Apr 07, 2020

BitTitan

Serpanchy

In Bellevue, BitTitan hired Kevin Serpanchy as sales director of North and South America. Serpanchy spent the past 15 years with educational technology company ProQuest, where he was senior sales director for the federal government sector across the U.S. and the academic sector in North America's southern region. He also led ProQuest's Asia Pacific south region sales team in Melbourne for 11 years and spent two years in Dubai managing the Europe, Middle East and Africa sales team. BitTitan helps IT service companies automate on the cloud.

Shiftboard

Seattle-based Shiftboard is merging with Vancouver, B.C.-based EDP Software, the developer of workforce scheduling software called SchedulePro. Shiftboard develops scheduling software for employers of hourly workers. The new company will operate as Shiftboard, with Shiftboard CEO Sterling Wilson keeping that title and EDP CEO Sachin Agrawal becoming chief technology officer. The new company will retain its offices in Seattle, Vancouver and London. Financial terms were not disclosed.

ThePlateFund

A coalition of Seattle-area restaurants, foundations, organizations and individuals created ThePlateFund, an initiative to provide emergency financial aid to food-service workers who have lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The fund was created by the Schultz Family Foundation in partnership with #allinseattle, Seattle Foundation and UpTogether. It has $4 million in seed funding for in-need restaurant workers in King County. Donations can be made at http://www.theplatefund.com.

Oregon Community Foundation

The Nike Foundation pledged $1 million to help nonprofits and small businesses in Oregon affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Nike is part of a coalition of businesses offering over $2.5 million and in-kind equipment and support through two statewide funds set up by the Oregon Community Foundation and its partner philanthropies. The donations give immediate help to communities while federal and state assistance is in the works. In addition to Nike, some of the larger donors include The Standard ($250,000), Intel ($200,000), Portland Trail Blazers ($150,000), Wells Fargo ($125,000), Cambia Health Foundation ($100,000), Tillamook County Creamery Association ($100,000) and Umpqua Bank ($100,000).

Lattice Semiconductor

Hillsboro, Oregon-based chipmaker Lattice Semiconductor won Best in Show at the 2020 Embedded World Exhibition and Conference for its mVision solutions stack hardware and software package. It won in the Development Tools and Operating Systems category. The awards were presented by publishing company Open Systems Media.

Construction Center of Excellence

Grassman

Kristi Grassman is the new director of the Construction Center of Excellence at Renton Technical College. Grassman has over 20 years of workforce development experience, including stints with Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee, WorkForce Central and Tacoma Goodwill Industries. She also co-owns an automotive business in Sumner.

Mission Support Alliance

Three Mission Support Alliance staffers from Richland recently won Game Changer awards at the Connected Plant Conference in Atlanta. They include: Todd Synoground, vice president of Public Works; Ashley Ward, director of Information Systems; and Jeff Flora, creative technologist. The team was cited for bringing Microsoft's HoloLens mixed-reality platform to the Hanford Site. HoloLens is expected to enhance operational efficiency, improve maintenance planning, modernize training, and provide reliability and availability improvements of key infrastructure systems at Hanford. MSA consists of Leidos and Centerra Group, who are responsible for mission support at Hanford.

ACPA

Roy and Dawn Thompson, co-founders of Champion Concrete Pumping in Hauser, Idaho, won the Pioneer Award from the American Concrete Pumping Association. Champion was cited for being the first to use separate placing booms and bring in big booms to the greater Coeur d'Alene/Spokane area. ACPA gives the award to its members who have been active in early development of concrete pumping, advanced the industry and improved conditions for concrete pumping.