Apr 25, 2023

SeaTac Police Chief

Smithmeyer

City Manager Carl Cole named Troy Smithmeyer as the new police chief for the city of SeaTac. Chief Smithmeyer is replacing retiring Chief Jon Mattsen. He will oversee the 50 person SeaTac Police Department. Since 2020, Smithmeyer has acted as a captain for the King County Sheriff's Office overseeing both SeaTac and Burien. The city of SeaTac and city of Burien have an Interlocal Agreement with King County to contract with the King County Sheriff's Office for law enforcement services. Smithmeyer secured funding for and successfully managed more than a dozen community related initiatives in SeaTac ranging from traffic safety to the community engagement officer program. Operationally, Smithmeyer oversaw the department's $14 million budget plan and grant administration for the 2023-2024 Biennium budget. Smithmeyer began his career at the King County Sheriff's Office as deputy in 2000. During his first five years with the agency, he served in four King County cities, and worked as a field training officer, an advanced training unit officer, a bicycle deputy, a patrol officer, and a master police officer. In 2015, Smithmeyer was promoted to sergeant. During the next five years, he supervised the Advance Training Unit and the Joint Transit Anti-Terrorism Team.. He also was successful in funding solutions to better support communities including securing a $200,000 Special Event, Direct Overtime grant to provide security support for popular community events such as SeaFair and Seattle's annual Pride Parade. Prior to joining the King County Sheriff's Office, Smithmeyer was a corporal in the United Stated Marine Corps.

Explore Seattle Southside

McGuire

Explore Seattle Southside (Seattle Southside Regional Tourism Authority) announced Meagan McGuire, its vice president of business development, was included as a winner in the 2023 Smart Women in Meetings Awards. In its 8th year running, the award, presented by Smart Meetings, an industry publisher and resource for event professionals, honors women for their commitment and contributions to the meetings industry. The winners are nominated by their industry peers and colleagues, and evaluated against hundreds of candidates. This past year, the women honored helped the global meetings industry regain its health and vitality after a long recovery post-Covid. Through this awards program, Smart Meetings recognizes these women at all levels of their careers for their aptitude, leadership skills, and dedication to their work. Smart Meetings publishes meetings content in print and digital magazines 12 times per year, hosts networking events, produces CEU-accredited Smart Chat Live! webinars and offers digital resources. Explore Seattle Southside is the official destination marketing organization for Seattle Southside, including the cities of SeaTac, Tukwila and Des Moines. The organization is responsible for competitively marketing the area as a travel destination for leisure and business travelers, and as a place for meeting and event planners to hold their events. The Seattle Southside RTA is funded by a self-assessed hotel fund.

Pivotal Drive

Bellevue-based Pivotal Drive, a portfolio company of Century Park Capital Partners, announced the successful completion of its strategic merger with Nova CPM, a OneStream Platinum Partner. The merger strengthens Pivotal Drive's momentum within the OneStream ecosystem, positioning it for further growth. With the merger, the combined company's size will double, boasting employees in every time zone in the continental United States, as well as Mexico and Canada. The Nova CPM transaction continues to build on Century Park's experience in the technology services sector and marks the first acquisition for Pivotal Drive. Pivotal Drive employs consultants with expertise in designing and delivering unified Corporate Performance Management solutions. This enables customers to modernize their finance organization and streamline their consolidation, reporting and planning processes. Nova is a dedicated OneStream implementation Platinum Partner. Century Park Capital Partners is a Los Angeles-based private equity group established in 2000 that invests in family businesses, owner-operated firms and corporate divestitures with the purpose of accelerating growth and transforming these companies into leading industry players.

Apr 21, 2023

Rally Commerce

Rally Commerce, a checkout platform that helps businesses of all sizes optimize their checkout process, announced a $12M Series A investment, led by March Capital with additional participation from Felix Capital, Commerce Ventures, Afore Capital, Alumni Ventures, and Kraken Ventures. This investment follows Rally's $6M seed funding round in 2021. Co-founders Jordan Gal & Rok Knez previously ran CartHook, a checkout solution that processed nearly $3B in transactions for Shopify merchants. They launched Rally in 2020 after seeing demand from merchants for a next-generation checkout platform outside of the Shopify ecosystem. Rally currently offers support for multiple back-end and front-end platforms, payment processors, and payment methods. Later this year, Rally will strengthen its fraud protection offering and plans to build out Web3 features, starting with allowing merchants to accept cryptocurrencies in their checkout. Rally is headquartered in Portland. March Capital is a venture growth firm headquartered in Santa Monica, California and investing globally since 2014.

T-Mobile

Clevon, an Estonian-based global autonomous delivery provider, named T-Mobile as the preferred connectivity provider for its fleet of Autonomous Robot Carriers (ARCs) in the United States. Under the long-term deal, T-Mobile will provide IoT solutions for Clevon's latest ARC — the all-electric, multifunctional CLEVON 1. Clevon will rely on T-Mobile's network and IoT solutions to help power reliable, safe and efficient fleet operations for on-demand driverless delivery services. Clevon has been making driverless deliveries in Europe since 2020. Cameras, radar and other sensors in the CLEVON 1 provide data for rapid mapping and remote operating capabilities. The CLEVON 1 is designed to collect orders at warehouses, retail stores, dark stores and micro fulfillment centers and then deliver those goods to consumers and businesses. T-Mobile is based in Bellevue.

Tyemill

New York-based Syntax has acquired the assets of Tyemill, a software research and development company headquartered in Seattle. The Tyemill team of 24 engineering, design and operations professionals became part of Syntax. As part of the integration, Tyemill's CEO, Ellen Anderson, joined Syntax as managing director and head of the Seattle office. The acquisition expands Syntax's in-house capabilities and resources to execute its growth strategy. Founded in 2010, Tyemill has supported Syntax's economic research with technology that powers patented systems and proprietary commercial software applications. Tyemill's tools are used in developing new methodologies for measuring risks associated with companies and investment vehicles, identifying trends in financial data and automating complex workflows. Syntax is a financial data and technology company that has pioneered a proprietary approach to index construction, portfolio analysis, ESG and SDG measurement and other investment applications.

Apr 20, 2023

Department of Revenue

Shirk

Gov. Jay Inslee named Drew Shirk director of the state Department of Revenue, effective June 16. Acting director John Ryser, who has held the post since Vikki Smith left DOR last year, will continue to lead the agency until that time. Shirk has served as the executive director for legislative affairs in the office of Gov. Inslee since 2017. As a member of the governor's senior leadership team, Shirk manages relationships with legislators and leadership on behalf of the governor. He also manages executive branch legislative proposals, mobilizing support for the governor's priorities in the Legislature and advising the governor on legislation. In that capacity, Shirk has helped to design and pass policies in clean energy, gun violence prevention, education and abortion rights. Shirk has spent more than three decades in public service. He began his career with DOR's compliance division in 1989 and was promoted to a series of leadership positions there. He most recently served as the department's assistant director for tax policy before joining the governor's office. Shirk received his bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Washington and completed graduate coursework at Eastern Washington University's public administration program.

ExtraHop

Bowling

Seattle-based ExtraHop announced that Mark Bowling will assume the new role of chief information security and risk officer (CISRO). Bowling will be responsible for implementing effective security, information security, and risk management frameworks to maximize growth opportunities for ExtraHop. Bowling will report to Lauren Zajac, chief legal and compliance officer at ExtraHop. Under Zajac's leadership, Bowling and his team will help shape the future information security landscape and associated practices to adapt to the ever-evolving world of cybersecurity. Jeff Costlow, deputy CISO at ExtraHop, will report directly to Bowling. Bowling will also be responsible for all other aspects of ExtraHop security to include facility security, physical security, and personnel security. Prior to his civilian career, Bowling spent more than two and a half decades investigating and combating cybercrime and nation-state attacks in leadership roles with the FBI and the Department of Education, and as a nuclear officer in the U.S. Navy. He previously held the role of director of information security and compliance for the Washington Regional Medical System, the virtual CISO for United Capital Financial Advisors, and the director of security and compliance for Southwest Power Pool. He has spent several years as a consulting CISO for numerous organizations in the healthcare, electric utility, and financial services verticals.

SpecterOps Raises

SpecterOps announced it has raised a $25 million Series A venture funding round led by Decibel. This funding will accelerate the adoption of BloodHound Enterprise, a platform for comprehensively removing identity attack paths in Microsoft's Active Directory and Azure AD. It will also expand company research and development initiatives. Other investors in this round include Kevin Mandia, the CEO and founder of Mandiant, as well as Jon Oberheide and Dug Song, the co-founders of Duo Security. BloodHound Enterprise was launched in 2021, and is used worldwide by companies like Capital Group, the University of Texas at Austin and Woodside Energy. Funding will also be used to expand SpecterOps' services and training solutions. Seattle-based SpecterOps is a cybersecurity solutions and services provider specializing in knowledge of adversary tradecraft to help clients detect and defend against sophisticated attackers. Decibel is an independent venture firm based in Silicon Valley that backs technical founders and helps them find product-market fit and accelerate their business.