Jul 13, 2023

Northern Trust

Calcagno

Northern Trust appointed Kathryn Calcagno senior wealth strategist in Portland, where she will work with high-net-worth individuals and families to develop comprehensive wealth management plans. Calcagno brings more than 35 years of experience in the wealth management industry, with an emphasis on working with new clients and offering holistic financial services. Most recently, she was senior managing director and wealth advisor at First Republic Bank, where she managed complex investment and trust services for clients. Northern Trust Wealth Management offers wealth management services for affluent individuals and families, family offices, foundations and endowments, and privately held businesses. Founded in Chicago in 1889, Northern Trust has a global presence with offices in 25 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., and across 23 locations in Canada, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region.

Rainier Partners

Seattle-based Rainier Partners, a private equity firm investing in lower-middle-market services businesses, announced it has made a majority investment in SCI Flooring, a floor covering provider serving the Midwest. SCI provides comprehensive floor covering solutions to multifamily, commercial, and single-family property managers and builders, offering soft and hard surface flooring products and installation. SCI currently operates in Detroit; Kansas City, Missouri; and Grand Rapids, Michigan. The company will focus on geographic and operational expansion under Rainier's ownership.

Docugami

Docugami, a Seattle-area startup using generative AI to unlock data from business documents, received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to support the company's efforts to advance the science of identifying, analyzing, and understanding the semantic relationships between various elements of long-form documents to create a document XML knowledge graph. The grant will support Docugami's scientific work on contextual semantic labels, which are at the core of Docugami's generative AI for business documents. This latest grant builds on a previous grant Docugami received from the National Science Foundation. Docugami was founded in 2018 by former Microsoft executive Jean Paoli and four other senior Microsoft engineers.

Twelve

Carbon transformation company Twelve broke ground on its commercial-scale E-Jet fuel production facility in Moses Lake. Twelve was co-founded by Etosha Cave, chief science officer; Nicholas Flanders, chief executive officer; and Kendra Kuhl, chief technology officer. E-Jet fuel is sustainable aviation fuel produced in partnership with Emerging Fuels Technology using Twelve's carbon transformation technology, which uses only renewable energy and water to transform CO2 into critical chemicals, materials and fuels conventionally made from fossil fuels. The facility is expected to begin E-Jet fuel production in mid-2024 at a capacity of about five barrels per day, with plans to quickly increase production capacity. Construction of the facility will provide roughly 200 local jobs, and once operational it will provide additional, permanent clean energy jobs for the Moses Lake area. Alaska Airlines, Microsoft and Shopify will be the first customers to receive products from the Moses Lake plant under existing agreements. Fuel produced from this production facility will be used in regular airline operations as part of a three-party agreement between Alaska, Microsoft and Twelve.

Jul 12, 2023

L'Ecole No 41

Pennington

L'Ecole No 41, one of the founding wineries of Washington's Walla Walla Valley, appointed Ryan Pennington as chief operating officer. Pennington joins L'Ecole No 41 after 10 years at Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, the largest wine producer in the Pacific Northwest, where he was most recently vice president, communications & corporate affairs. Prior to Ste. Michelle, Pennington served for five years as communications director for the Washington Wine Commission. Pennington has also served on several industry boards including the Washington Wine Commission; the Washington Wine Institute, the public policy arm of the Washington wine industry; the Northwest Wine Coalition, the joint international marketing organization for Washington and Oregon wines; and WineAmerica, the national association of American wineries. Housed in the historic Frenchtown schoolhouse depicted on its label, L'Ecole No 41 was founded in 1983, and celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Marty Clubb is a co-owner, and is managing winemaker for L'Ecole No 41. In addition to Clubb, his wife, Megan Clubb, and their children, Riley Clubb and Rebecca Olson, are also co-owners and serve on the L'Ecole No 41 Board of Directors.

City of Tacoma

The city of Tacoma's Community & Economic Development Department is leveraging grant funding from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to host a “Brick and Mortar Masterclass” workshop on July 19, from 3-6 p.m. This free event will be offered in person at Edison Square in the South Tacoma Neighborhood Business District (5415 S. Tacoma Way). The “Brick and Mortar Masterclass” workshop will feature a panel discussion and Q&A session with three local Tacoma businesses (Howdy Bagel, Campfire Coffee, and Field Tacoma) who will share their experiences navigating the challenges of opening and expanding their successful brick and mortar locations. Additionally, there will be a panel of officials from the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department and the city's permitting team discussing regulatory compliance requirements during store buildouts. The event is free to attend, but capacity is limited and registration is required at brickmortarmasterclass.eventbrite.

Northwest Center

Northwest Center, a nonprofit that has advanced its mission of greater inclusion for people with disabilities for more than half a century, announced changes to its Argus Janitorial business that will further expand its work outside Washington state. Northwest Center has unified its social enterprise services that provide care and maintenance – including Argus Janitorial – under the new brand OneNorth Integrated Facility Solutions (OneNorth IFS). The new name unites operations that have provided maintenance, janitorial, and other building solutions for more than 40 years. Northwest Center is a nonprofit with a portfolio of social enterprise businesses, including OneNorth IFS, The Big Blue Truck, and Lithtex NW, which provide customer service and support Northwest Center's programs that promote the growth and independence of people with disabilities of all ages. This work includes supporting individuals with disabilities in finding meaningful employment. Along with hiring people with disabilities at its own businesses, Northwest Center works with employers of all sizes, matching people with disabilities with employment. Profits from OneNorth IFS fund Northwest Center's education, employment, and community programs that serve children and adults with disabilities. Northwest Center was founded in 1965 by Seattle parents who refused to give up when their kids with disabilities were rejected from schools, and who went on to write the first law in the nation guaranteeing an education to kids with disabilities. Northwest Center Services provides employment services to adults with disabilities across Washington and in Idaho.

Jul 11, 2023

NuScale Power

Fisher

Carl Fisher will join NuScale Power as chief operating officer beginning July 24, 2023. As COO, Fisher will lead the operations, engineering, project management, quality assurance, information technology, and regulatory affairs functions and report to John Hopkins, NuScale's president and chief executive officer. Fisher began his career in the nuclear field in the United States Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, where he was involved in naval nuclear reactor operations and managed instrumentation and control startup, operations, maintenance, and commissioning activities. He continued his nuclear industry career with Framatome in various management roles over a 20-year period. Most recently, Fisher was vice president of instrumentation & control in North America, where he was responsible for the execution and delivery of I&C products and services to North American nuclear customers. Prior to joining Framatome, Fisher's global experience began with Duke Energy International in Hong Kong, where he managed energy commercial development efforts in Australia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Thailand, and the Philippines. Fisher holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University and an MBA from Queens University. He is currently a member of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operation's Supplier Participant Advisory Committee, as well as a member of the Nuclear Energy Institute Digital I&C Working Group. Karin Feldman, who has served in the role of interim COO since January 6, 2023, will return to her previous position as vice president, program management office. Founded in 2007, NuScale is headquartered in Portland.

Seattle Department of Transportation

Nemani

Seattle Department of Transportation announced the elevation of the city traffic engineer, Venu Nemani, to the department's first ever chief transportation safety officer. This was one of five momentum-building actions to come from the Vision Zero Top-to-Bottom Review, released in February, that was commissioned by Mayor Bruce Harrell and SDOT Director Greg Spotts to better understand why serious injuries and death were on the rise and how the department could identify opportunities to reduce harm for all travelers. The review identified uncertainty within the department on approval processes for safety measures, how they should be incorporated into planning and projects, and how we measured the effectiveness of treatments. The chief transportation safety officer is a new position created by Spotts to be a framework for addressing these issues and for saving lives on Seattle streets. In this role, Nemani will work directly with SDOT's leadership team to provide a clear, consistent voice on behalf of safety in all work throughout the department and across the city. He has been charged with elevating and prioritizing safety in all policies, projects and programs, ensuring that safety is being embedded at all levels of SDOT. Nemani is a professional engineer in the state of Washington with 20 years of experience in transportation planning and traffic engineering in both private and public sectors. He holds a bachelor's degree in civil engineering and a master's degree in transportation engineering.

Longview Export Terminal

EGT, LLC announced that it will nearly triple the current capacity of soybean meal storage at its Longview export terminal. The project, expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2025, also includes improving handling capabilities, enabling it to operate with greater speed, flexibility and efficiency. EGT's terminal handles up to 150 vessels per year, with an annual throughput capacity of approximately 9 million metric tons. EGT is a joint venture between Bunge, a global agribusiness, food and ingredients firm, Pan Ocean America, an affiliate of Harim, an integrated Korean company that operates agri-trading & logistics business, and Agtegra, a farmer-owned cooperative. The Company owns and operates a state-of-the-art export grain terminal at the Port of Longview, as well as four facilities in Montana designed to supply the export terminal.