Jan 25, 2024

Small Business Administration

The U.S. Small Business Administration has named Beto Yarce as the new Regional Administrator for Region 10, serving the Pacific Northwest. Yarce will oversee the agency's programs, offices, and operations in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Originally from Mexico, Yarce moved to Seattle in 2003, where he launched a business and became involved in the local entrepreneurial and immigrant services communities. He went on to lead Ventures, a nonprofit organization working to alleviate poverty through small business ownership. Yarce has leveraged his 20 years of experience to help others realize their dreams of small business ownership as well as advancing economic equity and justice. He has served on the boards of directors and as a trustee of numerous organizations, including the Greater Seattle Business Association, Evergreen Business Capital and Cedarmere Foundation. He also served on Washington State's LGBTQ+ Commission and collaborated with the Mexican Consulate in Seattle and the Secretary of Foreign Affairs for the federal government in Mexico. In 2016, he earned the District Excellence Award from the SBA's Seattle District Office. The U.S. Small Business Administration empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow or expand their businesses, or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations.

F5

F5 appointed Samir Sherif as senior vice president and chief information security officer. In this role, Sherif will lead F5's enterprise cybersecurity strategy and security culture, evolve F5's security capabilities and resilience, and oversee cybersecurity standards and programs for F5's products. Sherif previously served as CISO at Absolute Software and Imperva. He also had an extensive career at Citigroup, including serving as the global head of application security. Sherif takes over F5's CISO role for Gail Coury, who is retiring on March 1 after leading the company's enterprise security efforts for the past three years.

WellSaid Labs

Seattle-based WellSaid Labs appointed Brian Cook to assume the CEO role, effective later this month. Current CEO and co-founder Matthew Hocking will assume the role of executive chairman while assisting Cook in his transition. In Cook's new role, he will guide WellSaid Labs into the next growth phase focused on enterprise teams to produce at scale and build their brands with ethical and authentic voice experiences. Hocking will provide strategic direction and support both Cook and WellSaid Labs' stakeholders in driving the company forward. Michael Petrochuk is the co-founder and CTO of the company. Hocking has led WellSaid Labs' growth since its inception in 2018, acquiring over 15,000 corporate and enterprise customers across entertainment, software, manufacturing, advertising, and financial markets. Prior to joining WellSaid Labs, Cook oversaw Nintex, a workflow software company, and OBS, an IT services organization. Most recently, he founded Incredible Capital, an investment fund focused on software companies.

Jan 24, 2024

DAT Freight & Analytics

DAT Freight & Analytics named two new leaders for its product and security organizations. Jeff Clementz, who has 25 years of experience managing networks and marketplaces, fraud, payments and e-commerce platforms, joined DAT as chief product officer and a member of the executive team. He most recently was president and chief executive officer at Shift, an e-commerce platform for the auto industry. Before Shift, he was senior vice president and general manager of Walmart's Marketplace, where he was responsible for building the retailer's foundational commerce platforms. Clementz previously held product and operations positions in leadership at PayPal and Intel. Erika Voss joined DAT as vice president of information security. Voss previously was vice president of security and engineering at Capital One, where she led all facets of security and engineering, including policies, procedures and best practices for application security, access control, authentication, third-party risk management and intrusion detection. Previously, she held information security leadership positions at Salesforce and Oracle. DAT Freight & Analytics, based in Beaverton, Oregon, operates a truckload freight marketplace, and provides market trends and data insights to shippers, transportation brokers, carriers, news organizations and industry analysts.

Alliant Insurance Services

Brooke Walton has joined Alliant Insurance Services as vice president within its Employee Benefits Group. Based in Seattle, Walton will provide employee health and benefits consulting services to a client base across the Pacific Northwest. Walton joins Alliant with a background that spans business development, HR solutions, human capital, and employee health benefits. She specializes in working directly with senior management to develop strategies and solutions that attract and retain top talent while maximizing total investment in health benefits solutions. Prior to Alliant, Walton was a business consultant with a San Francisco-based employee benefits consulting firm. Previously, she spent more than a decade advising HR and finance leaders on human capital management strategies. Walton holds bachelor's degrees in communications and psychology from the University of Washington. Alliant Insurance Services is a distributor of diversified insurance products and services, operating through a network of specialized national platforms and local offices.

Cairncross & Hempelmann

Seattle law firm Cairncross & Hempelmann named Ana-Maria Popp as the firm's new managing partner. She succeeds Matt Hanna, who served as managing partner since 2015 and has completed his term. Popp's practice focuses on construction litigation, real estate litigation including real estate finance, corporate and partnership disputes, and insurance coverage litigation for policy holders. She represents clients in complex cases through all aspects of the litigation process, from risk evaluation to case and settlement strategy, discovery and trial. Popp was the chair of the firm's Litigation Group from 2017 to 2023. Popp is a senior fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, an invitation-only, peer-selected honorary society of top trial lawyers in America. She is also a fellow of the American Bar Foundation, an honorary society of judges, law faculty and legal scholars who have demonstrated outstanding dedication to the highest principles of the legal profession and to the welfare of their communities. Popp was born in Romania and came to the United States in 1992. She earned her B.A. degree and J.D. from the University of Washington. Cairncross & Hempelmann provides legal counsel to clients in all aspects of real estate development, land use and zoning, business transactions, litigation, and bankruptcy and creditors' rights.

Jan 23, 2024

Geffen Mesher

Portland-based accounting firm Geffen Mesher announced that Anne Tankersley, Paige Lukens, and Rachel Henrichs had each been promoted to shareholder at the firm. Tankersley joined Geffen Mesher in 2008 and has over 10 years of experience auditing a variety of employee benefit plans, including 401(k), pension, employee stock ownership, and health and welfare plans. She has provided plan auditing services to a wide range of clients, including professional service firms and manufacturing companies, and also provides financial statement assurance and accounting services to clients, emphasizing hospitality, real estate, and investment companies. Lukens joined the firm in 2008, and has worked in both tax and audit. She is focused on providing tax services to clients in the industries of real estate, manufacturing, homebuilding, and professional services. Henrichs started her career focusing on long-term care communities. After transitioning to Geffen Mesher in 2016, she has expanded her expertise to include the greater real estate industry, focusing on the entire life cycle of a project – development, management and leasing, and ultimate sale or exchange. She is adept at navigating the requirements of Opportunity Zones and Section 1031 exchanges. With these additions, Geffen Mesher now has 20 shareholders firmwide. Michael Rompa is the CEO of Geffen Mesher.

Washington Wine Industry

The Washington wine industry is launching a fellowship for emerging writers and communicators. The Allen Shoup Memorial Fellowship is an industry-wide collaboration that brings together the Washington State Wine Commission, Auction of Washington Wines, Washington Winegrowers Association, Washington Wine Industry Foundation, individuals, wineries and growers. The Fellowship was established in memory of Allen Shoup, who passed away in 2022. Shoup played a pioneering role in developing Washington's wine industry as the longtime head of the state's biggest winery, Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, and later as the owner of his own winery, Long Shadows Vintners. Funded entirely through donations, the fellowship awards one writer or communicator each year with an immersive trip to Washington's vineyards and wineries, along with a stipend. An expert panel will choose the fellowship recipient, with input from an industry advisory committee. The 2024 selection panel includes: Karen MacNeil, Karen MacNeil & Co.; Sean Sullivan, Northwest Wine Report; Eric Degerman, Great Northwest Wine; Devyani Gupta, Valdemar Estates; and Dane Narbaitz, Long Shadows Vintners. The deadline to apply is February 29, 2024. Any questions about the fellowship should be directed towards Heather Bradshaw at hbradshaw@washingtonwine.org.

Cyemptive Technologies

Seattle-based Cyemptive Technologies, a provider of pre-emptive cybersecurity solutions for business and government, has named Microsoft veteran Paul Hiteshew as vice president of solutions consulting. In his new role, Hiteshew will be leading a team of cybersecurity experts that provide cybersecurity architectural blueprints for Cyemptive customers. His responsibilities will include leading pre-sales technical support for strategic industry partners and their customers, consulting with customers to understand their current cybersecurity risk profile and mapping their journey to achieving maximum cybersecurity readiness. Hiteshew brings with him nearly 25 years of experience in IT operations, IT enterprise and cyber defense at Microsoft. Most recently, Hiteshew was with Lighthouse Global, where he served as executive director of IT and security engineering. Cyemptive's leadership team is comprised of executives from several technology and security organizations, including the former CIO of Microsoft and the former chief computer architect for the National Security Agency.