Sep 29, 2000

Foss Maritime Co.

Tom Van Dawark, previously president and CEO of Foss Maritime Co., has been promoted to president and CEO of Marine Resources, a new subsidiary of Saltchuk Resources. Marine Resources is the holding company for Saltchuk’s tug and barge company, Foss Maritime Co. in Seattle. Steve Scalzo has been promoted to president and CEO of Foss Maritime to replace Van Dawark. Scalzo has held various positions within the company, including senior vice president of operations and, most recently, executive vice president.

McCann-Erickson Seattle

Advertising agency McCann-Erickson Seattle has appointed Steve Johnston as its creative director. Johnston, who has enjoyed stints at Goodby and most recently Fallon Minneapolis, holds numerous awards for his work on accounts such as Miller Light, United Airlines, DHL, PAC Bell and Sega. Prior to Fallon, Johnston was co-creative director at Cole & Weber/Seattle.

EssentialMarkets

EssentialMarkets, a Tacoma-based company which enables small- and medium-sized businesses to connect with larger companies’ electronic supply systems, announced the appointment of Ted Ramstad to its senior management team as head of business development. Ramstad has more than 36 years of professional experience in procurement and supply-chain management. He will focus on supply-chain management, oversee system integration and manage platform and strategic partner relationships.

Whatcom County/EzGov

Whatcom County is offering online payment of property taxes for the area's 56,000 property owners. The service allows citizens to view property tax records, pay taxes and track payments. This is the first fully integrated online tax payment service in the state and is being made available to Whatcom County through a partnership with EzGov, an e-government software provider. The online property tax payment service works by allowing property owners to search for tax information by either street address or parcel number. The system is secure and reliable. Access to the service is through http://www.co.whatcom.wa.us/treasurer/home.htm.

RealNetworks

RealNetworks, a Seattle-based provider of media delivery on the Internet, named Randy Tinsley vice president of corporate development. Tinsley, formerly of Intel, Amazon and the Internet Capital Group, will head corporate development at RealNetworks, with responsibility for helping the company grow its current lines of businesses and expand into new areas through strategic partnerships, investments and acquisitions

Sep 28, 2000

Imagio|JWT

Yerabek

Matsumoto

Vincenzo

Imagio|JWT, a Seattle-based technology public relations and advertising firm, has hired four new employees. Chris Yerabek, IT manager, is responsible for maintaining the company's computer network and Web connectivity. Shanna Lisherness, assistant controller, is responsible for accounts receivable and payable. Mari Matsumoto, public relations administrative assistant, serves on the support staff for the agency's four public relations divisions. Carmine Vincenzo, facilities manager, will coordinate in-house facilities projects.

Viatru

Seattle-based Viatru announced a major expansion of its business strategy by launching a global initiative to give retailers access to socially responsible suppliers in developing communities, their products and their stories. Consumers will have access to information about suppliers that has never before been possible, through new "digital windows" that offer a glimpse into these communities. Formerly known as World2Market.com, Viatru will now focus solely on supporting mainstream retailers in their efforts to purchase and sell sustainably produced items from around the world.

WebHatch.com

WebHatch.com, a Tacoma-based Internet incubator company that invests in Internet e-commerce start-up opportunities along with organically growing in-house concepts for spin-off opportunities, has named Issa Traore as its chief technical officer. Traore will be responsible for directing the companies toward their technological objectives, such as information structures, software development and use, analyzing new technologies and competitive analyses to determine appropriate spending of the technical budgets.

QBeo

QBeo, a North Bend-based innovator of digital image enhancement technology, has received $1.5 million in private venture funding from AdAstra to fuel development of its consumer imaging technology for broadband cable. QBeo is adapting its digital imaging technology to high-speed broadband cable with a service called My Photo Gallery. The new service will integrate traditional and digital cameras, televisions and set-top boxes into one system that provides cable subscribers with image storage, editing and output capabilities.

Department of Financial Institutions

Deborah Bortner, Washington state's director of securities, has been installed as the new president of the North American Securities Administration Association. Bortner's priorities are making state securities regulation more uniform, expanding state programs to help small businesses raise capital, promoting investor education and implementing an electronic database for investment advisers

O'Day merges into Firmani & Associates

Tracy O'Day, the solo Seattle public relations woman who specializes in commercial real estate and construction clients, has dropped the solo. She merged The O'Day Group into Mark Firmani's Belltown-based Firmani & Associates.

O'Day

The deal brings seven-year-old Firmani & Associates to 12 employees. Before adding O'Day's clients, Firmani mostly served high tech companies, law firms and some healthcare clients.

O'Day's client list includes CB Richard Ellis, Commercial Real Estate Women Northwest, Bentall US LLC, Harbor Properties and Kauri Investments. Also, Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington, Construction Associates Inc. and Donald B. Murphy Contractors Inc.

O'Day said that after 16 years of operating solo she welcomed the chance to spend more time on "client service, which is my love," and less on the administrative aspects of keeping the business going.

Mark Firmani said he looks for chances to grow his firm and saw adding "the high priestess of real estate and construction PR" as a good fit. "Mergers work well when the parties bring disparate talents, This is squarely one of those," he said.

O'Day cut her teeth on real estate PR working four years for developer Jack Benaroya before Benaroya's 1984 sale of his entire portfolio freed her to go out on her own.

Having Benaroya on her resume brought exposure, of course.

"Jack is a legend, so when I struck out on my own, all of the development community wanted to talk to me," she recalled. "Not that they wanted to hire me. They just wanted to know about Jack."

The Benaroya years showed her that commercial real estate marketing was more "diverse" than she had assumed.

"I worked on fundraising for the symphony to advertising for business parks," she said. To promote a collection of home furnishing tenants in what was then Benaroya's Parkway Plaza strip shopping center in Tukwila, O'Day had a house built in the plaza's parking lot so the public could see the stores' goods in a home-like setting.

For the developer Prescott's late-1980s topping out ceremony for the U.S. Bank Center high-rise in downtown Seattle, O'Day helped organize a black-tie affair with linens and fine crystal in the middle of a dirty construction site.

"It was a controversial site. To show that not everything is black and white, we made it a black-tie dinner," she said. The planning included rounding up every shoe-buffing machine they could find so the well-heeled attendees could buff off the construction dust as they left the site.

O'Day, an avid horse rider going back to her youth in Montana, has served a range of other types of clients and remembers Washington Mutual's Rodeo Grandmas as among the most fun.

"I didn't invent them, but I worked with them after they became famous with the WaMu ads. I booked them for all sorts of things like TV gigs. For a commercial, I got to ride with them. They were all professional cattlewomen. Loraine Pass, who was 85 then, could outride me." During shooting of the commercial, the Rodeo Grandmas herded cattle. O'Day and other riders would then herd the cattle back so the grandmas could do it again for the next take.

6 win Friends of Housing awards

The Washington State Housing Finance Commission this week gave Friends of Housing awards to honor the efforts of six affordable housing advocates.

The six received the awards at Housing Washington 2000, a statewide affordable housing conference held at the Spokane Convention Center. The recipients were:

• Siobhan Ring of the Tenants Union Statewide Advocate.

• Jack Gallagher, vice president of finance at Fannie Mae, for developing specialized financial investment products to expand affordable housing opportunities.

• The Office of Rural and Farmworker Housing in Yakima, for its dedication to safe and affordable farmworker housing.

• Don Hines, assistant director of the Tacoma Economic Development Department, for championing affordable housing for Tacoma's low-income residents.

• Washington Trust Bank of Spokane for its commitment to providing home-ownership opportunities for low- and moderate-income, first-time homebuyers.

• Majken Ryherd, chief of staff for state Rep. Frank Chopp, and formerly with the Washington State Low Income Housing Congress, both for her passionate dedication to advancing the cause of low-income housing and for her roles in passing vital housing legislation.

"Trying to meet the needs of the affordable housing crisis, develop affordable housing, and create solutions is an ominous task," said Kim Herman, executive director of the Washington State Housing Finance Commission. "I am honored to recognize the achievements of these Friends of Housing, many of whom have devoted their entire careers to ensuring that the low-income, disabled and elderly have a place to live."

Raskin & Associates

Jana Vincent joined Kirkland-based Raskin & Associates as an office leasing and sales broker. Vincent previously worked for Colliers International