Sep 29, 2021

Olson Kundig

O'Toole

Devine

Olson Kundig announced two promotions. Jane Devine has been promoted to Senior Project Administrator and Cate O'Toole has been promoted to Senior Communications Coordinator. Devine supports some of Olson Kundig's largest and most complex projects, collaborating closely with teams to ensure project schedules are met, documents kept up-to-date and information is well-organized. She also spearheads internal data sharing and technical communications efforts, including management of the firm's intranet platform. O'Toole works closely with firm leadership and project teams to develop written and narrative content, support internal and external communication initiatives, and share Olson Kundig's work, personnel and cultural touchstones with a wide audience.

Weinstein A+U

Besso

Pierson

Moshier

Weekley

Straeter

Weinstein A+U has made several new hires. Philip Straeter has been hired as a project designer. Straeter has a broad range of experience including civic, educational, multifamily, non-profit, and adaptive-reuse projects. He holds a bachelor's degree in Architecture and Urban Design from the University of Applied Sciences, Potsdam School of Architecture, and an associate degree in Art History from the Free University Berlin. Neil Weekley is a licensed architect who joins Weinstein A+U with over 15 years of experience on a broad range of project types, scales, and construction types. Weekley holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture and a Master of Architecture from Georgia Tech.

Zach Moshier, LEED GA, Associate AIA, joins as a project designer with mixed-use, educational and not-for-profit project experience. Now at Weinstein A+U, Moshier brings experience with technical detailing for high sustainability and passive house metrics. Moshier holds a Master of Architecture from the Virginia Tech Washington/Alexandria Architecture Center and a Bachelor of Architectural Studies from Judson University. Kelsey Pierson is a project designer at Weinstein A+U. After working as an intern at the firm, she joined Weinstein A+U. Pierson holds a Masters of Architecture from the University of Washington, where she was a Valle scholar in Copenhagen. There, she researched architectural strategies for water infrastructure and climate change. Jessica Besso is the Accounting Manager at Weinstein A+U. She is integral to the day-to-day operations of the office and provides vital information to the principal group as they make decisions to guide the firm. She has over 20 years of experience in the field of accounting and finance, and holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from Seattle Pacific University, and active CPA and CFE certifications.

DCI Engineers

Martin

Associate Ethan Martin will step into the new role of Director of Sustainability and Mass Timber. Based in the firm's Portland office, Martin will oversee strategy efforts for both Sustainability and Mass Timber efforts across all 13 regional offices. These efforts include DCI's commitment to the SE 2050 Challenge, which aims to achieve Net Zero status in all projects by the year 2050. Martin joined DCI Engineers in 2020 to assist in further developing the firms' Mass Timber division. Prior to his arrival, he served as the Northwest Regional Director at WoodWorks, the wood industry's non-profit for advancing knowledge and technical support in commercial wood building projects across the United States. DCI Engineers is a civil and structural engineering firm.

Cloud Security Alliance

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) announced the recipients of its Ron Knode Service Award, recognizing CSA members from the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and EMEA regions for their excellence in volunteerism. The honorees were selected by the CSA executive team and chosen based on their valuable contributions towards fulfilling CSA's mission of promoting best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment. Ron Knode was an information security expert who passed away in May 2012. Established in 2012, the Ron Knode Service Award is awarded annually to CSA members whose contributions reflect Ron's passion for volunteerism and embody the spirit for which this award was established. This year's recipients are: Dr. Ricci Ieong, principal consultant of eWalker Consulting; Claudius Lam, marketing manager for Trend Micro; Juan-Pablo Perez-Etchegoyen, chief technology officer of Onapsis; Shawn Harris, managing principal security architect at Starbucks Coffee; Paul Rich, executive director, data management and protection for JPMorgan Chase; and Michael Roza, a risk, audit, control and compliance professional with 20-plus years of experience. The Cloud Security Alliance is headquartered in Seattle.

Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services announced the general availability of Amazon QuickSight Q, a new capability in Amazon QuickSight that gives anyone in an organization the ability to ask business questions using natural language and receive accurate answers with relevant visualizations that help them gain insights from the data. Amazon QuickSight Q does not depend on prebuilt dashboards or reports to deliver visualizations, which removes the need for business intelligence analysts to update a dashboard every time a new business question arises, so anyone can ask their questions and receive visual answers in seconds. Customers can refine the way Amazon QuickSight Q understands questions with an editor, which removes the need for complex data preparation before users can ask questions of data in natural language. There are no upfront commitments to use Amazon QuickSight Q, and customers only pay for the number of users or queries. Amazon QuickSight Q currently supports questions in English and is generally available today to customers running Amazon QuickSight in US East (Ohio), US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Europe (Frankfurt), Europe (Ireland), and Europe (London), with availability in additional AWS Regions coming soon.

T-Mobile

Bellevue-based T-Mobile announced the 25 small towns winning Hometown Grants to jumpstart community development projects to re-energize these towns and build upon what makes them unique. Hometown Grants are part of T-Mobile's commitment to bring 5G to rural America. Over the next five years, T-Mobile plans to hire 7,500 new employees in small towns and rural communities and provide $25 million in grants for community development projects. Northwest winners are: Fruitland, Idaho, purchase and install youth playground equipment in a new city park; Aumsville, OR, create space for small businesses to use for Saturday Market Days and to support park use with a community gathering space; Talent, OR, revitalize space in Depot Building to help it be a focal point of gathering, collaboration and innovation for decades to come; Toledo, OR, transform rural Toledo's Main Street through business beautifications and murals; and Moses Lake, WA, set up a creative community incubator that will have art, live music, events, a lounge and maker space to inspire creativity. T-Mobile partnered with Main Street America and Smart Growth America, two consulting partners with a combined experience of more than 60 years working to help build stronger, more prosperous small towns and rural communities. Together, they determined the grant recipients based on detail and fullness of the submission, community impact, viability of the project among other factors. Recipients are selected and awarded on a quarterly basis, so towns with populations less than 50,000 are still eligible to apply. For full details on how to submit a proposal for Hometown Grants, visit https://www.t-mobile.com/brand/hometown-grants.

Sep 28, 2021

Compass Construction

Bennett

O'Connell

Auld

Messer

McElwee

Lopez

Kirkland-based Compass construction hired Eber Lopez as project engineer, Dani McElwee as human resource generalist and Scott Messer as assistant superintendent. It also promoted Chris Auld, Ryan O'Connell and Steve Bennett to senior superintendents. Lopez interned at Compass in summer 2020 and recently received a bachelor's degree in construction management from the University of Washington. McElwee holds a bachelor's degree in human resources management from Western Governors University and in June obtained her human resources certification. Messer previously worked for a contractor/developer and is experienced in multifamily construction. The role of senior superintendent was created to leverage the experience of Auld, O'Connell and Bennett. They are now charged with developing young superintendents while identifying and preparing promising assistants to take the next step in their careers.

Trico Companies

Wittman

Conijn

In Burlington, Trico Companies hired Joel Conijn as civil project manager and Joe Wittman as superintendent. Conijn has eight years of experience in civil construction, working on projects for multiple state agencies and private clients. He holds a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Washington State University and is a registered Professional Engineer in South Carolina and Washington. Wittman has over 30 years of construction experience, initially working in residential construction and then moving to commercial construction, including tenant improvements, steel building erection and mixed-use buildings.

ABC of Western Washington

The Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington announced its 2022 slate of officers and board members. Officers are: Glen Kuntz of Tekton Group, chair; Dawn Lanz of Sea Tac Electric, chair-elect/secretary; Jason Wandler of Oles Morrison Rinker & Baker, immediate past chair; Josh Griesse of Washington Commercial Painters, vice chair of government affairs; Stephanie Carlin of Propel Insurance, vice chair of membership; Eric Brock of HST Construction, vice chair of safety; Travis Hull of Mechanical & Control Services, vice chair of the professional development council; and Cindy Axthelm of Axthelm Construction, treasurer. Directors are: Mitch Neeley of Neeley Construction; Candi Pfluger of Peterson Sullivan; Shelley Bloom of The Blue Book Building & Construction Network; Karen Say-Valadez of Saybr Contractors; Scott Garcia of Parker, Smith & Feek; Doug Bolar of Accountable Custodial; Jose Gutierrez of Deacon; and Byron Kelly of Compass Construction. Members leaving the board at the end of the year are Marc Victor of Rafn Co. and Mike Yore of Olympian Precast.

Paway App

Paway has expanded its community and is now available in Seattle with a pet-friendly app. Paway is a free dog walking companion app that helps pet owners and dog caregivers find dog-friendly routes and get live alerts to keep dogs safe. Paway was created by professional dog walkers, and uses real-time crowd sourced data to map out a neighborhood while connecting with other dogs and humans along the way. Paway puts dog and owner safety first and includes features that allow other caretakers to follow along on walks, find lost dogs and check their pet's “report card.” Jason Meltzer is the founder of Paway and first CEO of Wag!

Johnstone Supply

Johnstone Supply's members approved a conversion agreement with Redwood Capital Investments that will provide the capital for Johnstone to convert its business structure from an Oregon cooperative into a Delaware limited liability company operating under the name Johnstone Supply LLC. Johnstone Supply will continue to operate as a wholesale distributor based in Portland, providing products and services to the former members of the Johnstone Cooperative. The 90-plus individual Johnstone business owners are expected to execute exclusive territory distribution agreements with Johnstone Supply, and will remain significant equity holders in the new entity. The conversion agreement is subject to regulatory approval and the deal is expected to close later this year. Wells Fargo Securities served as financial advisor to Johnstone, with K&L Gates as the legal advisor. Kirkland & Ellis was the legal counsel to Redwood. Johnstone Supply Cooperative is a North American HVACR brand with over $3 billion in annual sales generated by over 450 independently owned stores across the U.S. and Canada.

Petabyte Consortium

Unavets, a European platform for veterinary centers with over 43 practices across Spain and Portugal, is partnering with Bellevue-based Petabyte Technology, a veterinary software company, to join the new Petabyte Consortium, which is focused on cleaning and standardizing data to improve veterinary practices. Petabyte patient management solutions for veterinary hospitals offer a suite of software solutions, including Rhapsody, a cloud-based practice information management system; Petabyte Analytics, an enterprise-level analytics platform; and Boop, a mobile application simplifying the pet care experience for pet owners. Founded in 2019, Petabyte's mission is to give veterinary health care practitioners greater understanding and control over their business using cloud-based technology. Michael Hyman is the co-founder and CEO of Petabyte. Unavets is the third group to join the Petabyte Consortium.