships. Safelite Group is a vehicle glass and claims management service organization based in Columbus, Ohio, and operates facilities in 50 states. The company, which has been in business since 1947, includes Safelite AutoGlass and Safelite Solutions, which offers fleet and insurance claims management services for vehicle glass and other claims. The company employs over 16,000 people throughout the United States.

Itron

Liberty Lake-based Itron appointed Mary Hemmingsen to its board of directors. Hemmingsen brings more than 30 years of expertise in finance, asset management, project delivery, business development and governance. Since 2017, she has served in a variety of executive advisory roles for energy industry organizations as well as board roles. From 2013 to 2017, Hemmingsen was a global partner and gas, power and utilities industry lead at KPMG. Previously, she held senior executive positions in business and project development within the power and utilities group at Brookfield, a global asset management company, and several executive and corporate finance positions at BC Hydro Power Authority. Itron enables utilities and cities to deliver infrastructure solutions to communities in more than 100 countries.