Jun 29, 2023

Washington Trust Bank

Hannon

Mast

Washington Trust Bank added Aaron Hannon and Jake Mast to its Commercial Banking team in Seattle to serve as vice presidents and relationship managers. Hannon joins Washington Trust from Wells Fargo, where he served as a small business administration business development officer. He brings over 15 years of experience in the finance and banking industry. Hannon has a background working in the healthcare market with medical and dental professionals and specializes in commercial and industrial lending, real estate and small business banking. Hannon received a bachelor's degree in economics with a concentration in managerial economics from Central Washington University. Mast has over a decade of banking experience, and specializes in C&I lending, commercial real estate, treasury management, and working with medical and dental professionals. Mast comes to Washington Trust from Bank of America, where he served as vice president and senior small business banker. He studied business, international studies and Spanish at the University of Oregon and completed a study abroad program at the University of Granada in Spain. Headquartered in Spokane, Trust currently has over 40 branches and offices in Washington, Idaho and Oregon.

State Court of Appeals

Cooney

Gov. Jay Inslee appointed Judge John Cooney to the Washington State Court of Appeals, Division Three. He will replace Judge Laurel Siddoway who is retiring July 31. Cooney has been a Spokane County Superior Court judge since 2013. He has presided over hundreds of trials and overseen proceedings in the county's therapeutic courts. In 2020 he was the bench's chief criminal judge. Before being elected to the superior court, Cooney served as a Spokane County District Court judge from 2007 to 2013. He began his legal career practicing criminal defense at the Law Offices of John Cooney & Associates. Cooney earned both his bachelor's degree and law degree at Gonzaga University.

Titan

Titan, the parent company of Vigor, MHI Holdings, and Continental Maritime of San Diego, announced Frank Collins will join as senior vice president, government and public affairs. Vigor operates in the Pacific Northwest, Hawaii and Alaska, and MHI Holdings, is based in Norfolk, Virginia. Collins will replace Jill Mackie, who is retiring. Additionally, Benton Strong was recently named director of public affairs, responsible for all communications, as well as state and local government affairs across all Titan companies. Collins joins Titan from the Shipbuilders Council of America, where he served as senior defense advisor. He has over 37 years of public and private sector experience in the ship repair industry. Collins was chief of staff for a member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and district director for a member who later chaired the House Armed Services Committee. He served as chief executive officer of United States Marine Preservation, as a principal government relations representative for BAE Systems Ship Repair, and was senior vice president at United States Marine Repair. Strong joined Vigor in October 2020. He previously spent seven years as a political advocacy communications professional in Washington, D.C., as well as serving as communications director for the mayor of Seattle. Mackie joined Vigor in 2015, after 17 years as head of government relations and strategic communications at the Seattle Times. Mackie led Vigor's government affairs support for the next generation of the Washington State Ferries, as well as federal appropriations and defense policy efforts in ship repair, marine and heavy complex fabrication. Titan Acquisition Holdings was formed in 2019, and its family of companies provide ship repair, ship modernization, marine and complex fabrication services.

Jun 28, 2023

The Standard Charitable Foundation

Portland-based Standard Insurance Company's charitable foundation, The Standard Charitable Foundation, announced three grants totaling $140,000 to nonprofits. Junior Achievement of Oregon and Southwest Washington was awarded $75,000 to expand and update their Portland facilities and establish a new program site in Hillsboro. With the addition of the Hillsboro site, BizTown and Finance Park, JA's signature programs focused on financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship, will reach more than 25,000 students annually. The Hillsboro Community Foundation was awarded $50,000 to support disability access to a playground adjacent to Hidden Creek Community Center. The project is a partnership between city of Hillsboro Parks and Recreation Department, Hillsboro Community Foundation and Hillsboro School District. When completed, it will be Hillsboro's first fully inclusive park and playground. New Avenues for Youth was awarded $15,000 for its social enterprise programs including the Ben & Jerry's PartnerShop and screen-printing business, New Avenues INK. Portland-based New Avenues works to prevent youth homelessness and provide young people experiencing or at risk of homelessness with opportunities and resources.

Seattle Mariners

FuboTV, a sports-first live TV streaming platform, announced a marketing partnership with the Seattle Mariners. This is Fubo's fourth marketing partnership with a Major League Baseball team following recent agreements with the Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Guardians and St. Louis Cardinals. The partnership includes the display of Fubo branding at select Mariners home games as well as fan engagement opportunities. Additionally, Mariners season ticket holders will receive an invitation to join Fubo for a free 30 day trial. Fubo streams Mariners games through its carriage agreements with regional sports networks, and national sports networks (ESPN and FS1) as well as MLB Network, MLB Strike Zone and MLB.TV.

Schnitzer Steel

Schnitzer Steel Industries was named to TIME's third-annual TIME100 Most Influential Companies list. The ranking highlights 100 companies that are making an extraordinary impact around the world. To assemble the list, TIME solicited nominations from its global network of contributors and correspondents as well as from outside experts. Then TIME editors evaluated each on key factors, including impact, innovation, ambition, and success. Schnitzer's inclusion in the TIME100 list is the company's latest global recognition. Earlier this year, the Schnitzer was named the Most Sustainable Company in the World by Corporate Knights and was recognized by Ethisphere as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies for the ninth consecutive year. Schnitzer Steel Industries manufactures and exports recycled metal products, and operates facilities in 25 states, Puerto Rico, and Western Canada. Schnitzer has seven deep water export facilities located on both the East and West Coasts and in Hawaii and Puerto Rico. The company's steel manufacturing operations produce finished steel products, including rebar, wire rod and other specialty products. Schnitzer began operations in Portland in 1906.

Jun 27, 2023

Seattle Center

Foster

Mayor Bruce Harrell selected Marshall Foster to serve as the next director of the Seattle Center. Foster has been serving as the interim director of Seattle Center since January, overseeing operations and management of the 74-acre Seattle Center campus. In the last six months, Foster has led efforts to help bring back summer programming and events on campus and has prepared the Seattle Center for its new role managing Waterfront Park. He has also worked with City leadership to advance a partnership with Seattle Public Schools to redevelop Memorial Stadium with a new multi-use sports stadium to serve students and the larger community. Prior to this year, Foster helped create the City's Waterfront Seattle Program, serving as director of the Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects since 2014. Prior to these roles, he served as the City's planning director where he oversaw plans for South Lake Union's expansion, along with community plans for the Rainier Valley, Capitol Hill, the University District, and Northgate. Foster will continue to serve as interim director until confirmed by the City Council.

Harborstone Credit Union

Hoefel

Harborstone Credit Union hired Tim Hoefel to serve as its new senior vice president & chief retail officer, overseeing the credit union's Retail Banking Division and Contact Center. He was placed by DDJ Myers, a leadership development firm that is now an ALM First Company. Hoefel began his career in finance more than 20 years ago, and has worked as a branch manager, district manager, area manager, retail regional director, and most recently as senior vice president and commercial & business banking director at Umpqua Bank. Hoefel holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Western Washington University. He also attended the Pacific Coast Banking School at the University of Washington. In operation since 1955, Harborstone Credit Union has branch locations in King, Pierce, and Thurston Counties.

Madrona Venture Labs

Madrona Venture Labs (MVL), a Seattle-based startup studio that co-builds and invests in AI companies, announced it raised $11 million in its fifth funding round. Since its inception in 2014, MVL has raised $40 million and co-created and invested in 32 companies. New investors joining the fund include Thomas Dohmke, CEO of GitHub; Joe Beda, co-founder & former CTO of Heptio; Brent Frei, co-founder of Smartsheet & CEO of TerraClear; Michael Hilton, former CPO of Accolade & co-founder of Concur; and several others. Returning investors from previous funds include Elissa Fink, former CMO of Tableau; Spencer Rascoff, co-founder & former CEO of Zillow; and Mike McSherry, co-founder & CEO of Xealth. Recent companies in its portfolio include Charmed, AI-assisted game development; Augmend, collective intelligence for developers; Storia, AI-powered video production; and Finpilot, AI copilot for finance. With this fund, MVL welcomed two new technology and AI partners to MVL, Larry Colagiovanni, most recently the CTO & CPO of Limeade, and Jay Bartot, most recently the CEO of MVL spinout Zeitworks. Madrona is a venture capital firm based in Seattle.