Aug 23, 2019

King County

John Diaz

King County Executive Dow Constantine appointed John Diaz as director of the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention. The department has five divisions: King County Correctional Facility, Maleng Regional Justice Center, Juvenile Detention, Administration, and Community Corrections. Diaz was interim director since April and was Seattle police chief from 2010 to 2013. He began his career at the Seattle Police Department in 1980 as a patrol officer. The County Council must approve his appointment.

Moz

Seattle-based Moz, a search engine optimizer, hired Rob Ousbey as vice president of product; and promoted Willow Mack to vice president of customer enablement and Michael Cole to vice president of engineering. Ousbey has over a decade of online search experience, most recently as vice president at online marketing agency Distilled. Mack has over 20 years of customer enablement experience. Cole is an experienced program manager.

Amazon

Seattle-based Amazon is planning to open a 1 million-square-foot fulfillment center in West Jordan, Utah, that is expected to create 800 full-time jobs. The project is being developed by Seefried Industrial Properties. A schedule was not available.

Aug 22, 2019

Chef

Seattle-based Chef promoted Corey Scobie to chief technology officer. Scobie joined the company last year as senior vice president of product and engineering. Chef co-founder Adam Jacob was CTO, but transitioned earlier this year to focus on board-related duties. The company also hired John Wyss as vice president of product management. Wyss has 26 years of engineering leadership experience, with stints at Cisco, ServiceNow, Intuit and Microsoft. Chef develops continuous automation software.

City of Kent

The city of Kent is forming a transportation advisory board to help it update its transportation master plan. Kent residents that have a passion for transportation — whether it is transit, traffic congestion, bicycle and pedestrian options or a related interest — can apply. The deadline is Sept. 1. The application is at https://tinyurl.com/Kent-TB.

Yapta

Inc. Magazine ranked Seattle-based Yapta as one of the fastest growing private companies in the U.S. This is the second year in a row that Yapta has been named to the Inc. 5000 list, which this year ranked companies according to percentage revenue growth from 2015 to 2018. Yapta ranked 1,330th nationally and 48th in the state. The company tracks airfare and hotel prices.

Zillow Offers adds new markets

Zillow continues to roll out its Zillow Offers arm. The company announced this week that Miami, Fort Lauderdale and other parts of South Florida have been added to its online home-sales platform, which is based in Phoenix.

Zillow's Jeremy Wacksman said in a statement, “We're on a mission to transform real estate by creating a seamless experience through Zillow Offers — no more open houses or worrying about when your home will sell.”

Offers launched last year in Phoenix, and has added a dozen-plus markets since then. The Seattle-based company expects to expand into 26 markets by mid-2020, though Seattle is not among them. In its recent second quarter report, Zillow said that the Offers platform accounted for about half of its roughly $600 million in revenues.

Aug 21, 2019

Leafly

Kirk Beardsley is the new COO of Leafly, a Seattle-based cannabis technology company. Beardsley has more than 20 years of experience in digital commerce, most recently as executive vice president of strategic growth and head of Trunkclub at Nordstrom. Leafly also opened an office in Austin, Texas, with over 30 employees coming from online retailer Spreetail. Brandon Elliott, former head of engineering at Spreetail, leads the new office as vice president of technology.

Northwest Seaport Alliance

Readers of Logistics Management magazine picked Northwest Seaport Alliance as the top port on the West Coast. Readers evaluated North American ports for the 2019 Quest for Quality awards using five criteria: ease of doing business, value, ocean carrier network, intermodal network, and equipment and operations. The alliance is a marine cargo partnership of the ports of Seattle and Tacoma.

Steepologie Teas

Seattle-based Steepologie Teas will open its fifth store in November, at 3420 Fremont Ave. N. The 2,000-square-foot store will have over 300 loose leaf teas, as well as hot and iced tea made to order. It also will become the company's headquarters.

BCRA

t'Sas

Dara t'Sas, director of marketing at BCRA, has transitioned onto the firm's leadership team, joining 15 others as a shareholder. She has been with BCRA for five years and provides strategic guidance for marketing and business development. She also directs corporate communications. BCRA provides architecture, interior design, civil engineering, structural engineering, land use planning and landscape architecture, with offices in Seattle and Tacoma.

CallisonRTKL

Perez

Global architecture, planning and design practice CallisonRTKL hired Anthony Perez as a vice president in the Seattle office. In his two-decade career, Perez has become known for creating places that heighten commercial performance through high-touch technology with a consumer-centric sensibility. He has worked for design practices FITCH (Columbus, Ohio) and Harbor Retail (Seattle), as well as at Starbucks Coffee, where he was instrumental in the design of new store prototypes, the exploration of alternative formats and new concepts, and work with allied brands Evolution Fresh and Teavana. He has been named among Fast Company magazine's 100 Creative People in Business.

RH2 Engineering

Campbell

Pettibone

Mahlum

Bothell-based RH2 Engineering promoted Dan Mahlum, Kyle Pettibone and Michele Campbell to director. Mahlum has been with RH2 for over 20 years, providing leadership and direction within its water treatment group. He has overseen facility projects that include well development and rehabilitation, groundwater and surface water treatment, and wastewater planning and improvements, and will continue to do business development. Pettibone, a design engineer, has over 25 years of experience. He has been involved in complex projects and improved the firm's design tools and services and deliverables to clients. Campbell has been with RH2 for over 18 years, managing the engineering planning group. She has been involved in developing the firm's comprehensive plans, which are integrating new technologies into the analysis and planning process. RH2 provides civil engineering, planning and environmental services.

The Watershed Co.

Burroughs

Mikluscak

The Watershed Co. promoted Amber Mikluscak to principal and hired Nathan Burroughs as a GIS analyst. Mikluscak has experience with landscape architecture, geospatial analysis and graphics in land use planning and natural resource management. She manages the landscape architecture team and coordinates in-house GIS capabilities. Burroughs has a background in geospatial analysis, habitat restoration, fish passage, and stream channel reconstruction. He will assist with development of environmental plans and policies, provide support on stream evaluations and other natural resources assessments, and assist with geospatial analysis for environmental planning and restoration projects. The firm provides natural resource assessments, mitigation and restoration design, environmental planning and permitting, stormwater monitoring, arborist and landscape architecture services.

SCJ Alliance

Hilen

Knight

SCJ Alliance hired Aaron Knight as a project manager and George Hilen as a project engineer in the Gig Harbor office. They work in the transportation design group. SCJ said the two engineers have worked together for years designing municipal roadway, corridor and intersection improvements. They have prepared construction plans, specifications and cost estimates for new and modified traffic signals, Intelligent Transportation Systems, ADA pedestrian facilities and roadway illumination systems. SCJ provides transportation planning and design, civil engineering, landscape architecture, environmental and urban planning and public outreach.

Osborn Consulting

Mansfield

Hoffman-Ballard

Navickis-Brasch

Osborn Consulting hired Aimee Navickis-Brasch, Taylor Hoffman-Ballard and Kaela Mansfield to lead its new Spokane office at 429 W. First Ave. Navickis-Brasch, Ph.D., has over 26 years of stormwater management experience in Washington, which includes design, research and planning projects and development of technical training programs. Hoffman-Ballard has over six years of water resources experience, from field investigation to hydrologic and hydraulic design for stormwater compliance projects. Mansfield has seven years of local experience focused on plans, specifications and estimates development for stormwater drainage and habitat restoration projects. Osborn is a Bellevue-based engineering, landscape architecture and urban design firm.

Stantec

In Seattle, Stantec hired Deepak Kaushal as an electrical project manager, Jon Mackay as an information and communication technology project manager, Gyuwon Lee as a mechanical project designer and Spencer LeDosquet as an acoustical consultant. In Lynnwood, it hired Roman Kukhotskiy as an electrical project designer.

Kaushal has a bachelor's and a master's in electrical engineering and several years of experience both as a designer and as a project manager. Mackay has several years of experience in telecommunications, building inspection and environmental consulting. Lee holds a master of engineering degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology. LeDosquet has three years of industry experience in acoustical design. Kukhotskiy has six years of electrical engineering experience with expertise in commercial systems.