Sep 11, 2013

State Attorney General

State Attorney General Bob Ferguson selected Darwin Roberts, a federal prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice, as a deputy attorney general. Mark Melroy, senior legislative analyst and former budget manager for the King County Council, will be the AG's new financial services director. Roberts worked in private practice before joining the DOJ in 2005, and was lead federal prosecutor in the “Barefoot Bandit” case. Melroy managed adoption of the county's $5 billion budget.

Big Brothers Big Sisters NW

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwest Washington, which has been struggling financially for months, said it will close Sept. 30. Since 1976, BBBS-NW has matched 6,000 children with mentors. It has served in Whatcom and Skagit counties, and during profitable years helped to financially support other nonprofits. The Whatcom Chamber of Commerce named BBBS Nonprofit of the Year in 2011. After the closing of Bingo in 2002 and cuts in federal grants, the group said it has been unable to find a consistent funding stream.

Sep 10, 2013

Virginia V Foundation

The Steamer Virginia V Foundation hired Heron Scott as executive director. Scott has spent his career in the maritime heritage field, restoring historic fishing vessels at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, managing capital projects at the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle and creating public programs for the Coastal Heritage Alliance in Gig Harbor. He is board president of the Coastal Heritage Alliance. The Virginia V was built in 1922 for the West Pass Transportation Co., to carry freight and passengers from towns on Vashon Island to Seattle and Tacoma. It is the last surviving wooden-hull steam-powered vessel from the Mosquito Fleet.

Four Seasons Hotel Seattle

Four Seasons Hotel Seattle was awarded the Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star rating for service and amenities. The five-year-old hotel has 147 rooms. It is one of 83 five-star hotels. The Spa at Four Seasons Hotel Seattle won a four-star rating. There are four four-star hotels in Washington: Fairmont Olympic Hotel, Hotel 1000 and Pan Pacific Seattle as well as Tacoma's Hotel Murano.

Sep 06, 2013

Wells Fargo

Peterson

Alicia Peterson has been named business sales officer for Wells Fargo in Seattle. She has 12 years of experience and 10 years at Wells Fargo, and will serve business customers in the Seattle area. She was a business sales officer in Wisconsin for Wells Fargo for three years.

Whidbey Island Bank

Whidbey Island Bank named Robert Ittes vice president/commercial team leader for the East King County region. He has spent more than 35 years in Pacific Northwest banking, and was the founding president of Issaquah Bank and Issaquah Community Bank. Whidbey Island Bank has 31 locations in Island, San Juan, Skagit, Whatcom, Snohomish and King counties.

Sep 05, 2013

Socrata

Socrata, a Seattle-based cloud software company focused on improving access to government data, said Ian Kalin has become its director of open data. He will be a chief data officer and “open data evangelist” for customers. Kalin was a Presidential Innovation Fellow in the White House, and worked as a consultant to Google on open data strategies and with the market intelligence company Power Advocate on supply chain issues for major construction projects. Kevin Merritt is founder and CEO of Socrata, which has regional offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco and London.

STEM degree programs

Five community and technical colleges received seed money to design bachelor's degrees in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects and coordinate with local high schools. Sponsored by State Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, D-Bothell, the program's goal is to help high students prepare for jobs in STEM fields. Here are the programs: Bellevue College: molecular bioscience, $58,297; Cascadia Community College: technology in sustainable practices $62,500; Green River Community College: information technology, $80,877; Olympic College: computer information systems, $200,000; and Renton Technical College: applications development, $98,326.