Jan 23, 2001

McKinstry Co.

Seattle's McKinstry Co. has been selected as the outstanding workplace of the year by the Association of Washington Business as part of its 2000 AWB Better Workplace Awards. The award honors companies for their efforts in dealing with workplace safety, job training and advancement programs, and innovative benefits and compensation programs. McKinstry, a mechanical contractor, also won the top honor last year.

Shandwick International

Shandwick International, a reputation management company, has added new members to its Seattle public relations account staff. Julie Pennington is an account supervisor, and Natalie Glover and Ken Birge are account coordinators. Pennington will help manage the company's Microsoft TV account. Glover will work on the company's CourtLink account. Birge will work on the company's HomeAdvisor and Netstock Corp. accounts.

Museum of History & Industry

The Museum of History & Industry has been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities consultation grant to help develop exhibits at the museum's future home in downtown Seattle. The museum will use the $10,000 grant to convene museum experts and professional historians from around the United States to work with the museum staff and local residents in developing themes and concepts for future exhibits. The museum is in the early stages of a campaign to raise money and build a new museum as part of the Washington State Convention & Trade Center expansion.

Longview Fibre Co.

James Jacobson has been promoted to manager of Longview Fibre Co.'s Yakima container plant. Jacobson replaces Ervin Schatz, who has been promoted to vice president-production. Jacobson will manage manufacturing, warehousing and distribution of boxes marketed in Washington and parts of Oregon and Canada for a variety of end uses. He has been with the company for 35 years.

Qpass

Qpass, a Seattle-based provider of digital commerce services, has named Murray Laidley as vice president of product development, Norman Guadagno as vice president of marketing and Chris McQueen as vice president of client services. Laidley is responsible for product management, engineering and quality services. He has more than 20 years of business management and technical design and development experience. Guadagno joins Qpass from Primus Knowledge Solutions, where he served as vice president of worldwide marketing. At Primus he held responsibility for corporate marketing, product marketing, and overall company branding. McQueen is responsible for rolling out account management programs, implementation of the Qpass service and on-going customer support. He joins Qpass from Brilliant Media, where he served as managing director.

Immunex Corp.

Immunex Corp., a Seattle-based biopharmaceutical company, announced that Dr. Daniel Burge has been promoted to vice president of clinical development. Burge will oversee all phases of clinical development several product development projects, aside from oncology indications. A licensed rheumatologist, he joined Immunex in 1997 as medical director for Enbrel, responsible for designing, implementing and analyzing several key clinical trials.

Jan 22, 2001

Meals.com

Bellevue-based Meals.com has hired several new employees.

Larry Breitbarth, formerly acting CFO at Bothell-based Applied Technical Services Corp., is the finance director. Mark Carlson, formerly the Web statistics manager at HomeGrocer.com, is the director of knowledge management.   Jerome Hill is the lead Web developer. Hill was director of e-commerce development at G & L Internet Bank. Doug Goar, the quality assurance manager, was with Microsoft's Global Network Services. Dave Gregson, director of retail development, comes to Meals.com after 20 years with the Ralston Purina Co.

Northwest Hospital

Denise Schwind has been hired at Northwest Hospital, a not-for-profit hospital in Seattle, as a family practice physician assistant. Schwind's practice is located at the Lake Forest Medical Clinic in Bothell.

Torrefazione store in San Francisco

Torrefazione Italia, part of the Atlanta, Ga., AFC Enterprises food empire, has opened its fourth cafe in the San Francisco Bay Area. The new store, located at 1909 Union St., brings the total to 19 Torrefazione cafes in the United States and Canada. Milan native Mario Gelmini is Torrefazione's director of cafe operations.Torrefazione is part of Seattle Coffee Co., which also owns Seattle's Best Coffee. Seattle Coffee Co. is a subsidiary of AFC.

New name for Olympic Venture Partners

The technology-focused venture capital firm formerly known as Olympic Venture Partners is now called OVP Venture Partners. The company says it changed its name to avoid litigation with the U.S. Olympic Committee, which it described as having a "far-reaching trademark" on the name Olympic. OVP has offices in Kirkland and Lake Oswego, Ore