Jan 26, 2001

Seed

Bierman

Bodine

Tarleton

Seed Intellectual Property Law Group, a Seattle-based firm specializing in intellectual property, announced the addition of three new partners. Ellen Bierman, Brian Bodine and E. Russell Tarleton have joined the firm. Bierman specializes in computer-related patents. Bodine specializes in intellectual property litigation, and Tarleton focuses on the procurement and enforcement of patents, trademarks and copyrights in mechanical and electrical technologies.

Wovie

Wovie, an Olympia-based new media/entertainment studio, has filled key appointments, completing the company’s core staff. John Greenland has joined as technology director. He is responsible for the technical development, integration and performance of the company's products, services and operations. Lia Friedman has been named associate producer. Nik Arnold assumes the post of illustrator/animator.

Keller Rohrback

The law firm of Keller Rohrback announced that Claire Cordon has become a partner of the firm. Cordon's practice will focus on employment law. She is a former senior trial attorney with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where she litigated individual and class action employment discrimination cases.

Davis Wright Tremaine

Davis Wright Tremaine has added Mark Aoki-Fordham as an associate and named six attorneys to partnership in its Seattle law office. Aoki-Fordham focuses his practice on negotiating, drafting and reviewing commercial agreements, credit agreements, software and hardware license agreements and international business transactions. The six Seattle attorneys named as partners with the firm are: Stuart Campbell, corporate finance and transactions; Gregory Diamond, insurance coverage litigation; Eugenie Mansfield, securities transactions; Lisa Peterson, commercial real estate transactions; Scot Tucker, financial restructuring; and Tahl Tyson, employment law and litigation.

Seattle School District/Flexcar

An agreement between the Seattle School District and Flexcar, a car sharing company, was signed recently to place two vehicles in the District's lower-Queen Anne office. The cars will be available to District staff for business meetings, entertaining or personal errands while at work, allowing them to take public transportation or van pools to work and still have private auto transportation available during the work day. The District has also extended access to both cars to residents of lower-Queen Anne during non-business hours.

EvergreenBank

Seattle-based EvergreenBank has hired Mark Nelson as executive vice president and chief credit officer. Nelson will coordinate the bank's commercial lending program, including new-business development and credit policy. Before joining EvergreenBank, he worked at Bank of America as a senior vice president and regional manager for small-business lending

Jan 25, 2001

Vander Houwen

Vander Houwen Public Relations promoted Heidi Hall to assistant account manager in its Bellevue office. Hall will work more directly with clients and increase her role in the company’s employee communications and public relations programs. She joined the company last March as a President’s Honor Roll graduate of Washington State University.

KCTS

Seattle attorney Monica Reisner has joined the staff of KCTS Television as the station’s general counsel and director of human resources. One of Reisner’s primary responsibilities will be preparing and negotiating all contracts with outside producers, distributers and others. Prior to joining the station, she served as associate general counsel for Commerce, Inc.

Laird Norton

Laird Norton Trust Co. of Seattle has promoted Barbara Potter to managing director and chief fiduciary officer of client services. The company has also hired Jason Cherney and Michael Schmid as associate portfolio managers. Potter chairs the company’s trust administration committee, serves on the pension/401(k) and management committees and is a designated account manager for several high net-worth clients. Cherney has worked in investment management for six years, most recently at T.D. Waterhouse in Vancouver, B.C. Schmid has worked in investment and financial planning for four years, most recently with Arthur Andersen in Chicago and Philadelphia.

Consolidated Restaurants

Kevin Shoemaker has been named vice president of operations for Consolidated Restaurants, a Seattle-based restaurant management company. Shoemaker is responsible for overseeing daily operations for each of the company’s five full-service establishments as well as the quick-serve division which includes Steamers Seafood Cafe and Quincy’s Hamburgers. Seattle restaurants managed by the company include Elliott’s Oyster House, The Metropolitan Grill, Union Square Grill and Hiram’s at the Locks.

Hotel Monaco

Frank Rodriguez has been named general manager of the Hotel Monaco Seattle as well as director of hotel operations for the Pacific Northwest region for the Klimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group. Rodriguez will direct the daily operations of Hotel Monaco as well as oversee the management of Klimpton’s two other Seattle properties: The Alexis Hotel and the Hotel Vintage Park.

Christopher & Banks

Christopher & Banks, a women’s ready-to-wear retailer based in Minnesota, has expanded its national business to include a 3,000-square-foot store in Northgate Mall in Seattle. Construction on the new store is currently underway. Simon Property Group of Indianapolis is engaged in the ownership, development, management, leasing, accquistion and expansion of the new store. The store is planning to open in the Spring.

Department of Natural Resources

Commissioner of Public Lands Doug Sutherland announced that the commissioner of public lands will again take an active part on the Joint National Resources Cabinet. This announcement rescinds the decision by the previous commissioner to leave the Joint Cabinet. Sutherland will work with the Governor and the other representatives on the Cabinet to ensure that Washington’s resource protection efforts are coordinated.

Heller Ehrman

Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe announced the election of 14 attorneys to the position of shareholder, with four of the new shareholders promoted in the Seattle office. The new Seattle shareholders are: Svend Brandt-Erichson who has an environmental practice with an emphasis on regulatory and administrative affairs, Audrey Hwang focuses her practice on mergers and acquisitions and intellectual property matters, Angela Niemann practices in the firm’s litigation department, and Jonathan Palmer specializes in complex business litigation

Wallace Properties

Ellen H. Post became a leasing agent for Bellevue-based Wallace Properties. The firm said she has 20 years of experience buying, developing and marketing commercial property.

Network Mortgage Services

Mary Day joined Network Mortgage Services in Lynnwood as a loan originator, covering King and Snohomish counties. Day has worked more than 10 years in originations, processing and underwriting.

Keller Williams Realty

Four people became agents in Keller Williams Realty's Bellevue office: Claudia Smith, Shih-An Stephens, Susan Linnerooth, and David Waldo.

CREW learns how Greg Smith did it

Martin Smith Inc. principal Greg Smith will speak at Commercial Real Estate Women's next lunch gathering about how his firm evolved in the 1990s from a manager of Class B office buildings into a major downtown property owner and office developer. The event will begin at noon on Feb. 8 at the Washington Athletic Club in downtown Seattle. For more information, call (206) 361-6859.

... and then CREW will tackle etiquette

Smith's talk is typical of CREW, which often brings in a key real estate player to talk to the networking group. CREW will change course a bit on Feb. 21, when business etiquette expert Barbara Brueske will cover the ins and outs of business dining. Brueske's company, Etiquette Unlimited, has consulted for the Bellevue Club, area school districts and the Woodmark Hotel. Crew titled the Feb. 21 event: "Forks or Fingers and More on Social Etiquette." The gathering will begin at noon on the third floor of the Norton Building, 801 Second. Ave., in downtown Seattle. For more information, call (206) 361-6859.

Glimcher sells in Puyallup

Ohio-based Glimcher Realty Trust, owner of the Supermall of the Great Northwest in Auburn, sold a community shopping center in Puyallup as part of a nationwide sell-off of single-tenant and community retail centers.

The real estate investment trust said it sold $44.3 million in properties throughout 2000 to reduce debt. Glimcher's sale of the Kmart Shopping Center in Puyallup leaves Glimcher with no single-tenant or community center in Washington (the Supermall is considered a regional center).

The Puyallup property sold with one in North Virginia, one in Ohio and a plot of land for a total of $8 million, Glimcher said.