Apr 04, 2024

Washington Trust Bank

Hurst

Washington Trust Bank named Brandon Hurst to its Small Business Banking team at its Smokey Point branch in Marysville to serve as vice president and relationship manager. With more than 12 years of financial industry experience and a focus in commercial banking, Hurst will serve commercial clients near Marysville and throughout the north Puget Sound region. Hurst joins Washington Trust from Umpqua Bank, where he served as business banking relationship manager. Hurst is a graduate of Biola University's Talbot School of Theology, where he earned a Master of Divinity degree, and of Wheaton College, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and economics. He also holds a Certificate in Business and Commercial Lending from the American Bankers Association. Washington Trust Bank is an independently owned full-service commercial bank serving the Northwest region since 1902. The bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of W.T.B. Financial Corp., headquartered in Spokane, with branches and offices in Washington, Idaho and Oregon.

Snohomish County Superior Court

Gov. Jay Inslee appointed Whitney Rivera to the Snohomish County Superior Court. She will replace Judge Anita Farris, who will retire from the bench effective April 30. In November 2020, Rivera was appointed to serve as the sole municipal court judge for Edmonds Municipal Court. She successfully ran for a four-year term in 2021 to retain her seat. As the Edmonds Municipal Court Presiding Judge, Rivera is responsible for hearing all criminal matters, traffic infractions, and administrative appeals, as well as for leading the management of the court's operations. Prior to her current position as a judicial officer, Rivera served as a public defender with the Snohomish County Public Defender Association for over 12 years. Rivera also served as an attorney for the Washington Appellate Project, representing indigent individuals on their direct appeals from convictions. Since 2021, Rivera has served on the Edmonds College Foundation Board where she has focused her volunteer efforts on student scholarships and staff grant requests. In 2022, she was appointed to the board of the Hazel Miller Foundation, which provides grants to organizations focused on a broad range of services, including education, youth services, diversity, and poverty alleviation. In 2023, she was appointed to the board of the Edmonds Food Bank. Rivera earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Washington. She earned her law degree from Boston College Law School.

F5

F5 named Lyra Schramm as executive vice president and chief people officer and Kunal Anand as executive vice president and chief technology officer. Schramm and Anand join F5's executive leadership team reporting to President and CEO, Francois Locoh-Donou. Schramm is responsible for driving people initiatives that position the company for continued growth. She comes to F5 with experience in roles that align people strategies with business objectives in high-growth, innovative, and philanthropic sectors. Schramm was most recently vice president, strategy and innovation at Google. She previously held senior roles at AWS and the Gates Foundation. Anand is responsible for setting the technology vision for F5. He joins the company with expertise across multiple areas, including cybersecurity and data. Most recently, Anand held the dual roles of CTO and chief information security officer at Imperva. Prior to that, Anand was the co-founder of application security startup Prevoty and held senior roles at BBC Worldwide and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Seattle-based F5 is a multicloud application security and delivery company.

Apr 03, 2024

Collins Aerospace

Collins Aerospace, an RTX business, and Common Energy, a community solar provider, announced a partnership to support a portfolio of four new community solar projects across the greater Portland area. In aggregate, the projects have a capacity of 12 megawatts and will generate 17 million kilowatt hours of clean energy each year. Clean electricity from the projects will flow directly to the electric grid and replace fossil fuel generation, thereby lowering carbon emissions. The projects will be owned and operated by Luminace, a wholly owned subsidiary of Brookfield Renewables. According to the provisions of Oregon's Community Solar Program, the projects will have a mix of commercial, residential and low-income subscribers. Each subscriber will receive credits on their electricity bills, proportional to their share of the projects, lowering their energy cost. In addition, all subscribers will receive Renewable Energy Certificates. Collins' facility in Wilsonville, Oregon, will make up the commercial allocation, thereby “anchoring” the portfolio. Approximately 10% of the projects' credits will be allocated to low-income households, which will receive a guaranteed 20% savings on their electricity bills for 20 years.

The Standard

Portland-based StanCorp Financial Group (The Standard) announced the closing of the acquisition of the Life & Disability business from Elevance Health in accordance with the terms of the agreement reported on March 28, 2023. The agreement includes a 10-year distribution partnership whereby The Standard's products and services will be made available to Elevance Health customers. The combined life and disability benefits businesses will operate under The Standard brand and include the Elevance Health Life & Disability employees and operations. The distribution agreement partners The Standard's sales team with Elevance Health's medical sales team for customers for group life, short term and long term disability, accidental death and dismemberment insurance, and paid family leave and absence management services. Elevance Health's companies serve more than 115 million customers through a portfolio of medical, digital, pharmacy, behavioral, clinical, and complex care solutions.

Apr 02, 2024

Leafly Holdings

Seattle-based Leafly Holdings, an online cannabis discovery marketplace and resource for cannabis consumers, appointed Jeffrey Monat and Andres Nannetti to its board of directors. Monat has been an investor in cannabis companies since 2013, funding both cultivation and ancillary businesses. He has served as an independent director of Lowell Farms since January 2022, and has extensive capital markets experience. Nannetti brings more than 25 years of domestic and international business leadership. He also has experience as both a CEO and private equity principal investor for organizations that span the entire cannabis sector from cultivation to manufacturing. Leafly also announced that board chair Michael Blue resigned from the board, and Alan Pickerill was appointed to replace him as chair.

Idaho Power

Prevalon Energy, a Mitsubishi Power Americas company, has contracted with Idaho Power for a complete Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), along with a long-term service agreement. The project will provide grid resiliency as a net peak solution, helping the utility continue providing reliable power during peak demand periods. The service agreement includes maintenance as well as remote monitoring. The four-hour battery storage project will align with Idaho Power's plan to integrate more than 5,000 megawatts of energy from wind and solar projects over the next 20 years. The BESS will ensure energy produced by those intermittent sources can be stored for future dispatch. The project is expected to be fully operational in 2025. Idaho Power is headquartered in Boise, and has been a locally operated energy company since 1916.

ATREG

ATREG, a global firm in the semiconductor industry for brokering and executing the exchange of advanced technology cleanroom manufacturing assets, announced that the acquisition of Japan Display's (JDI) large operational LCD panel manufacturing facility located in Higashiura, Japan by Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. has officially closed. In May 2022, JDI announced that the company would end production at the Higashiura facility by March 2023 to increase JDI's cost competitiveness and profitability. JDI plans to lease and convert part of the plant into an engineering center. “Our work with ATREG has allowed us to find the best solution for Higashiura,” explains Yasushi Shimogaichi, chief strategy officer for JDI. “This acquisition will preserve jobs and allow for ongoing engineering innovation at the site.” ATREG brought multiple interested parties to the table and through a competitive process allowed JDI to select the best buyer, according to Stephen Rothrock, president and CEO of ATREG. ATREG is based in Seattle, and has been in the semiconductor industry for nearly 25 years.