Jan 21, 2022

City of SeaTac

Negusse

Simpson

The SeaTac city council selected Jake Simpson as mayor and Senayet Negusse as deputy mayor at its first regular meeting of the year. The city has a seven-member council elected by residents. The council chooses from among themselves who will serve as mayor and deputy mayor for a two-year term. The mayor is recognized as the head of the city for ceremonial purposes and is the chair of the council meetings. Currently, Simpson works as an organizer with SEIU 1199NW, the health care workers' union. For more than a decade he worked at small businesses as a professional cook and began his organizing career with UNITE HERE Local 8 as a rank-and-file leader. Negusse is the language equity program manager at King County. The council makes policy, land use and budget decisions for the city, and appoints a full-time city manager to oversee the daily operations of the city.

Fulcrum Capital

Clark

Fisher

Wilkins

Mathieu

Seattle-based wealth management firm Fulcrum Capital has a new leadership team: Michelle Mathieu, chief executive officer; Matthew Wilkins, chief operating officer; Kathryn Haggitt Fisher, chief wealth strategist; and Tim Clark, chief investment officer. Firm co-founder and former CEO Darcy Johnson announced that she will retire in December. Janet Welcher will leave the leadership team, but will continue to serve clients and will remain in her current role as a managing partner. Prior to becoming CEO, Mathieu was Fulcrum's chief investment officer for five years. She led three investment firms, co-managed two equity mutual funds, and served on a half-dozen nonprofit boards during her more than 25 years in the investment industry. Throughout his career, Wilkins has held roles in relationship management, sales and marketing, operations management, and systems management at both large and small wealth management companies. Fisher has been providing philanthropic and financial planning services to clients for over 15 years. She is a member of the University of Washington's estate and gift planning council. Clark joined Fulcrum in 2017. He directs the research and security selection process, manages the firm's U.S. Core Equity portfolio, and advises several of the firm's institutional clients. Fulcrum Capital was founded in 2007, and is an employee-owned and women-led organization.

Pacific Northwest Ballet

Pacific Northwest Ballet principal dancer Noelani Pantastico has announced that after a 25-year dancing career, she is retiring to accept a position on the faculty of Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet (CPYB). Pantastico trained at CPYB before being hired at PNB in 1997. She was promoted to soloist in 2001 and principal in 2004. In 2008, she left PNB to join Les Ballets de Monte Carlo. In 2015, she returned to PNB as a principal dancer. Pantastico plans to continue as co-artistic director of Seattle Dance Collective, the company she founded in 2019 with fellow PNB principal dancer James Yoichi Moore. PNB audiences have at least two more opportunities to watch Pantastico perform, in the lead role of Jean-Christophe Maillot's “Roméo et Juliette,” Feb. 4–13. Pantastico is scheduled to dance on opening night and closing matinee, as well as additional performances to be announced. Visit PNB.org for up-to-date casting.

Port of Bremerton

The Port of Bremerton commission elected commissioner Axel Strakeljahn as president of the board of commissioners for 2022-2023. Strakeljahn has served on the port's board since January 2012 and has focused on economic development and job creation. During this time, he has represented the port at various organizations, most recently by serving on the executive board of the Kitsap Regional Coordinating Council, the executive board of the Puget Sound Regional Council, and as vice president of the Central Puget Sound Economic Development District Board. The port comprises Olympic View Industrial Business Park, Bremerton National Airport, Port Orchard Marina, Bremerton Marina, and several parks, piers and boat launches. Commissioners Cary Bozeman and Gary Anderson also serve on the board. With Strakeljahn becoming president, Anderson is now vice president and Bozeman is secretary.

Jan 20, 2022

CBRE

Olson

Riley

Cooper

Ford

CBRE announced the recent hiring of four new brokers, all of whom make the move from Colliers. Tony Ford specializes in real estate advisory for office tenants, primarily among tech and professional services firms. Bill Cooper specializes in office tenant representation. Joe Riley chiefly represents and advises office tenants. Taylor Olson also focuses on office tenant representation. CBRE's John R. Miller said in a statement, “To attract brokers of this caliber to our occupier group is a true testament to CBRE's reach and resources. We continue to foster a culture where the best and brightest can collaborate to create a competitive advantage for our clients.”

New local leaders for CCIM

CCIM Washington State Chapter announced its recently elected 2022 board members. They are led by board president Larry Eu, of SperryCGA — Easerich Commercial Real Estate. Eu said in a statement, “I am indeed honored and privileged to be elected by an elite group of commercial real estate practitioners and industry leaders.” Other board members are Travis Baker of Regency Centers, Matt McLennan of Kidder Mathews, Devin Mecham of NAI Black and Kelly Richardson of Rowley Properties.

Mighty-O Donuts

Olsen

Mighty-O Donuts announced that Erik Olsen will be the new operations manager of the five-store company. He will oversee staffing, supervise operations and processes, as well as ensure quality across all departments. Prior to Mighty-O, Olsen worked as the director of food and beverage at Columbia Hospitality, as well as the food and beverage manager at Columbia Tower Club. Mighty-O was founded 21 years ago by Ryan Kellner. The company sources most of its ingredients from local and organic vendors and producers. It has stores at Green Lake, Ballard, Capitol Hill and the Denny Triangle.

Lane Powell

Singh

Schirmer

Johnson

Pacific Northwest law firm Lane Powell added three attorneys to its Seattle office: Aaron Johnson, Jonathan Schirmer and Avin S. Singh. Johnson, counsel to the firm on the Tax team, joins Lane Powell from PwC, where he worked as a tax manager. Johnson represents U.S. and international businesses in state and local tax matters including tax controversies, tax planning and structuring tax-efficient transactions. Johnson is currently an adjunct professor at Seattle Pacific University and an affiliate instructor for the University of Washington. Schirmer joins the firm from Ahlers Cressman & Sleight as an associate on the Commercial Litigation and Construction teams. Schirmer has represented property owners, general contractors, subcontractors, developers and design professionals on complex public and private matters. He is admitted to practice in Washington and Alaska. Singh joins the firm from Cozen O'Connor as an associate on the Commercial Litigation and Construction teams. He is an experienced litigator who counsels on common and complex commercial, construction, product liability, property damage and general tort matters involving state as well as federal laws and regulations. He is admitted to practice in Washington and Hawaii.

Natural Systems Design

Natural Systems Design (NSD) promoted Colin Riordan to project scientist and Nic Truscott to senior engineer. New additions to the firm's staff include Lisa Remlinger as operations lead, and Kim Smith as marketing coordinator. Riordan joined NSD in 2015 and in his early days led field efforts and data analysis for the BPA and RCO effectiveness monitoring efforts. Since that time, he's expanded his capabilities to include GIS and spatial analysis, habitat suitability analysis, riparian ecology, and wetlands work. Truscott joined NSD in 2017 and has spent much of his time advancing stream and logjam engineering designs with the Bureau of Reclamation, Chelan County, and more recently with Skagit County, Lummi Tribe and Nooksack Tribe. Remlinger has more than 16 years of experience overseeing programs and initiatives in support of natural resources, clean water and climate programs. She has extensive experience with policy development and has advanced community forests, endangered species conservation plans, forest carbon projects and clean energy siting guidelines. Smith brings more than 25 years of experience in marketing, business development and event management for the AEC and technology sectors. She has managed, written and edited numerous winning proposals for such firms as Tetra Tech/KCM, INCA Engineers, Black & Veatch and the former CH2M Hill. NSD, founded in 2003, is a team of scientists, engineers and planners. It has over 45 employees in its Seattle, Bellingham and Port Angeles offices.