May 22, 2024

Architects West

Widner

Michelle Widner has joined Architects West as an interior designer in the Spokane office. Her 22-year career includes multiple project types throughout the Inland Northwest and beyond.

Widner received her Bachelor of Arts in Interior Design and Minor in Art History/Business Administration from Washington State University and is a Professional Member of International Interior Design Association. She previously worked for Bernardo Wills Architects.

The Riley Group

Washington

The Riley Group has hired Mark Washington as an administrative assistant. Washington is a California native and received his associate degree in Computer Science from Fresno City College.

Previously, he worked as an assistant community manager for Housing Hope, as well as a document analyst for a CA based firm.

Salas O'Brien

Malette

Morales

Knoke

Morrison

Salas O'Brien announced the following promotions. Arnold Morrison has been promoted to senior vice president; Mark Knoke has been promoted to vice president; and David Morales and Ken Malette have been elevated to associate vice president.

Morrison has been with Salas O'Brien for six years as an architect in the firm's Seattle office. He is a key professional on the leadership team with project management and technical design skills in the commercial, corporate, civic, federal, and critical environment project sectors. Morrison has more than 18 years of business management experience and has delivered several large-scale projects to market.

Knoke has been with Salas O'Brien for 24 years and has been the project architect on numerous technically complex data center and telecommunications facility additions and remodels. His experience has given him an intricate understanding of specialized facilities projects, such as organizing multi-year building upgrades on continuously active operation centers.

Morales, BIM manager, has been with Salas O'Brien for two years. He is a digital delivery expert with 15 years of experience in Building Information Management, modeling, and digital delivery methodologies for multiple disciplines in the AEC design industry. He leads design teams and project stakeholders to leverage BIM workflows on projects. Morales has comprehensive knowledge and technical design capabilities with parametric and intelligent modeling systems.

Ken Malette has been with Salas O'Brien for two years and has 25 years of combined experience as an architect and as a construction manager. He has led projects in a variety of markets, from public works projects to commercial and industrial buildings. He is currently specializing in two large data centers for a major client.

Rock Project Management Services

Gaspay

Renton-based Rock Project Management Services hired Francis Jordan Gaspay as a project assistant. RPM provides owner's representative services to public and private clients throughout Washington that have education, technology, health care, transportation, and municipal projects.

Jubilee Women's Center

Seattle-based Jubilee Women's Center named Elisabeth Jarrard as its new executive director. Jarrard brings extensive experience in the affordable housing and emergency services provider sectors. Over the past decade at Compass Housing Alliance, she has held multiple leadership roles including director of advancement, interim executive director, and director of human resources. Jarrard earned her Master of Arts degree in Counseling Psychology with a focus on trauma at Northwest University. Her background includes providing clinical support to women exiting homelessness and serving individuals facing domestic violence. For the past several months, Liz Swanson, senior associate with the Valtas Group, has served as interim executive director, providing leadership and stability during the transition. Jarrard officially joins Jubilee Women's Center at the end of May. Jubilee Women's Center, established in 1984, supports women experiencing poverty to build stable futures, and provides programs and services that empower women to make positive life changes.

May 21, 2024

Lease Crutcher Lewis

Callas

Furlan

Testa

Lease Crutcher Lewis (Lewis) announced the promotion of Shannon Testa and James Furlan to vice president of operations and Jeremy Callas to director of operations for the company's corporate market sector.

“We're building on nearly 140 years of tradition by elevating the next generation of Lewis leaders from within,” said Chief Executive Officer Bart Ricketts.

In her new role as vice president, Testa will promote operational excellence in Washington and support the continued growth of the company's commercial market sector as well as the company's self-perform subsidiary, Crutcher Structures. Since joining Lewis' Seattle office in 2007, she's played a major role in delivering Lewis' commercial projects, including high-rise office, residential and hospitality projects. Starting in 2014, she led construction of the Rainier Square Redevelopment, shepherding the project from its initial design to a first-of-its-kind “SpeedCore” structure in what is now among the city's most recognizable buildings.

Furlan brings more than two decades of construction experience to his new role, including the last 10 years at Lewis. He'll oversee strategy and growth for Lewis' corporate, healthcare and life science market sectors in Washington. Furlan will also work to ensure strong alignment between business services groups and the company's market sector teams. Most recently, Furlan oversaw Lewis' corporate market sector, including office space and advanced R&D facilities for many of the Puget Sound's top companies.

As the new director of Lewis' corporate market sector, Callas will lead targeted growth and client engagement for end-user spaces in Washington. In his nine years with Lewis, most recently as a project executive, he specialized in delivering a diverse range of projects and providing strategic guidance to technology and professional services companies seeking to establish, enhance, or rethink their workplace needs.

These organizational changes follow Coriann Presser's promotion to president of Lewis' Washington Division earlier this month.

May 17, 2024

Pacific Earth Works

Brandvold

Mike Brandvold, senior estimator and project manager at Pacific Earth Works WBE, is celebrating his 30th anniversary with the company. Brandvold first day on the job was May 16th 1994. He initially worked in a mix of maintenance and new construction installation, then transitioned to truck driving and eventually became a full-time estimator and project manager. He has seen the industry evolve significantly, becoming more technical. According to Brandvold, “my proudest moments are seeing each project through to completion, overcoming challenges, and maintaining great relationships with clients. Accomplishing projects on time and budget while exceeding expectations is incredibly rewarding.” He lists his favorite projects as the 5th Avenue Garage green roof and the Amazon Spheres. Pacific Earth Works WBE is a second generation,100% woman-owned certified DBE/WBE landscape construction firm serving the Puget Sound since 1979. The company is based in Monroe.

Know Labs

Know Labs, a Seattle-based company providing non-invasive medical diagnostic technology, appointed Chris Somogyi as president, international. With over 40 years of experience in commercializing innovation across related industries, Somogyi brings a wealth of expertise to lead the company's global patent licensing efforts. In his role, Somogyi will focus on identifying new applications of Know Labs' intellectual property portfolio consisting of over 300 patents issued, pending and in-process and covering more than 100 medical and non-medical applications. Somogyi has an extensive background in biomedical engineering and product innovation, with over 20 issued patents to his name. His experience includes managing intellectual property at Stanford University, leading innovation grant funds for the New Zealand government and holding product development and incubation roles at organizations such as SRI International and Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center). He has B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Purdue, an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Tulane and an MBA from the University of Washington. Somogyi's appointment allows the company to maintain its core focus on bringing the first non-invasive continuous glucose monitor to the marketplace.

Agility Robotics

Agility Robotics announced that it has bolstered its leadership team with the appointment of Daniel Diez as chief strategy officer. Additionally, Melonee Wise was named chief product officer and Pras Velagapudi was named chief technology officer. Diez will be responsible for setting Agility's overall business and go-to-market strategy, working closely with CEO Peggy Johnson. Diez most recently served as chief commercial officer at Magic Leap, where he led the company's public transformation from a consumer technology startup to an enterprise technology company and was responsible for the commercial launch of Magic Leap 2. Wise joined Agility as CTO in May 2023. In the expanded role of CPO, Wise will continue to lead Agility's engineering team in addition to the newly-formed product organization. Prior to joining Agility, Wise was the vice president of robotics automation at Zebra Technologies. In the year since he joined Agility as VP of innovation and chief architect, Velagapudi has galvanized the company's AI strategy. Agility is headquartered in Corvallis, Oregon. The company's bipedal Mobile Manipulation Robot Digit is a multi-purpose, human-centric robot that built to augment the human work force.